4 Spring Training Strategies

Seasonal transitions can be challenging times for a fitness routine. The weather doesn’t always cooperate; new activities can cause sore muscles, and change isn’t always smooth. On the bright side, the change of seasons provides an opportunity for positive change, a time to introduce new activities in your plan, and a chance to involve some new muscles.

With positive gains in mind, here are four approaches:

Take advantage of the New Real Time Loop on ErgData

• How many Concept2 users are out on the ErgData's Real Time Loop today? How many rowers, skiers, and riders?
• How many countries are represented? And how many have you seen since you first started joining the loop? Keep track of all the national flags you see.
• Make it a simple interval workout by alternating 250m harder and 250m easier as you go around the loop. (There are “buoy lines” every 50 metres and each loop lap is 1000 metres).

Keep it Intense Indoors, while you Build Volume Outdoors

• If you are making a transition to an outdoor sport, keep your most intense workouts indoors on the erg while you gradually build volume in your outdoor activity.
• To build volume, gradually add 5-10 minutes to your workout time. After a week or two, begin adding short bursts of greater intensity to the long workouts.
• Your intense workouts can be relatively short, leaving time to get reacquainted with your outdoor activities. Here are a few old favorites to try on any erg. Just remember to double the metres on the BikeErg for distance-based workouts:
  • 15 x 1 min hard/1 min easy.
  • 2 x (10 x 40 sec hard/40 sec easy).
  • 250m, 500m, 750m, 1000m, 750m, 500m, 250m—with 1 min easy between the work intervals.
  • Pyramid: 1 min, 2 min, 3 min, 4 min, 3 min, 2 min, 1 min, taking equal rest time after each piece.

Rock the WOD

The Concept2 Workout of the Day (WOD) delivers a fresh workout to you each day. It could be just the thing you need to jumpstart your spring training. And if you have ErgData, our free app, it’s a simple click to set up the WOD on your PM5.

Tips for the WOD:

• Don’t go all out every day. Vary the intensity with which you do the workout.
• Start easily, if you haven’t been doing much intensity lately.
• If you have access to the RowErg, SkiErg and BikeErg, rotate between them.
• Aim to do the WOD 3 to 4 times per week. If you want to do it every day, make sure that at least a couple workouts are done easily

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Ramp up Your Metres with the April Fools’ Challenge

Our April Fools' Challenge is a streak challenge, meaning you will be challenged to row, ski or ride every day for 15 days in a row, and each day the distance you need to do increases. On April 1 you need to do at least 1000m. On April 2, you need to do at least 2000m, all the way up to 15,000m on April 15. (Remember: BikeErg metres count for half, so you'll need to do at least 2000m on the BikeErg on April 1.)

You can do this on the Real Time Loop! All your loop metres will automatically be saved to your ErgData logbook, which in turn is automatically synched to your Concept2 Online LogBook.

While we don’t generally recommend training every single day for the long haul, it can be a great fitness challenge for two weeks. You don't have to do the entire distance in one workout, so you have the option of splitting it into two or more sessions. Your sessions can be done on different ergs, if you have access to them, and you can vary the intensity of these daily sessions—hard, easy and in-between.

Related content: Spring Training Strategies 2022