Rowing machine

Ellaskat

Hello, I’ve recently decided to stRt using a rowing machine for cross training days. I rowed in college, but that was 20 years ago! I feel good about my form, but would love any info on places I could find good beginner workouts. I don’t remember the watts or spm I should be aiming for to get a good workout either. Thanks.

MikePfirrman

I'd start with the C2 forums. The Pete Plan is a great plan. If you're out of shape, I'd begin with the BPP (beginner Pete Plan) and work from there. I started that forum thread after finding several other PP forums useful and it's become one of the most popular, ongoing threads on the Concept2 forums. It functions as a place for beginners to come to and find out more info (you're not a beginner if you did Crew in college).

The great thing about the rowing community (on the C2 forums) is how those folks are so helpful and open with any advice from checking your form to advising you on workouts. Once you get back in the groove, there are also a ton of online rowing "clubs" now available for you to share advice or get information from.

I joined the "Sub 7" group which has like 10 World record holders at least in it. They are a phenominal group that has a Facebook page that I go through daily and get ideas from and share my workouts with. People that I'm not worthy to hold their jock strap take the time out of their day to help me any time I have a question.

I'd start with the Pete Plan thread on the C2 forums, introduce yourself and go from there. Some really incredible rowers are more than willing to answer your questions there.

I'd personally let the Watts and Stroke Rate come to you. I'm presently working back from back injury and that's what I'm doing. My old Watts/workouts mean nothing until I'm back in rowing shape. It's all relative. That's why the PP is so great because it measures your performance constantly and uses that metrics as the starting point for the next row.

Ellaskat

Really appreciate your response Mike - never even heard of the C2 forum, even though that's the machine I use - I'll definitely check it out. I'm prone to inflammation related injuried (hips, knees, ankles, wrists) I've had injuries everywhere - so my issue is more needing to go slow so that I stay injury free. I love to run and used to do marathons - those days won't return which I'm cool with, but I really love running. I allow myself 3 runs a week of up to 45 minutes. That's not enough though - I need to exercise daily so I'm getting back to the rowing machine. Had a great first workout - only worked for 15 minutes, but I wanted to see how I felt afterwards:) I'm not looking to set any speed times etc - that part of my life as an athlete is behind me - I'm more interested in sustaining exercise daily and getting the mood, body and brain boost that happens as the result:) thank you so much for this info - I'll be checking it out! PS - I'm not recovering from back pain but I know how awful that can be. I had pneumonia from Sept-Dec, and then bronchitis from mid Feb until last week. Coming back is slow but so rewarding:)

JohnBarth

We've used RowPro in the past as well. If you can stage a monitor somewhere close by, the interaction can be interesting.

cheriej2042

I wish there was a place to row with people. Unfortunately every place I've gone to has terrible teachers including row house from NY and Orangetheory the latter is only part rowing and mostly running. I learned to row from Xeno Muller when he ran his own local studio but now he is only doing training for high school/college. I only row on a Concept 2 at the gym now.

MikePfirrman

Ellaskat wrote: »

Really appreciate your response Mike - never even heard of the C2 forum, even though that's the machine I use - I'll definitely check it out. I'm prone to inflammation related injuried (hips, knees, ankles, wrists) I've had injuries everywhere - so my issue is more needing to go slow so that I stay injury free. I love to run and used to do marathons - those days won't return which I'm cool with, but I really love running. I allow myself 3 runs a week of up to 45 minutes. That's not enough though - I need to exercise daily so I'm getting back to the rowing machine. Had a great first workout - only worked for 15 minutes, but I wanted to see how I felt afterwards:) I'm not looking to set any speed times etc - that part of my life as an athlete is behind me - I'm more interested in sustaining exercise daily and getting the mood, body and brain boost that happens as the result:) thank you so much for this info - I'll be checking it out! PS - I'm not recovering from back pain but I know how awful that can be. I had pneumonia from Sept-Dec, and then bronchitis from mid Feb until last week. Coming back is slow but so rewarding:)

You're welcome. Another thing you might check out is the Concept 2 Logbook forum on Facebook. It's an open group. Really helpful bunch. I post my paultry workouts up there all the time. It's so easy (dare I say easier than myfitnesspal!) to post your PM4/PM5 pics up for your workout so others can see them.

Even in recovery, people encourage you. I tried running for four or five years after I lost the weight (going from 250 to 170 something). I was never a very natural runner, more of a sprinter build. I got up to around 8/9 mile trail races, never performing all that well, and loved them. Inflammation stopped my running days too! What I've found is that if you're smart on the rower -- I got hurt being dumb, tried to break 20 minutes @ 19 SPM on a 5K, it was an online interclub challenge -- you won't have inflammation. At least I don't a lot. I'm turning 55 this year and was doing, up until recently, around 200K to 250K meters a month. No issues with inflammation.

You might be surprised that you can mix in the occasional interval workout and keep your running as your slow, steady days. Mix it up and have some fun.

MikePfirrman

cheriej2042 wrote: »

I wish there was a place to row with people. Unfortunately every place I've gone to has terrible teachers including row house from NY and Orangetheory the latter is only part rowing and mostly running. I learned to row from Xeno Muller when he ran his own local studio but now he is only doing training for high school/college. I only row on a Concept 2 at the gym now.

Try looking at US Rowing instead of looking for instructors at the gyms. They are notorious for misinformation and just bad form. I had an Orangetheory instructor with terrible form once try to tell me I wasn't rowing right. After I set their "club record" on the 500 a few minutes later, I let her know my rowing background.

There are a lot of rowing clubs in Cali. I don't know about cost but you should surely be able to find one. I'm in Tucson, completely landlocked, and there's even one here.

http://archive.usrowing.org/domesticrowing/organizations/findaclub/findaclubcalifornia