Candy-crazy season has begun, it’s time for a Halloween workout! You can’t walk into a grocery store without seeing row upon row of delicious-looking treats, all of them perfectly packaged with Halloween shapes and colors, and in tantalizingly small servings.
Those fun-size Snickers bars and Reese’s pumpkins couldn’t have THAT many calories, could they?
Well, not if you only eat one or two, but who does that?? We’re more likely to “parent-tax” the heck out of our children’s Halloween candy stashes, sneak two or three or four pieces every day, day after day, and before you know it we’re full-on into the Holidays and it’s Christmas candy calling your name.
We’re not saying don’t eat the candy (ok maybe don’t eat ALL the candy), but a Halloween workout featuring candy that also makes us think first? We’re down for that!
Stop the Madness! GRAB THESE HALLOWEEN WORKOUTS
Below we offer two variations on candy-themed Halloween rowing workouts. One can be done as an individual rower or with a group, the other is a partner workout. Both will help you burn off a few fun-size bars, or fend off overconsumption with good reminders of how hard torching those calories really is.
Prep the Halloween Workouts
For both workouts you’re going to need some Halloween candy wrappers. Either use the wrappers themselves or tape them on a piece of paper. That way you can make multiple copies, particularly useful if you’re doing this with a group. Then you can cut the paper in strips and write the calorie count on each one.
To help you plan and time the workout, know that a 10-second change in 500m split is equivalent to about 100 calories per hour: A 2:30 split is about 650 calories per hour, while a 2:10 split works out to about 850 calories per hour. A fun-size Snickers has 160 calories, so it will take about 15 minutes to burn at 2:30 and 11 minutes at 2:10.
NOTE: As we’ve mentioned before, we don’t usually like to use calories to track our workouts. That’s because we don’t want our athletes thinking that the number they see on the screen is an exact reflection of the calories they’ve burned. We also don’t love focusing on calories as a measure of whether a workout has been done well.
For athletes who want a more accurate read on how many calories they burn in their rowing workout, Concept2 has an online calorie counter you can use.
Let’s go!
Halloween Workout #1
Pick one or two pieces of “candy,” either choosing them blind or grabbing your favorites. Total the number of calories in each piece, then row to that amount on your monitor (press the “change units” button on the monitor until the screen shows calories).
When you’ve hit the calorie target, get off the rowing machine and do:
10 push ups
31 sit-ups
Repeat the above for 2-3 additional rounds if you want more work. Obviously you can vary the off-erg moves, too, depending on how much variety and challenge you want.
Halloween workout #2 – partner rowing workout
Partner A chooses 1-2 pieces of “candy,” and rows to the total number of calories (Hit “change units” on your monitor until it shows calories.). While Partner A is rowing, Partner B does a series of moves for a total number of reps that equals the number of calories. For your fun-size Snickers you might do:
40 sit-ups
40 push-ups
40 air squats
40 jumping jacks
Or if you want to ramp it up you could do:
50 sit-ups
40 burpees
40 air squats
30 push press
Sounds fun, right? And it should certainly help people think carefully about how much candy they really want to tear into.
Try the workouts and tell us how you did in the comments. Did you do them as prescribed, or make up your own variation? We’d love to hear, too, if you have another favorite Halloween workout.
Need more SkiErg or indoor rowing workouts? Go here and grab our FREE #GetFlywheelFit workout set, or find a certified indoor rowing instructor in your area who can take you through an awesome rowing workout.
Happy Halloween, don’t bite off more than you can chew!