5 Rowing Workouts for Obstacle Course Racing

Rowing machines are more popular than ever right now. Crossfit jump started their popularity (specifically the Concept 2 brand), and events like Hyrox have increased that even more. If you try to buy one of the more popular brands, you'll probably have to be put on a waiting list because Covid has caused a garage/home gym boom and rowers are an extremely popular home gym item. Did you buy one? Are you thinking about buying one? If yes, then here are 10 workouts you can do to improve your OCR performance with your rower and a few other small equipment items.

Equipment needed:

Rower

Dumbbells: Pair of 40's for men and 30's for women

Pull up bar

Don't forget to warm up and cool down before each workout to help increase your performance and reduce the risk of injury.

Workout #1 Grip Strength - For Time

1 km Row

10 Pull Ups

1 km Row

3 minutes total Dead Hang

1 km Row

3 minutes total Farmer's Carry (men use 80lbs, women 60lbs)

1 km Row

25 Hand Release Push ups

3 km Row

Workout #2 For time

Rules: Row 5k total, but every 1 minute, do 10 dumbbell burpees and 10 dumbbell renegade rows (40's for men, 30's for women)

Workout #3 30 minute AMRAP

Buy-in is 3k on the rower

Use the rest of the time to do as many pullups and burpees as possible. Record the total of both.

Workout #4 Shaky Legs - For Time

1 km Row

60 Alternating Lunges

1 km Row

100 Air Squats

1 km Row

50 Box Jumps (18in for men, 15in for women)

1 km Row

50 Broad Jumps

1 km Row

100 Step Ups (18in for men, 15in for women)

Workout #5 30 Minute AFAP (as FAR as possible)

Buy-in is 100 burpees

With the time left over, row as far as possible

Alright, time to get to work! Races may be cancelled for 2020, but that just means you have more time to train and be ready for 2021!

Visit the Training Programs page in order to learn about the different custom programs we design for athletes in OCR.