Why Row?

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Fatt Matt

Why Row?

Post by Fatt Matt »

Hey, guys and gals!

After beer & curry last night I find myself in a contemplative (non work) mood and have been pondering the question: why do we row? There are some seriously dedicated people in this forum who put in stacks of hours basically sliding up and down an oiled bit of metal, hurting themselves as they go.

Now I know there is one level of answer - to lose weight, get fit etc. But why row? Why not run, or cycle or walk... better scenery, right?
Personally it is as mundane as a busted knee ligament so no running/impact stuff. But also there is the kinda purity of the machine - it is consistent and progress is precisely measurable & I can compare myself to myself a year ago, two years... Maybe this is a male techy thing?

Any thoughts?
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Stan
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Post by Stan »

Good question Matt
From my standpoint - the get fit/lost weight part is important. As to why rowing -
well I have tried running in the past and I absolutely loved it - entered a few road races (ran the Reading half marathon in 1 hr 40). Then I picked up an injury on my foot and stopped running. Piled on the weight and then took up weight training which did nothing for cardiovascular fitness, though it was nice being able to benchpress 130kg.
I dislike cycling and too embarrassed to go swimming. Then found the concept2 and found I really enjoyed it, even more now because of Free spirits. Its a great workout and so far have not picked up any injuries. I like the way you can see the results and benefits of training on it in improved performance - as Matt says, its very measureable. The friendly competition from Free Spirits adds to that experience. Totally addicted to it and get bad tempered when I cant do it - like at the moment :evil: .
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Post by johnglynn »

Good Question Matt

As a teenager I was active (mainly soccer, basketball), then when as I starting doing my leaving cert (last Irish exam before college) I stopped all excercise . Then I went to college and was a couch potato again . Started working and thanks to a KFC close to work I pilled on the FAT .

After a few years I said enough is enough and started office soccer and rugby . Unfortunatly I developed bad shin splits, I'm too heavy and have fallen arches in my feet, the doctors couldn't fix it enough that I could run .

Luckly our office moved to bigger premises very close to a gym .
I got a annual subscription, I couldn't use the threadmill (due to my fragile shins) , my legs where too lanky for the bikes, kept hitting the handlebars, no matter which seat position I used.

And I really enjoyed the rower, especcially the instant feedback you get, and I quickly got hooked . Long term goals, I want to keep this up for life. If I get to 60, 70 or 80 years old I want to at least have the strength to walk up my own stairs under my own leg's power, and hopefully a lot more.

Weight wise I'm a bit of an anomally . I started the gym at 20.5 stone . I put on a lot of muscle (I was heavy into weights at the start) and lost a lot of fat, but ended up at 22 stone . At the moment I'm probably closer to 21.5 stone then 22 stone, but my weight flucates a lot . Once I get my own rower, I will probably double or triple my current meters, so hopefully I can then lose a bit of the belly I have.
28, 6'6", 18 Stone - ELM - CTC
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Why not?

Post by webberg »

I've been active physically since I was 13 and get very jittery when I have to stop.

Was a footballer (semi pro) but that ended at 28 when I picked up an ACL injury. Took up cycling for a few year with Poole Wheelers. Mainly 25/50 mile TT and 100 mile team TT. Surgery in 1990. Land's End Joh O'Groats on a bike 1991.

A few dark years (went back to smoking and other bad habits) before marrying a runner. Had a go and liked it. Did a few HM's but not great times. More ACL surgery in 2003 and again in 2004.

Needed something to keep active. Gym was full of lycra clad people who didn't want to break sweat. Didn't suit me at all. Either do it hard or forget it.

The erg was always free so I thought why not. I usually love it. The rythym, the focus on technique, the mix of explosive power and stamina, the thought that one day I'll put together a real piece and go sub 42 for 10k!

Sometimes I hate it. Some days I have to get off and sulk for 24 hours.

As a low impact, high CV exercise nothing can touch it.

I also love the looks you get from the gym monkeys who can bench press all day but can't do 15 mins. They look at the wrinkly, grey, plump (I'm decieving only myself) guy with just a glimmer of respect. 8)

Bought my own machine in March this year. Since then I have gone from about 20k a week to close to 50k. :shock:

Still in the lower reaches of the metre board but look out guys (and gals), I'll get you in the end. :twisted:
Uphill to the finish

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Post by alistairkbs »

Good question.

1. Weight loss v important (critical when I started) and ongoing
2. Have never been able to run and never "got" breathing so front crawl became doggy paddle essentially.
3. Water rowed for 6 years with much enthusiasm as a studnet (not a lot of skill) and loved it. Only sport Ive ver been even semi-good at - very occasional social off spin aside.
4. After a dark 15 years returned to cycling which I still enjoy but boughgt an erg Feb 2005.
5. I can do it when I want, don't have to do it in front of other people. I can compete objectively with myself (important) and with other people especially via FS, meter board etc. Its low impact - yet to sustain an injury on it.
6. Becoming addicted to it and the metere sjust keep going up.

I'm hooked !
Alistair
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Post by Paul Victory »

Hi

My name is Paul and I'm an addict!

I row because it gives me a challenge and a means of comparing how I'm doing to others of a similar background. The fact that I can track my progress on the Concept 2 website gives me the motivation to keep going when the going gets tough.

I started using the gym to lose weight and found the rower very difficult at first. If I could do 2000m in under 8 minutes 30, I was happy. Then I got a bit fitter and my times started to come down.

Another member told me about the Concept 2 website and I found that I was doing OK against others in the same age group. My initial target was to be upper quartile in the various distances. Then I started to target the top 10%.

My competitive instinct took over and I found that the urge to impove my ranking allowed me to train much harder and to keep going when I felt like stopping.

Then Gregor invited me to join Free Spirits and I discovered the joys of long distance rowing. If you had told me a year ago that I would do a half marathon on the rower, I would have told you that you were mad.

Of late, I have been injured and unable to row much and it is killing me. I long to get back on the rower, but each time I do, my injury gets worse. The hardest thing to accept is that it's all my own fault. I did a hard 30 minutes with no warm up and no stretching at the end of a week in which I had set three new season's bests.

Am I discouraged? No. I'm just longing for the day when my shoulder heals and I can go chasing PBs again.

Paul
M 68 6'1" 124kg (May05), 92kg (Feb06), 122kg (Aug10), 95kg (Sep11), 117kg (Jun13), now 98kg
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Post by Thomas W-P »

I row because I rowed at Uni I hate running (6' 3" with 32.5" indide leg). I was last in EVERY training run in three years of rowing training despite getting my 5 mile time down from 50 to 31 minutes. I also popped my anterior cruciate ligament in my right knee a few years ago when skiing. And wrecked by back in a serious skiing fall. Hmmm, why am I going skiing next February?

So rowing in non-load bearing and buying an ergo for me when I moved out of London cost a mere two years gym subscription. I have been an intermittent rower since - but always logging on the concept2 site. I have always targetted being "better than average" but now FS has kicked me up the bum I am aiming for top 25%. Maybe more.

I think the ability to compare yourself with previous rows and others fairly is a real bonus.

Of course the main reason I am doing it is a way of losing weight and keeping up with the kids!
Last edited by Thomas W-P on Wed Aug 09, 2006 3:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
51 yrs - A cyclist these days
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Well I'll join in too

Post by ReducingFB »

Good question Matt. My story is similar to most of the others, but a bit later in life. :cry:

I played Rugby and Cricket at school, was athletics Victor Ludorum at 15 - pretty good at everything - sort of Dean Macey without the attitude ! :twisted: After school, I continued with Golf, played at County Junior level, got down to 3, then stopped. Took up squash in my early twenties - got fitter, but was beginning to put on weight - always said it was not my sport at 6-4 and about 14 and a half stone. "When others changed direction, I could only change my mind!"

Then the other half almost died after birth of second child, and stopped all sport. After that, business career took off, lots of travel, especially to the USA, lots of over indulgence and over the years I just grew and grew and grew. :wink:

Lost job in mid fifties, and best friend through heart attack, and began to try to analyse why nobody wanted to employ me - I guess I realised that I was just a coronary waiting to happen - and people could see it (If I'm honest, part of the drive now is suppressed anger - have a job in local government now as they claim not to be ageist, but boy are they frustratingly inefficient and profligate). The challenge of the C2 came from years of watching elder son rowing at school and University - and the fact that the C2 was one of the few pieces of gym eqipment which didn't have a 19 stone weight limit!

Like some of the others above, my ankles and knees couldn't cope with running. I agree, it was the C2 site that really got me going. I had tried the gym, but felt a little self conscious in front of all the leotard wearing posers - men as much as women !! The C2 at home was a better and longer lasting investment than gym membership.

Since Gregor was good enough to invite me in - and I've found that Nonathlon allows me to compete on a level playing field with all you youngsters :D, then I'm looking forward to a good year - notwithstanding the fact that my achilles tendon is giving me hell in the mornings at the moment. Should I stop and let it recover? or carry on because I don't feel it for most of the day and especially not when I'm erging. (Advice gratefuly received)

RFB
65; 6'-4" 20 stone (aug 2014) - looking forward to a healthy retirement, when I recover the Equitable losses
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Why why why....

Post by PSims »

I started rowing as it was the one machine you could always guarantee to get on and be allowed to stay on for an unlimited time. Jogging machines, bikes etc were always limited to 20 mins. The rowers weren't as people generally hate it and find it hard to do for a long time.

The monitor supplies a lot more info than other machines and there's a lot of maths in there - which my techie brain seems to like.

Then, being diagnosed with diabetes and reading Steve Redgrave's autobiography got me started again - this was about exercising to live - for the rest of my life - so it had to be something I love.

Other than that discovery of the C2 Million Metre award and then being invited to join a team gave me incentive.

Also been lucky to meet other similar people in gyms, who have given me tips on technique, rowed with me, encouraged me (and beaten me!).

Like Webberg, I like the comments/looks I get from others in the gym as I am already on the rower when they start their workout and STILL on it when they leave an hour or so later. He he he!

Otherwise I might have given up by now - but at the moment I am more hooked than ever, despite aching legs, arms, blisters, bruised tailbone (coxics whatever it's called - it hurts) but I still come back for more!

A year ago, I was doing 50k a week. Now it's 150k a week!

I'm not allowed a C2 at home - probably wise, as I think I might forget to go to work, eat, sleep etc. It is so addictive and the more you do, the more you find you can do! There's just not enough hours in the day...
Paul
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Why

Post by Derrylad »

At School I was into everything, Rugby football, badminton etc.. Excelled at all contact sports, javelin and discus. Then I left school. Carried on playing football for local teams and Hockey for the county. Then got into Basketball and American Football bigtime ( Howie Long - Raiders - Yo ). At 6ft 8 and weighing in excess of 300lbs ( with a 100m sprint of 12 seconds ) I lived and died for sport. Played a few national league basketball games but was mainly into the American football ( DE and TE ). Suffered many injuries over the years from fractured skull, lots of broken bones and compression of spine ( won't go into that one ). Then came the injury that kind of ended it all. Snapped ACL and degeneration of the bones. This STOPPED everything. My left knee joint is the equivalent of an 80 year olds. I was told to loose weight, give up sport and would need a total knee replacement in my 40's. I lost the weight and got down to about 15 stone then back up to 18 stone a year later. At this time I was only 27 / 28 ( too young in my book ), so I boxed for a couple of years but the old injuries and knee just became too much to bear. Basically after that I gave up. 3 years later I joined a local gym and just mainly did weights and CV work ( but no weight bearing on my knees ). Then I moved to Ireland.

After being here for about 6 months ( and being a total couch potato ), I decided to build myself a gym and fill it with kit that I hated ( based on the fact that I hate spending money on things I dont use ) So I bought and ERG ( or shall I call it ERRRHHHHHH! ). I used this every day for about 6 months ( took me that long to manage 5k ) and hated every minute of it, but I carried on until I saw the C2 site. This kind of spurred me on, realising that there was a whole community of nutters out there with similar goals. I kept at it, then came the 10ks, then 15ks and so on. The rest is history.

In a nutshell, I hate it ( thats why I love it so much ), the pain gives me real pleasure and I can compete against myself or others ( from the garage ) and see the results. The BIGGEST BONUS is that it helps with the pains in my knee ( strangely enough ) so I now consider it a way of life ( until I get my knee sorted then I fancy some Gaelic Football - Snigger! ).

Rob
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Post by jlemon »

Because it allows me to excercise while sitting down. :-)

I like cycling, but after moving from California to Wisconsin, I there aren't enough paved areas for my racing bike, and there are too many hills to make it really enjoyable. Plus, I'm not insane enough to try and cycle in the middle of the winter when the roads are covered with snow and ice.

Tried stationary bikes, but they didn't do much for me - so took a gamble and bought a C2 as it sounded like it would suit me. I dislike exercise clubs since I tend to sweat pools of water and feel way too self-concious being the only one in the club really sweating; it seems like everyone else is just exercising for show.

Also, my wife wrecked her knee skiing when she was younger, and has problems keeping the joint straight - rowing puts the least impact on her knee, and she is able to keep it straight, so it turns out to be ideal for her.

My primary goal is weight loss and trying to go from complete computer potato into some form of reasonable shape. Currently 184lb and aiming for LWT.
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Jonathan & Rob

Post by PSims »

Hey Jonathan - someone else who rows on a C2 "on water" even if it is self generated. I have to mop up afterwards, but no-one seems to mind or notice (or they are too polite or disgusted)!!

Rob - I knew you were into sport, but not that you are close to Olympic standard at EVERYTHING! No wonder we can't catch you. What an inspiration (and g1t!). :)

All these knee problems - we were never meant to stand on our hind legs!
Paul
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Post by Stan »

I also tend to sweat a lot during rowing. I feel absolutely no guilt about that at all. I am in the gym to work hard and thats what I do. The lycra clad brigade who stand around and fail to raise a single bead of perspiration are the ones who should feel ashamed.
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Post by BartMan »

all very close to each other the reasons, some just have more than others, but all very same - as is mine.

Mad rugby player for years, until forced to stop playing at age 28. Had rowed on a C2 at a fitness test and thought that is was pretty cool.

Then one turned up at the local small town gym, and I was hooked from there. Then gym sold, and new owner a weird woman, so bought a rower, and left that gym.

Have now joined another gym (have moved), and row there twice a week on their flash new machines (reckon it was the new machine as much as anything that gave me a 4 second advance on my 500m pb), and like a few out there, sweat like I have been hosed down - I go and change shorts / tee shirt before doing weights after rowing.

Have gone from 118kg to 97 with rowing over the last 20 months, eating a bit more carefully too, but mainly thanks to the rowing.

Love how you can measure yourself too, against the C2 site, and now here with the metre board - trying to keep ahead and catch up with team members - just what you need when you are ready to quit at 5k when you are on a 30 minute row!

and the pain - no pain, no gain - there is still plenty of 'rugbyhead' left in me!!
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Post by gunslinger_ »

Syracuse University Rower, National Champs 1987. Ex American Football player, blew out my ACL and MCL vs Ohio State 1986. Couldn't play anymore, so I decided to lose weight and muscle mass. The crew welcomed me with open arms. 6'2" and 240 lb. HATED the erg. Had natural technique though, and could break oars. while others were doing weights, I was running stairs and trying to lose weight.
Forward 20 years....
tired of having a 30 minute limit on all other cardio machines, I sucked it up and got on the erg. gentle pace, wow! I was actually enjoying it! Remembered some of the training programs, and tried to improve my times. Found the Concept 2 website... found the online log book, and decided to get my million meters, and row a marathon. Got invited to Free Spirits. Now, WHY?
1. I get a workout from my calves to my traps.
2. I can keep a heart rate of 150 easily.
3. I never have to wait for a machine.
4. I love it when some lycra clad gym rat decides to jump on the machine next to me, and does a double-take when they see 2:02 for an hour.
5. I like it even better when the lycra clad gym ladies jump off the erg, and onto the tread mill or stair masters right in front of me. :twisted:
6. there is no other machine that measures your progress in several different units, and gives you as much feedback.
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Why Row

Post by mash »

As many of the poeple in this thread I was VERY active when younger.

Played football to a high level, threw javelin, basketball, hockey & martial arts.

Most of this ended when:

1. I snapped my ACL
2. Got married!!!

So for probably far too many years I didn't do anything and went from my fighting weight of 10st 5lb to 21st in 2004.

Constant nagging about how fat and unhealthy I was from my wife I joined a gym. Used the rower to warm up and did mainly low intensity CV work. Each day I would try pushing the rower that little bit further in my 15 mins allocated and this is were I started getting the bug.

15 mins became 20mins then 30. Soon my start to the day was getting to the gym, doing 10k on the rower and then going to work.

Was my turn to nag now and pestered the wife for my own rower and August last year it arrived. Now, as many others have mentioned, I get very grumpy when I can't row. Has really become a part of my daily routine to the extent that the better half factors in my rowing into the daily schedule.

Thanks to the concept2 D I'm now approx 17st. Working harder now to lose more weight and looking to change dietary habits accordingly.

Thanks to all the Free Spirits members who give constant encouragement and advice. Keep up the good work.

Mash
38yrs 110kgs 5'8"
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