Picture the opening scene of the classic 2000 film, The Skulls, and you’ll remember a bevy of young, Ivy league-aged men rowing their way to victory. While it may not be the cinematic feature of the century, everyone either wanted to look like that group of 9 young men or at least date one of them. That’s because rowing is an excellent way to sculpt your body with lean, strong muscles and burn a ton of calories all at once. If it’s good enough for a young Joshua Jackson aka Luke McNamara to get into the fictional Skull & Bones fraternity at Yale, it’s good enough to whip your booty into shape too! Check out these ultimate full body HIIT workouts and get ready to kick your fitness routine into high gear.
4 HIIT Workouts That’ll Fool Your Brothers Into Thinking You Made the Rowing Team:
1) The 1-Minute Sprint
This is a standard HIIT warm-up that features a 1:1 work to rest ratio. You should be able to complete this interval in just under a minute, then rest for a minute and repeat for 10 total rounds.
- Row for 250 meters
- Rest 1 minute
- Total time: 20 minutes
2) The Annihilator
This is a more advanced interval workout that will leave you feeling the burn once you make it through to the other side. Kind of like Luke McNamara did when he realized his new frat buddies were cold-blooded killers. Spoiler alert! Be sure to rest as needed between each rowing session to avoid injury and overexerting yourself as a true Freshman “rower” would.
- Row 1000 meters
- 20 hand-release pushups
- Row 750 meters
- 30 hand-release pushups
- Row 500 meters
- 40 hand-release pushups
- Row 250 meters
- 50 hand-release pushups
3) Hell’s Kettlebells
This HIIT workout uses a combination of sprint-style rowing and kettlebell swings for a challenging workout that yields great results. Repeat for 4 total rounds.
- Row for 500 meters
- 30 Russian kettlebell swings
- 30 AbMat situps
- Rest 1 minute
- Repeat
4) The McNamara
With this challenging HIIT routine you’re guaranteed to get the girl (or guy) and make it out of the fraternity (okay, the gym) alive and looking better than ever. This workout switches it up with calorie rows, so the time for each person may vary. Once again, make sure you’re resting between each rowing interval or you’ll gas out before you complete the entire workout.
- 50 air squats
- 25 calorie row
- 40 Russian kettlebell swings
- 20 calorie row
- 30 situps
- 15 calorie row
- 20 pushups
- 10 calorie row
- 10 burpees
Get Fit and Show Off That “College Bod” Once More With These Rowing HIIT Workouts
The secret to getting that perfect “Yale fraternity brother” glow is to get your butt in the gym and become best friends with the rowing machine. With a little time and dedication you can totally pull off that early 2000’s brooding look and sport the lean, toned body to go along with it.
