For most of us, fitness is a relatively small part of a balanced lifestyle. We spend time keeping fit, eating reasonably well, and ensuring that we stay healthy enough to enjoy life. Weight loss and strength are issues, albeit relatively secondary to other pursuits and activities.

But for some, fitness is more than an activity or a small sliver of their lifestyles; it’s a passion and a calling. From enthusiast athletes to competitive rowers, a surprisingly large sector of the population takes part in exercise not just for the health benefits, but for the competitive advantage it can provide.

These five techniques aren’t just for the casual rower; they’re unlikely to increase your fitness gains, and they’re equally unlikely to dramatically increase your rate of weight loss. They are, however, ideal for the enthusiasts and athletes of the rowing world – people who aim to increase their rowing speed, significantly decrease their mile time, and become more competitive athletes in the process.

So if the thought of a timed row or ergometer endurance race puts you off, it may be best to keep these techniques out of your exercise regime. However, if you want to significantly improve your rowing performance and potentially improve your technique, these strategies, tactics, and training methods could prove to be quite worthwhile.

Are you training alone? Use a camera to catch mistakes and technique errors:

Tango champion Tim Ferriss took a unique approach to mastering the dance. Despite having less than six months of formal tango training experience behind him, he managed to master the complex technique and compete at a world level. How did he do it? By videotaping his practice sessions, gaining an understanding of his mistakes, and working hard to correct them.

The same strategy can be applied to rowing technique. Rather than aimlessly focusing on improving lap times and pulling power, taking an introspective and analytical approach to rowing can improve all aspects of your exercise. Sit down weekly with a video camera and tape your rowing sessions. A once-weekly analysis session will help you recognize your faults and work to correct them.

Test different exercise periods and work to your strengths:

Psychologists have studied the human attention span relentlessly, aiming to recognize the exact point where human concentration hits its peak. They’ve studied hundreds of people in thousands of situations, and come to very few complete conclusions.

The reason for the distinct lack of conclusive data isn’t poor scientific analysis or faulty recording, it’s a result of our natural variations in alertness. We’ve all heard the ‘early bird’ and ‘night owl’ terms, but very few people have thought to consider them in the realm of fitness. Simply put, we’re not all athletic and energetic at the same time periods.

If you want to substantially improve your rowing performance without making any changes to your personal strength or well being, move your training session to a more productive and focused part of the day. Test yourself for concentration and focus across multiple different times; some people find that they’re more athletically able at night, while others are most focussed early in the morning.

Use supplementary exercises to boost speed and pulling power:

Fitness experts are torn over where to place rowing on the anaerobic-aerobic continuum. Some suggest that it’s a cardiovascular discipline; an activity which stimulates the body’s respiratory system and encourages human endurance. Others suggest that it’s an anaerobic activity, one that stimulates the body’s muscle groups and encourages people to gain strength, not just stamina.

Realistically, rowing fits somewhere in the middle. It’s a discipline that has some serious endurance benefits, though it’s also worthwhile from a strength training perspective. Due to its unique position, it’s also an endurance exercise that benefits hugely from added physical strength and pulling power. Off-the-line acceleration, rowing speed, and endurance all benefit from boosted physical strength.

Combine your rowing with weight training, plyometrics training, and resistance exercise and you’ll see an instant change in your rowing speeds, lap times, and for those that row on the water, craft stability. For a simple rowing-based weight training routine, check out our Best Exercises for Rowing guide.

Find what works, recognize what doesn’t, and ruthlessly eliminate wasted time:

As convenient as a home rowing machine can be, it’s difficult to improve technique and ability without a human perspective. Those of us that row at the gym have the added advantage of access to a qualified training team; gym instructors are often available to guide rowers through motions, ensure that proper technique is used, and cut out bad habits before they become an issue.

But it’s not completely impossible to see the same improvements at home. With our videotaping tip, you can acknowledge, isolate, and repair technique issues before they become a major problem. But why not do the same for other rowing-related fitness goals? Analyze your performance during timed rowing sessions and specific training exercises, and use it to gain an understanding of where and how you excel.

Create goals for yourself and work hard to meet them:

David Allen, creator of Getting Things Done and legendary productivity guru, has often illustrated the pitfalls of entering a new job, project, or discipline without creating clear goals. Be it business or sport, the risks of dedicating a huge amount of time to something without a clear idea of results can be huge, and often quite personally damaging.

Apply the same principles to your rowing, fitness, and weight loss efforts as you would a business venture or personal project. Enter with clear goals in mind – target weights, fitness milestones, and rowing lap times – and you’ll likely succeed. Meeting fitness milestones doesn’t signal an end to your journey or indicate that you’ll revert back to poor health; it’s a sign that can guide you forward and foster ambition and motivation.