Disabled + Rowing Obese Class I (BMI 32.6), 68 years, w/ MS and bad hip repair ???

baodell17724

I just bought a Concept 2 Rower. I've watched rowing vids and "understand" what my proper form should be, and how to execute it. Doing it is the problem! Specifically, moving my hips/bending knees/moving my body forward on each row!!

BACKGROUND: I'm 68, male, out-of-shape and never an exercise person my entire life. I was a Class 3 Obese Class, a year ago, but now dieted down to Class I (BMI 32.6). Diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2018, I have leg strength/balance problems and use a rollator. I also broke my left hip in 2017, and got a bad hip "repair" (not replacement) and my left leg is now 1" shorter than the other!!!

For the past year, I've done indoor cycling for 2 hours every day / 7 days a week @ #8 of 9 resistance. I'm guessing the muscles I work then, are not the muscles I need now??? Or is my heavy weight, MS, bad hip, and inexperience all working against me??? Do I just need to "keep on keepin' on"??? I'd really appreciate your thoughts, encouragement, tips and video referrals for rowing while 'disabled' !!!

AnnPT77

I vote "keep on keepin' on".

Rowing does require some mobility, but it also develops our mobility. I started rowing when I was class 1 obese, though I admit without some of your other physical challenges. (Mine are more like osteoarthritis and at least one torn meniscus, so very manageable comparatively.) I'm age 69 now, but have been rowing for over 20 years. I was an unathletic kid, one of the "chosen last in gym class" kids, not previously athletic as an adult either or even routinely active, didn't start rowing until my later 40s shortly after full-blown treatment of quite advanced cancer - surgery, chemo, radiation. At the start, I was very physically depleted, weak and discouraged. Rowing changed my life, no exaggeration.

If you are patient and work on technique, you'll work up to a good workout. It does use some of the same muscles as cycling, but the technique is more complicated so requires a bit more investment to learn. It's not intuitive.

I'd suggest going slowly at first - in the teens strokes per minute is fine - so you can work on developing technique. It's OK to let the knees bend as far as they bend now, the body swing be more like a small shift of weight from the back of the pelvic bones to the front of the pelvic bones powered by a little forward/backward movement coming from the hip joint. It's not necessary to use the full range of motion you see in the "how to" materials: Use the range you have, and just let more range develop gradually as you continue.

One thing to watch out for: Don't mistake the damper dial on the side of the Concept 2 flywheel for resistance. Rowers of this sort aren't like other exercise machines: They don't have a real resistance setting. The damper setting is more like simulated boat feel. Harder workouts come via learning reasonable technique: The more energy you put into the flywheel, the harder the next stroke becomes. In effect, the person doing the rowing creates higher resistance by rowing harder . . . not necessarily faster in strokes per minute, but with more power per stroke. The US National Team (Olympic) rowers mostly use damper settings in the 4-6 kind of range, except for special short drills. We regular people don't need to be going higher! I usually do most machine workouts set around 3-4.

Concept 2's beginner instruction video is good, Dark Horse rowing has some good free content on YouTube, including beginner material.

If you have questions, please feel free to ask. I've been through some rowing coaching education as well as working on my own rowing through rowing camps, private and group coaching, classes. I like rowing boats best, but I use a Concept 2 rower in the off-season, haven't logged all the Concept meters I've rowed, but have logged well over 5 million.

claireychn074

I’ll let Ann answer about rowing volume as I only use my Concept 2 as an addition to my main training in the gym. I just wanted to note that it is a surprisingly good all-body workout, so yes it works your abs, and don’t be surprised if you get doms in other areas - not just your legs!

AnnPT77

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48648613#Comment_48648613

How long did I row when first starting out? Gosh, that was a long time ago! 😉 It's hard to remember. Short bits, for sure.

I did start out machine rowing at first with a breast cancer survivors rowing team. That meant that we were gathering for an exercise session, but we didn't just RowRowRow the whole time. There was some stretching, discussion, plus some rowing. Usually there would be a very gentle warm-up row, maybe 5-10 minutes, but super easy pace, then a break.

It is common when rowing in this kind of team setting to do some drills, then some intervals . . . but don't picture some intense thing when I say "intervals". I'll explain below. I'm not saying that you should do a whole session like this, but I'm explaining so you can consider whether it could be helpful to include some of these things in your day - more broken apart time-wise vs. in an hour or two session as we did in a group.

The drills part of the session might be pause drills or stroke progression. These help a person learn the technique, plus provide some very gentle rowing time.

In stroke progression, we just do part of the stroke, usually starting with the arms part. In that example, a person is sitting up tall (with that slight shift of weight onto back of pelvic bones) and just sending the arms out, then pulling the arms back in - rest of the body just sitting there in the starting position. Maybe repeat 10x. Follow with a few strokes of full-stroke regular rowing, maybe 10x, still gentle to kind of shake things out.

Next progression, add the body shift, so still same starting position, but send the arms out, shift the weight to the front of the pelvic bones, shift the weight back, then pull in the arms, legs staying flat the whole time. Repeat that 10x, then 10 full easy-effort strokes again.

The next progressions can differ, but it's various amounts of legs. Could be quarter of the slide (just a little leg bend), half the slide, or 3/4 of the slide. The longest version of the progression does each of those 3 variations each 10x, with 10 strokes of easy full-stroke rowing between. The shortest progression is usually just the half slide, leaving out 1/4 and 3/4. I'm sure you get the idea that any of these would begin at the upright, weight shift back starting position, send arms out, shift weight forwards, then bend the legs the fraction of the full distance, then push with legs, shift weight, pull with arms, and repeat.

Pause drills are just pausing in the stroke for a second or two at one of those body points: Arms away from the body, body weight shifted forward (sometimes called "body over"), or one of the fractional slide points. We do the full rowing stroke each time, but pausing for that second or two at the designated point before finishing the stroke, then continuing the rest of the stroke in a calm way. So the overall drill might be something like 10x pausing at arms away, 10 regular full continuous strokes, 10 strokes pausing at body over, 10 regular strokes, 10 strokes pausing at quarter slide, 10 regular, etc.

In a team practice, after doing a short continuous warm-up, then a break, then stroke progressions, another break, then then pause drills, another break, then what we'd call "interval pieces".

The intervals get set up on the Concept 2 monitor so it does the timing. The way we would vary the workout to gradually increase the challenge would be to increase the duration of the rowing part of the interval, what we'd call the "on" bit. Then there would be a rest interval, the "off", sort of a mini-break. The break could be no rowing just sitting there, maybe get up and walk around if longer rest, drink some water, whatever.

A common thing with the intervals is to start with a short "on" rowing time, and a rest interval ("off") about half the time, and to make it a small-ish number of intervals. So, example of that, maybe 3 minutes on, 1:30 off, and repeat a few times. As time (weeks) progressed, we'd make the intervals longer, and the rests also longer.

Usually, we'd do something to make the on part more mentally engaging, like doing the 3 minute version with one minute at 16 strokes per minute (spm), one minute at 18, one minute back at 16. Next 3 minutes on might be 18, 20, 18 spm. Then it could keep going up a little, or not, but eventually drop back to the starting 16, 18, 16 spm. Another variation would be to do the 3 minutes at one spm rating, but when the timer hit half way through the "on" part, take 10 strokes with more power (ignoring the spm, but not going wild with it). Another option would be to spend each 3 minute rowing segment with a particular technical focus in mind, such as maybe getting the heels down first at the start of the stroke, or paying attention to keeping the forward weight shift happening until legs are (nearly) flat - the technical focus could be anything you want to work on improving.

We had group leaders calling the changes out to us, so we didn't need to keep track so much ourselves. But they - and I when I do something like this at home - would put it on a whiteboard (sheet of paper with big letters is fine 😉) so it's easier to keep track. For the above idea, I'd write something like:

3 x 3' on, 1:30 off.
1st 3': 1' @ 16, 1' @ 18, 1' @ 16.
2nd 3': 1' @ 18, 1' @ 20, 1' @ 18
3rd 3': 1' @ 16, 1' @ 18, 1'@ 16.

So, the actual meat of the workout would be X repeats of Y minutes on, Z minutes off. In early workouts, most of the work would be moderate intensity. As we got fitter, the X, Y, and Z would increase, and manageably higher intensity would be mixed into the details. In general, the length of work could be longer if we were doing lower intensity, but would be shorter if doing high intensity. The "off" bits don't always stay at half the length of the work, that's just a generality; if we did a very intense "on", we'd do a longer "off", maybe as much or more than the work time.

Like I said, I'm not saying you need to do a whole long session like that. I'm just describing some drills and ideas you could mix in, and suggesting that you could consider doing some of your rowing work as some intervals with rests between, just for variety and to allow you to gradually work on longer bits while still keeping things manageable. Doing drills, or trying for particular spm or technical focuses or something helps make it a little more mentally challenging and interesting, plus can help make progress with technique.

TL; DR: At first, I started with short rowing times, and rested between them. As I got fitter, the rowing times gradually got longer, and some intensity was added to the mix, but not "all intense all the time" ever.

These days, after doing this for 20+ years, for me a common home workout during the Winter (when our river freezes so I'm on the machine) might be something like 3-4 times a 2k distance (which usually takes plus/minus 10 minutes at my age/stage if at a moderate pace), 3' off (during which I usually grab a drink, wipe some sweat, then row very gently for the rest of the "off"), with the last "off" being super gentle continuous rowing to cool down. Once a week or so, I might push the intensity up on part or all of one of the work intervals, or do something like 20 hard strokes, 6 easy strokes as the work. Moderate work intervals I'm focusing on some technical point (one point at a time), and usually trying to keep around some planned spm.

I hope something in that silly long essay might be of some help. You'll be fine if you start gradually, and build up as it's manageable. Keep a manageable amount of challenge in the overall schedule - including the other forms of exercise you may do like your cycling - and you'll make progress. The "manageable" part avoids destructive over-fatigue or under-recovery; the "challenge" part is what creates fitness progress.

Best wishes, and don't hesitate to ask if you have other question (though you might get another essay . . . I'm like that 😆).

Lietchi

@AnnPT77 I thought you might have useful advice considering your rowing experience 🙂

baodell17724

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48648496#Comment_48648496

THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR REPLY !!!🙂 I found your comments very helpful. Yes, I'll keep doing it (a $1500 investment - cost and shipping - is not something to waste!). So far I seem to be able to do 8 minutes rowing - plus the time to carefully get on/off the thing w/o falling!😕. I noticed this morning a feeling in my stomach muscles that I've not felt before - nothing bad, so I'm taking it as a good sign. I think when I start feeling confident with the whole getting on/off the machine, I will use the rower for more periods throughout the day.

QUESTION: When you first started using your rower, how long a period a time did you row? How many times a day? (Yes, I realize everyone is different w/ different abilities.) Just wondering and nosy! LOL😀

baodell17724

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/comment/48648957#Comment_48648957

Wow !!! Thanks so much for all the info !!! You've given me a lot to think about, and put into (slow) regular practice. I appreciate you taking the time to write this all down (for me, for others as well)!😊