I was on my rowing team in college, and I have a couple of opinions.

1) 27 strokes per minute is not max. I'm 70 years old and I do 30 to 33 on the rowing machine where I work out. When I was in college, our training sessions were all at 30 to 35 strokes per minute. Training sessions lasted for 1 to 2 hours, six days a week.

2) As for HIIT, during a race we would often do a "power 10", where we would apply maximum power to our strokes for 10 strokes. We only did 10 strokes because at the power levels we were expected to apply, doing more than 10 would burn us out rather quickly.

I still do rowing because it's an aerobic exercise that works most of your muscles; arms, back, legs, stomach. The only exercise I've heard of that does more all around is cross country skiing, and I hate the cold.

I'd have someone check your rowing form - I can't really imagine how rowing could be too easy. If you're applying your legs as you should, and trying hard, it's as difficult as you want it to be

yeah. not easy.

33 strokes per minute. set to 10 resistance on concept2. proper form. go for 30 minutes.

I'm unconvinced this is an easy thing for an unfit individual. I'm fairly sure an unfit individual would only be capable of 2 minutes... at best.

What are your 500m splits?

> One of the best "time savers" for cardio is HIIT, and you just can't do that rowing

Of course you can, something is wrong here, although it might be difficult to diagnose over the internet. "max hardness" might be a clue - you probably shouldn't be setting the resistance to maximum and maximum resistance does not imply more intense workout.

You can HIIT row, see Apple Fitness+ if you can stand the wellness vibe.

But if you want challenging, join the Concept2 challenges. I was doing 10k rows several times a week as a middle-of-the-pack competitor and if that doesn’t challenge you then you should go pro.

But as I mentioned in another comment, you can injure yourself on a Concept2 if you don’t cross-train. It’s not a magic device.

Roman legionnaire in charge of rowers: "Men, I have good news, and bad. The good news is today is Sunday, a day of recreation. The bad news is, the Captain wants to go water skiing."

Ramming speed...

Until your doing 1:10 500’s you can keep pushing harder.

Rowing fast is one of the most demanding movements you can do.

Dont use max hardness, you most likely are not strong enough and dont have good enough technique enough for that. Reduce the damper setting and watch some technique vids on youtube.

Rowing is pretty dependent on good form, I have noticed after not doing it too long.

Pulling faster/harder will make it more difficult. Try that, I guess?