How Hard Should Each Rowing Training Zone Feel?

For a low intensity row, you should be able to have a conversation. As the intensity goes up, that becomes shorter sentences. In a hard session, you shouldn't be able to say much at all.

I use a three-zone training model when I coach the Yamsquad athletes. It makes it very, very simple to know what you're doing, both in a session and when you look at the training programme. Green is your low intensity training. Red is your high intensity training, and orange is in between.

Green zone

The green training sessions, the low intensity sessions, might be called UT2 or zone two. There are so many different names, which I think is part of the confusion with applying zones to your training.

There are different ways to know you're at the right intensity. Some people measure blood lactate during low intensity work. For a genuine low intensity session, I'd say that should be around 1 to 1.5 millimoles per litre.

But your breathing gives you something to check while you're rowing. It should be slow and controlled. You should basically be able to have a conversation. Not without taking any pauses, but without having to speak in short, sharp sentences.

Try that during your green session. If you're having to break everything into short sentences, back off until you can speak more comfortably.

Your legs should feel like you're pushing. There is effort there, but it shouldn't feel like you have to keep backing off throughout the session to keep the intensity in the right place. Your rating of perceived exertion, or RPE, should be around three to four out of ten. That's how hard the effort feels to you.

Then you have heart rate. Some people find it really difficult to use because it can be very variable. Generally, for a green session, I'd say an average under 75% of maximum heart rate across the whole session.

Orange zone

Then we progress to orange. This could be considered UT1, but again, there are different names for this work.

The idea is to be a little bit faster than the green sessions. You should feel sweatier, a little bit warmer. The stroke rates generally will be higher in these workouts.

You'll be breathing more. You should still be able to speak, but this time it's in shorter sentences. The breathing rate should be higher, and the effort should feel around six out of ten.

Red zone

The red sessions should be hard. How hard you can make them depends on how fresh you are and how motivated you're feeling. The training you've been doing throughout the week matters here as well.

Have the other sessions left you able to apply maximum power? If you've paid attention to their zones, you're in a better position to attack this red session, rather than having made the lower intensity work too hard.

If you're feeling fresh and mentally motivated, a ten out of ten can be possible. A genuine ten is rare, though. Eight or above is where you should be for a red session.

You shouldn't be able to speak much at all. A couple of words here and there, but definitely not sentences. Your heart rate should generally be 85% of maximum or higher. Your legs should be in significant discomfort, and your breathing will be pretty erratic, probably taking two breaths per stroke.

Working out your own zones can be difficult. That's where a coach you trust can be helpful, giving you the right intensities rather than leaving you to work it all out yourself.

But when you've got a rowing training programme, there's a reason for the intensities. If you've got a low intensity session, make sure that session stays low intensity. When it's a high intensity session, the effort needs to be genuinely high.