What Was Your Work Out Today?

Yesterday was heavy leg day:

Squats
Stiff-leg deadlift
One-leg leg press
Leg extensions
Seated leg curls
Planks

Had to work the early shift, so couldn't hit the gym first thing after waking like usual, instead had to try to workout after a full day of work. Got it done, but sure is easier when done earlier!

@AnnPT77 -- sorry about your finger too! That sounds worse than mine currently! Mine just got the stage where it was snapping when I straightened it (and very painful). With taking the last two days off the rower, it's already feeling much better.

I did 30 minutes on the LateralX today (mind numbingly boring to me but it is a good machine) and then 25 minutes or so on the Assault Bike (an AD Pro). Not as boring but not my cup of tea. Hope to be back rowing by Sunday or next week. I'll take a few more days off of gripping so hard or lighten up the Drag Factor so it's not as much tension/pressure on the finger. I have a feeling it's my uneven rowing stroke that contributes to it -- my body is all out of whack from previous injuries -- I have a deformed right thumb (broke it in a college four wall handball tourney years ago and never fixed it), I have a broken left collarbone that never healed right from football and a terrible right knee. So when I row, with all of my imbalances, sometimes pressure goes to strange places, like more on my left hand than right hand, I'm guessing from the imbalance in leg strength.

To be honest, there's a million reasons I shouldn't like the rowing machine, but I do. I'd likely be much better built for cycling.

Tuesday is bike day, but my tree service guy got here a little late, so once again I got a late start. On top of that, there were egrets (I think - vs. white phase herons) along the river, and I had to stop and gawk a while because they're much less common here than blue herons. So, only just over 17 miles on the bike today, at 10.7mph moving average about like usual.

I was going to open rowing (no one was signed up to supervise), but didn't plan to row. But one of the other experienced club members (much younger than me) also showed up to supervise, and we got to talking about her beautiful new-this-season deep-blue Fluidesign double. Fluidesigns have these funny behind-the-rower riggers - the part that holds the oarlock out away from the boat). She asked if I'd like to row it with her. I've never rowed a Fluidesign, never rowed with her . . . so how could I say "no"? So, we rowed about 5k. The boat is much lighter and a little twitchier than my old (heavy) Pocock double, but moves really nicely. So fun!

TicTacToo wrote: »

For those here who are dedicated to one particular sport (rowing/paddling/biking/running/swimming/whatever), how much do you think your body shape is "naturally" suited to your chosen sport, and how much have you overcome lack of genetic blessings through training? Example - some sports are made easier with long legs and arms, and being short all over isn't too helpful.

I don't know if I count? I'm dedicated to rowing, but do some other stuff, too.

My body shape (and especially brain) are naturally suited to things like reading books and doing misbegotten craft projects. I was one of those "chosen last in gym class" kids. I have nearly no kinesthetic sense. Coaches ask me to do a thing in a different way, and I can usually do it (kinda), but if they ask me if I can feel the difference, my historic answer is "no". I learn physical skills best via verbal understanding, which is a very, very dysfunctional way to learn physical skills (vs. kinesthetically or visually). I have more kinesthetic sense than I did when I started being active, but it's still sub-par.

The rower natural body type is tall and strong, ideally with a naturally high VO2max. I'm 5'5". I do seem to be stronger than many of similar demographics and training level (always have been, even when inactive - I assume it has to do with geometry, muscle insertion points, etc.). My trained VO2max is decent for my demographic (based on estimates), but I don't know if that's more training than nature, since I'm old and the age comparatives may be less trained. No matter what, I could not be elite, even if I'd started early, instead of in my later 40s. Way too short, but not tiny enough to be an elite coxswain. (Their ideal weight, 110 pounds, would be underweight BMI for me.)

I've stuck with it a really long time. I've made huge progress by working at it. I seek out opportunities to get coaching. I go to camps. I did two levels of USRowing coaching education and attended multiple coaching conferences to learn more. I read books, watched videos. I went to - jeez, I don't remember - around a dozen rowing camps. I rowed a lot, tried to improve. I asked the people I was rowing with for feedback (and still do). I noticed physical deficiencies that limited me, and did other things to try to improve them. Every little bit helps.

I'll never be great. I have hope that - in a technical sense - I can keep getting better.

Generically speaking, I do think that persistence and training can overcome a lot, at the recreational athlete level. When I was racing, I was far from great, but I wasn't super-bad appalling, either, as an age-group competitor.

I used to be the "faculty advisor" to a university martial-arts club (long story, none of which involves me being highly skilled at the martial art, or even a faculty member). An observation I made was that people who were doggedly persistent, really worked at learning and improving, achieved more in the long run than people who were athletically talented and picked things up quickly, but didn't put in the work (stick with it, chase it, grind - basically). Talent + the dedication and dogged persistence? That'll win out . . . but not that many people have both.

I've watched adults learn to row for almost 20 years now: Same perception. Talent and short attention span/limited work ethic applied? Poor results. Less talent, more dedication/work/persistence? Better results.

I found that same thing to be true in my career (IT developer then manager): The character parts, like dedication, persistence, willingness to work, steady pursuit of personal improvement - those mattered a lot more to effectiveness and success than raw talent/smarts. (Again, someone with both is gonna win, but not many people have both.)

Are you trying to be elite at your sport? If so, nature (genetic body) matters a lot, IMO - though it's not the only thing that does. If you're just trying to be lifelong recreational pretty good, I think you have a shot via the "work at it" approach. Just my opinion.

And apologies for the essay. It's a character flaw. 😉😆

TicTacToo wrote: »

@AnnPT77 Lol, I have the right body to be an elite darts player but lack the hand-eye coordination and affinity for plaid.

My question was prompted by watching some rowing videos and noticing that rowers are often leaner than swimmers although it helps to be over 6' either way. Then I found an infographic that compared rowers, swimmers, cyclists and long distance runners and showed which muscle groups get used most in each sport.

@TicTacToo, do you have a link for that infographic? That would be interesting. Yeah, tall is good. Unless you're trying to be elite, don't worry about it - that would be my advice. Work hard, have fun - you'll surprise yourself.

I'd note that in some contexts, one can compete as a lightweight rower. Elite lightweights can't compete (at the highest levels) with elite openweights. But there are races just for lightweights.

I'm in a not-very-competitive rowing demographic for structural reasons. There are some greats, but women's sports were in the dark ages when I was at the age where the magic starts happening, so many women my age who doubtless had potential never got the context to see their greatness bloom. (For clarity: I was not one of those who had the seeds to bloom with!)

When I trained in a structured way - which I didn't do for long, and was in my late 40s/early 50s at the time - my C2 race time (at an actual indoor race) was IIRC somewhere close to the 75 percentile level of openweight (heavyweight) in the C2 rankings for my age group - I was obese at the time. I think that's not terrible - seriously not elite, soooo not, but not terrible for a late starter IMO.

Women's lightweight 60-69 - my current classification - is even less competitive than openweight 60-69, in my view - probably because not a huge percentage of women my age are at low enough weight, especially not the strongest women of my age. I only did one race as a 60-69 lightweight, the first World Rowing Indoor Virtual Sprints, and placed 3rd (of 33). That race was especially less competitive, because of being the first one ever. This year, the same time would've only been 7th place (of 42).

Like I said, unless you're trying to be elite, don't worry about having the right body. If you are trying to be elite, and are too short of stature to compete as an openweight, consider whether you have the natural ability and character, plus the right body size/configuration to be strong at the required weight, to be able to compete as a lightweight.

ETA: Being an elite rower is not a good way to get rich and famous. 🤣

I would echo what Anne has said. My main sport is climbing. To be good at climbing requires a mixture of strength, endurance, flexibility, power and technique. I suspect I'm genetically way below average in each of these areas. However, it doesn't really bother me. More important questions are:
1) Do I enjoy it?
2) Am I making progress? (This is a slow an non-linear process so best not judged session to session but over a longer time-frame.)

The answer to both of these is yes. I am old, so I'll never be a brilliant climber. But I'm improving, and it's fun, so I'll carry on with it until my body no longer lets me.

I lifted yesterday. I had to cut the session short as I met up with a friend, I had time for:
Hangboarding, My fingers are strong.
Pull-ups, 3 sets of 10. These were hard, I am weak.
Push-ups, 4 sets of 25. These were hard.
Bench, 3 sets of 3, 50 kgs. This was hard.

Looking at athletic builds providing advantages for different sports, I can compare my brother and I. He's taller than I by several inches, with correspondingly longer limbs. This gave him an advantage in distance running as well as tennis. By comparison, my shorter limbs proved advantageous in lifting weights, giving me both better moment arm leverage as well as having to move the weight through a shorter range of motion.

I still earned my letterman's jacket in both track as a sprinter as well as cross country running, but had to work a lot harder than he did.

nossmf wrote: »

Looking at athletic builds providing advantages for different sports, I can compare my brother and I. He's taller than I by several inches, with correspondingly longer limbs. This gave him an advantage in distance running as well as tennis. By comparison, my shorter limbs proved advantageous in lifting weights, giving me both better moment arm leverage as well as having to move the weight through a shorter range of motion.

I still earned my letterman's jacket in both track as a sprinter as well as cross country running, but had to work a lot harder than he did.

My son was a very talented soccer player and wrestler in high school but did track for a few years.

He is 5 foot 7. Imagine the look on my face when I went to his first track meet and he was running the 110 meter hurdles because they had no one else that was as fast and smooth as he was doing hurdles. Was funny to watch! He'd place top 3 every race despite that. Would have loved to have seen him pursue track more (he was incredible in the 400m) but he loved the other sports more.

@AnnPT77 @MikePhirman I did 500m on the Concept 2 yesterday in 2:17 as part of a fitness test. I'm in my 50s and still 50lb overweight (was 60lb overweight) so I was pleased with that! Also I'd only been shown what to do the day before I tried to focus on pushing the machine away with my legs and hoping that all my swim training had built up some quads.

Yesterday's treadmill run: 8km in 54min16.

I had a look at the Garmin progress summary for my running and I've run more than 1000km this year! And that's still with 4 months left in the year. And even with an incomplete 2022, I'm very happy with my summary stats:


I started using Runalyze in October last year, which had a huge impact (I realised my progress was stalling because I was undertraining).