4-week rowing machine plan for beginners
New to the rower, or coming back after a long break? This plan builds the habit first: three sessions a week, mostly easy, never longer than half an hour. The last week is lighter, so you finish fresh and ready for more.
- Duration
- 4 weeks
- Sessions
- 12
- Total rowing
- 4.4 h
- Frequency
- 3× a week
The first session is an 8-minute calibration: three rising stroke-rate steps. Roowy uses it to set your stroke-rate targets and resistance for the rest of the plan.
- warm-up
- work
- recovery
- cool-down
Week 1
| Session | Intensity | Resistance | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calibration 8 min | Hard | 30–42% | |
| Base 24 min | Steady | 30% | |
| Easy 24 min | Easy | 21% |
Week 2
| Session | Intensity | Resistance | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Threshold 24 min | Threshold | 41% | |
| Easy 26 min | Easy | 21% | |
| Base 26 min | Steady | 30% |
Week 3
| Session | Intensity | Resistance | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy 28 min | Easy | 21% | |
| Threshold 24 min | Threshold | 41% | |
| Easy 28 min | Easy | 21% |
Week 4lighter week
| Session | Intensity | Resistance | — |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base 17 min | Steady | 30% | |
| Easy 17 min | Easy | 21% | |
| Threshold 18 min | Threshold | 41% |
Resistance is in % of your rower’s range — 0% is its lightest setting, 100% its heaviest. Numbers here assume the level you picked; in the app they adjust after calibration.
Why mostly easy?
About 80% of the sessions are easy (UT2, UT1) and about 20% are hard. This polarised split is how endurance athletes have trained for decades: the easy volume builds the engine, the few hard sessions sharpen it, and you recover in between. Every fourth week is lighter so the progress sticks.
Intensity levels and stroke rate
| Easy | UT2 | conversational | 18–22 SPM |
| Steady | UT1 | focused | 22–24 SPM |
| Threshold | AT | hard but sustainable | 24–28 SPM |
| Hard | TR | intervals, very hard | 28–32 SPM |
Typical ranges. Roowy anchors them to your own threshold from calibration and to your machine — some magnetic rowers don’t count strokes below ~22 SPM, so the exact numbers appear in the workout, not in the plan.