Every Olympic Games highlights more than medals. It reveals what elite performance demands day after day: sustained endurance, coordinated full-body movement, and the ability to maintain output when fatigue builds. For many athletes, these same demands point to the benefits of rowing workouts, which combine cardiovascular effort with large-scale muscular involvement in a single, repeatable movement pattern.

Rowing has long been part of that equation. It is one of the few training modalities used in elite sport that blends cardiovascular work with coordinated full-body effort in a way that can be sustained over time. That combination helps explain why rowing remains central to high-performance training and why it continues to translate beyond competition into structured workouts for a wide range of athletes.

With Olympic champion Olli Zeidler joining iFIT as a Trainer and NordicTrack ambassador, rowing offers a clear lens into how elite training principles are applied, refined, and sustained over time.

Table of Contents

1. Meet Olli Zeidler: Starting Over and Reaching the Top
2. Why Rowing Feels Different Than Other Cardio Workouts
3. Rowing and Cardiorespiratory Fitness
4. A High-Demand Workout Without High Impact
5. Strength, Endurance, and Muscular Engagement
6. The Mental Benefits of Rowing: Focus and Rhythm
7. Bringing Elite Rowing Indoors With NordicTrack and iFIT
8. Exploring Performance Rowing at Home With the NordicTrack RW900
9. Takeaway: Why Rowing Endures
10. FAQs for Benefits of Rowing
11. References

Meet Olli Zeidler: Starting Over and Reaching the Top

Olli Zeidler’s rise in international rowing began with a decision to start over. After competing as a swimmer early in his athletic career, he transitioned to rowing in 2016, taking on a sport defined by technical precision and coordinated full-body effort.

In less than a decade, that decision led to multiple World Championship titles, Olympic gold in men’s single sculls, and recognition as Germany’s Sportsperson of the Year. His progression reflects long-term consistency and adaptation rather than rapid specialization, a pattern that mirrors how rowing itself is typically developed over time.

That background now shapes his role as an iFIT Trainer, where the structure and discipline of elite rowing are translated into guided workouts.

Why Rowing Feels Different Than Other Cardio Workouts

Rowing stands apart because it requires the body to work as a single, coordinated system. Each stroke blends leg drive, core stability, and upper-body pulling into one continuous motion. Rather than isolating a single muscle group, the movement pattern distributes effort across the body in a steady rhythm.

Physiological analysis of rowing shows that the exercise involves a high proportion of total muscle mass, contributing to combined cardiovascular and muscular demands.¹ Compared with activities that emphasize either the upper or lower body, rowing requires simultaneous engagement of multiple major muscle groups.¹

For many athletes, this coordinated effort changes how the workout feels. Instead of repetitive motion, rowing demands attention to timing and control, which can make sessions feel more engaging and less monotonous over time.

Rowing and Cardiorespiratory Fitness

Rowing is widely used in endurance training because of its ability to challenge the cardiovascular system through sustained effort. Controlled rowing exercise has been shown to increase aerobic capacity, a key measure of cardiorespiratory fitness.²

In the referenced research, rowing training improved VO₂peak without producing corresponding changes in traditional cardiometabolic risk markers.² This distinction is important. The findings support rowing’s role in improving aerobic fitness, while also clarifying the limits of its effects on broader health indicators.

From a training perspective, aerobic capacity influences how efficiently the body can sustain work over time. Being commonly programmed in endurance-focused is just one of the benefits of rowing.

A High-Demand Workout Without High Impact

At the elite level, rowing is known for its substantial energy demands. Research examining competitive rowers shows that rowing carries a high energetic cost, including during lower relative intensity work.³ These findings describe the metabolic requirements observed in high-level competition.³

While those results apply specifically to elite athletes, they provide context for why rowing has historically been used as a demanding training modality. Importantly, rowing achieves that demand through a seated, guided movement pattern rather than repetitive impact.

This combination helps explain why rowing has remained part of long-term training systems rather than short-term conditioning trends.

Strength, Endurance, and Muscular Engagement

Rowing occupies a middle ground between traditional cardio and strength training. Each stroke places repeated demands on the legs, core, back, shoulders, and arms through pushing and pulling actions performed over time.

From a training classification standpoint, rowing is best described as a cardiovascular exercise that supports muscular endurance rather than maximal strength development.⁴ Because rowing does not involve progressive external loading, it does not replace resistance training for building maximal strength or muscle hypertrophy.⁴

Instead, rowing is often used to develop work capacity and sustained muscular output, particularly in endurance-based programs.

The Mental Benefits of Rowing: Focus and Rhythm

Rowing also carries a strong technical component. Sustained sessions require consistent pacing, stroke awareness, and attention to movement quality. At the elite level, athletes spend significant time refining rhythm and output control rather than simply increasing intensity.

While the sources cited here do not evaluate psychological outcomes directly, these technical demands shape how rowing is practiced and experienced. Over time, that emphasis on rhythm and repetition becomes part of the discipline of the sport.

Bringing Elite Rowing Indoors With NordicTrack and iFIT

NordicTrack rowing machines paired with iFIT offer guided rowing workouts inspired by elite training approaches. Olli Zeidler’s upcoming iFIT rowing and strength series brings his training approach directly to athletes, combining technical coaching, structured intervals, and strength-focused sessions designed to support better rowing performance.

With iFIT SmartAdjust™, resistance automatically adapts to your ability and workout history, helping you train at an appropriate intensity without manual adjustments. Whether you are new to rowing or building endurance over time, the experience evolves with you.

Exploring Performance Rowing at Home With the NordicTrack RW900

For athletes looking to experience rowing at home, the NordicTrack RW900 offers a streamlined way to access immersive rowing workouts without sacrificing performance fundamentals.

Key features include:

• 26 digital resistance levels to support endurance and progression
• Silent Magnetic Resistance™ for smooth, quiet strokes
• 24 inch HD tilting touchscreen with integrated iFIT workouts
• A compact footprint designed for home environments

The RW900 offers smooth magnetic resistance and access to guided iFIT workouts, providing users with a structured way to engage in rowing workouts at home.

Takeaway: Why Rowing Endures

Rowing has remained part of athletic training because it combines cardiovascular exercise with large-scale muscular involvement in a single movement pattern. Research supports its role in improving aerobic capacity and documents its high energetic demands at elite levels.

When paired with guided platforms, rowing becomes a repeatable and structured form of exercise grounded in established training principles rather than trends.

FAQs for Benefits of Rowing

References

1. Volianitis, S., Yoshiga, C. C., and Secher, N. H. The physiology of rowing with perspective on training and health.
2. Hansen, R. K., et al. Rowing exercise increases cardiorespiratory fitness and brachial artery diameter but not traditional cardiometabolic risk factors.
3. Winkert, K., et al. High Energetic Demand of Elite Rowing: Implications for Training and Nutrition.
4. SELF. Does Rowing Count as Strength Training?

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