Rowing Workout vs Norwegian 4x4 Protocol
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Rowing Workout
Track your indoor rowing sessions with detailed stroke analysis and real-time progress monitoring. Compete with yourself and others on leaderboards, and seamlessly export your data to popular fitness platforms.
- Precise stroke and distance tracking
- Real-time iPhone display of metrics
- Automatic workout pause/resume
- GameCenter leaderboards and challenges
- Export to Strava & Concept2 Logbook
- Bluetooth connectivity for rowers
- Detailed performance analytics (subscription)
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Elevate Your Rowing Experience with Rowing Workouts for your Apple Watch. Looking to take your rowing to new heights? The all-new Rowing Workouts app for your Apple Watch is finally here! This isn't just an app for recording your rows; it's a comprehensive tracker for every stroke you take. Features: Precise Tracking: Capture not only your rowing sessions but also track every individual rowing stroke. The measured force is used to estimate the distance covered, providing accurate insights into how many meters you've rowed daily or weekly. Personal Challenges: Challenge yourself by sharing your training data and competing against your own best performances. Witness your personal progress and draw inspiration from your own training. Seamless iPhone and Apple Watch Integration: While you're training on your Apple Watch, your iPhone reflects your current data, serving as a clear display for your progress. Monitor your activity rings, burned calories, heart rate, strokes per minute, speed, and more in real-time directly on your iPhone screen. Convenient Control: Start, pause, or stop your workout at any time directly from your iPhone. Take a short break - the workout will automatically pause and seamlessly resume when you're ready. All your workouts are, of course, stored in HealthKit for a comprehensive overview of your fitness. GameCenter Integration: Compete on leaderboards for the fastest 1000m and 2000m times, longest rowing distance over 14 days, and more. Challenge your friends and compete directly against their times and the global best. NEW! Export your workouts to Strava & Concept2 Logbook Take your training data with you wherever you go. You can now export your completed rowing workouts directly to Strava and the Concept2 Logbook—including distance, time, heart rate, and all essential metrics. Keep your progress synchronized across the platforms you love and stay motivated by tracking your achievements everywhere. Connect Your Concept2 PM5 Monitor or FTMS-Compatible Rowers via Bluetooth: Experience precise and comprehensive data tracking by connecting RowErg with PM5 to the app via Bluetooth. This integration allows you to monitor key metrics such as distance and stroke rate with incredible accuracy. Now, you can enjoy the full benefits of the app without needing an Apple Watch—only when a rowing machine is connected via Bluetooth. This makes the app accessible to more rowing enthusiasts. In addition to Concept2, the app now supports a wide range of rowing machines using the FTMS Bluetooth protocol, including: WaterRowers with ComModule Half Human Air Rowers Many First Degree Fitness Rowers Many Skandika Rowers And other FTMS-compatible rowing machines Introducing Optional Subscription Benefits: Detailed Analyses: Dive deep into your performance with graphs and statistics. Understand your progress with visualized data on strokes per minute, power exerted, and split times. Advanced Stats & Comparisons: Compare your training sessions and track your improvement over time. Gain insights into your performance and how you stack up with past workouts. Download it now and embark on your path to becoming a stronger, fitter version of yourself! Be aware: Rowing workouts require an Apple Watch to track your movements and training data unless you have connected a rowing machine via Bluetooth. Health App Integrations: Rowing Workouts uses your health data from the Health App (HealthKit) to display your energy burned, record your workouts, and display your current heart rate. Privacy policy: https://apps.gogolith.com/privacy Terms and Conditions: https://apps.gogolith.com/row-terms
Norwegian 4x4 Protocol
This app guides you through the Norwegian 4x4 interval training protocol to improve your VO2 max and cardiovascular fitness. It offers customizable warm-up and cooldown durations, voice guidance for intervals, and integrates with Apple Watch for heart rate and calorie tracking.
- Norwegian 4x4 workouts
- Voice guidance for intervals
- Apple Watch heart rate tracking
- Calorie tracking
- Save workouts to Health app
- No sign-in required
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Get started with Norwegian 4x4 interval training. Norwegian 4x4 Protocol: Boreas makes it easy to get started with the Norwegian 4x4 protocol. Just select warm-up and cooldown duration, and the app handles the rest. You can connect an Apple Watch to track your heart rate and calories. The app supports voice guidance to let you know when the interval is about to end and when the next interval starts. Features: • Perform Norwegian 4x4 workouts. • Know when the next interval starts while the app is in the background with voice guidance. • Get current heart rate, heart rate zone and calories from your Apple Watch. • Save your workouts to the Health app. • No sign-in is required. Norwegian 4x4 Protocol: Boreas is a HIIT interval timer for improving cardio, which is relevant if you're training for 5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon, improving VO2 max or general fitness. If you have a suggestion for how to improve Norwegian 4x4 Protocol: Boreas, feel free to contact the App Support email. Always consult with a healthcare provider before starting any new exercise program. Exercise can carry risks, especially for people who have certain medical conditions or who have not been physically active in a long time. It's important to understand that using this app does not replace a doctor's advice or treatment. Terms of use for Norwegian 4x4 Protocol: Boreas: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Rowing Workout at 214 against Norwegian 4x4 Protocol's 66. On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Rowing Workout sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Norwegian 4x4 Protocol sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $8.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Rowing Workout against 4.7 for Norwegian 4x4 Protocol. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 214 and 66 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 69% of Rowing Workout's written reviews are positive against 75% of Norwegian 4x4 Protocol's.
Rowing Workout ships an update every 2 weeks, Norwegian 4x4 Protocol fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Rowing Workout | Norwegian 4x4 Protocol |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (214 ratings) | 4.7 (66 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 68.7% of reviews | 75.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 214 — better | 66 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, Apple Watch | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 41 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Christoph Gogolin | Havard Tryman |
Customer experience
Rowing Workout
Norwegian 4x4 Protocol
Bugs and requests
Rowing Workout
Reported bugs
12 issues- Bluetooth connection drops between app and PM5/rowers
- Apple Watch connection failures and sync issues
- Stroke detection unreliable at slow rowing speeds
- Distance calculations significantly undercount actual distance
- Phone app metrics lag behind watch display
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- Workout auto-pausing mid-session
- Incomplete stroke counting (missing 2-4 strokes per session)
- FTMS mode instability - workouts fail to start or stop prematurely
- Exercise rings not updating in real-time
- Heart rate data not picked up from Apple Watch
- App fails to detect when rowing starts on connected rower
- Incorrect calorie calculations
Requested features
10 requests- Support for additional rower types beyond PM5 (FTMS protocol support)
- Landscape orientation for iPhone app
- Strava integration and syncing
- Ability to edit distance in completed workouts
- Custom heart rate zone configuration
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- One-time purchase option instead of subscription
- Family sharing for Pro subscription
- FDF Console pairing support
- Retroactive distance input after workout completion
- Heart rate zone time tracking display
Norwegian 4x4 Protocol
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Rowing Workout
- Pro - monthly$1.991 Month
- All Pro features (monthly)$1.991 Month
- Pro yearly7 Days trial$12.991 Year
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- All Pro features (yearly)7 Days trial$19.991 Year
Norwegian 4x4 Protocol
- Pro3 Days trial$8.997 Days
- Pro$24.991 Year
Questions
Is Rowing Workout free?
Is Norwegian 4x4 Protocol free?
Which has better reviews, Rowing Workout or Norwegian 4x4 Protocol?
Do Rowing Workout or Norwegian 4x4 Protocol have ads?
Which is updated more often, Rowing Workout or Norwegian 4x4 Protocol?
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