Need rowing machine advice

[brad310]

I am satisfied with my strength gains and i put on a good bit of fat as well. Now i need to keep my strength and burn off the excess. 35yrs old. 6 foot. 240lbs.

I was about 310 a few years back, lost it down to 230. Then got ahold of starting strength and got myself a power rack. I lost most of my weight doing elliptical almost every day, at least 5 days of the week, and dieting - counting calories.

At any rate, i have all the strenght equip i want. I dont want to do elliptical for this cardio plan. I feel like im a little heavy still to run. I want to wait until im closer to 200 before i start running.

This brings me to rowing. I love the crossfit community and have seen the rowing machines being a big fad lately - and i think they're probably on to something because RoboGym doesnt have a single one....just like they dont have a single power rack.

So before i just buy a rowing machine, does anyone have one, or have first hand experience with one...or have suggestions on how to program it as an effective cardio program?

FWIW this is the one im looking at. Everything i have pretty much is from Rogue.
http://www.roguefitness.com/black-concept-2-model-d-rower.php

 

[colonelciller]

you picked the correct machine to buy

All other brands are utter garbage. rowing is not a gimmick, and as a former rower i can tell you that it is the best workout bar none... think of it as running while lifting weights or sprinting while lifting weights... depending on the workout.

fitness wise, if you really stick to it you will reach insane fitness levels... your heart will increase in size and the thickness of the walls of your heart muscle will increase. no other exercise can do this for you... they're either one or the other, but not both... rowing is the only exception I know of to this.

you can also lose all the extra weight, and if you use it anaerobically (2000 meter) all out sprints you can turn loose musle bulk into lean dense (reduced) muscle mass.

for burning the fat, 6000 meter steady rows.

here is the caveat... doing it right is extremely painful... and doing it right is difficult. the form/technique is very important and non-intuitive... i'm not sure how easy it would be to do on your own at home... probably nearly impossible in that situation without a mirror..

 

[colonelciller]

i'd say a good idea would be to try them out at the gym for a week before buying... most gyms will have concept 2's

 

[colonelciller]

1st... setting up the machine:

*adjust the lever on the flywheel to 6 to 6.5 (this controls how much air enters the wheel and therefore how hard it is to row and how much pain you will experience). 6 to 6.5 is what you want.

*adjust the foot harness so that the ball of your foot rotates underneath the strap... then put your feet in and strap yourself down.

(those look like small feet)

*computer screen... push a button to turn the screen on, then select the top right button to "just row"...

then push the "change units" button until the display looks like the picture below

...what you want to see is the time/500m. this tells you your pace and it is what you will use to control how hard your are working and to help pace yourself / motivate yourself to pull harder.

the top # (11 in this case) is the time since you've started
the avg/500m # (3:38.8 in this case) is not really that informative... and I'd push the "change units" button until you see the distance rowed instead. The change display button will give you alternate viewing modes as well, but no matter what you want to see /500m pace tracking area (different from the avg/500m). It's up to you if you want to see the distance rowed or not.

 

[colonelciller]

workout once you have the form down fairly well...

slow and steady, it will feel very easy for the 1st few minutes...
if you start too hard by minute 4-5 you'll be wasted

I don't know your fitness level so I'd say just to play it safe and aim for a 2:30 split...
meaning the # you see right before the /500m would be 2:30. That is how long it takes you to row 500meters.

If you're feeling very winded at this split after 4-5 minutes then ease off a bit by slowing down your forward slide (difficult to do at 1st) while maintaing the same rearwards leg drive as before. By slowing down your slide you can adjust your pace upwards (slower) to 2:40, 2:45, 2:50 etc until you feel comfortable.

If these are too easy for you and after 10 minutes you don't feel like you're getting a workout then then do the opposite and speed up. Speed up by pushing your hands away faster, leaning forwards faster and then increasing your forward slide speed... but use the forward slide speed increase as the last option, with preference to the "hands away" speed and "leaning forward" speed.

 

[colonelciller]

rowing form:

from the above position push your hands away (while moving nothing else)... until you get to the position below:

(except unlike the model, keep your knees straight at this point).

once hands are "away" you then break your back and lean forward (straight back rotating at the hips... hands stay fully outstretched, arms pretty much parallel to the ground (aming straight for where the chain enters the machine)

this will feel extremely awkward. at this point your knees are still locked.
from the position above try rotating forward even more... you will feel a stretch at the back of your knees.

so it's hands away, then back forward (straight back rotating at the hips).
once you're in the above position you stay there... and begin the forward slide... only motion now should be bending of the knees (this will feel weird).

the slide will continue forward past this point until you're hands are right up near the point where the handle is touching the gap in the machine where the chain disappears into the flywheel chamber.

once there you're ready to begin the drive

 

[colonelciller]

just after having begun 'the drive'

a common tendancy is for the butt to shoot backwards while the legs are driving due to the resistance on the handle from the flywheel. this is to be resisted completely. your body should move backwards as a unit (not butt first). You resist that motion using the muscles of your lower back to lock your body in place. Your arms and shoulders are there to lock your body into the flywheel while remaining motionless as you drive down hard with your legs.

----------------------

once your knees are just about locked (body still moving badkwards) you break the back by rotating backwards at the hips... as above.

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then pull hard with hands (elbows out) with the handle stopping just before your hands slam into your stomach at a level a little bit above the xiphoid process. alternatively you can do the easy thing and just keep pulling until the handle hits your stomach like I do.

 

[EvilYoda]

Rowers have been a great training tool for a long time, Crossfit's just helped bring the pain into the mainstream. I see more and more of them at the globogyms when I'm on the road and it's great since they're never in use.

If you have the money, buy it new. If you want to try to save some dough, keep an eye on Craigslist...they pop up from time to time if you're near a major city. My friend, whom I call the Craigslist Ninja, has bought 3 (all model 3 and newer) for less than a thousand combined!

As for programming, there are numerous books and classes which I would recommend you at least glance at if you won't be getting instruction from a qualified trainer. The monitor also comes with a lot of built in tools to help you vary your workouts. (Fishing! LOL)

 

[colonelciller]

you're now back where you started... next move is hands and arms away from ribs, then rotate forward, then bend knees and slide forward.

the trick is going to be keeping the form in the beginning, especially when you get tired. a mirror will help a lot with this.

the other trick is to not get bored while rowing for 20-30 minutes or 6000 meters (whichever comes first). Do this 3 days a week for the 1st week, 4 days a week for the 2nd week, 5 days a week for the 3rd. Once you feel comfortable slowly start pulling harder... keeping a steady split the whole way through from start to finish... that's the trick part.

if you feel yourself needing to speed back up do a 'power 10'... 10 strokes as hard as you possibly can (focusing on maintaing form... especially the forward slide... as you get tired it is easy for the hands to drop and the forward slide to get crazy fast). If you pace yourself you shouldn't necessarily need to be getting that tired. good luck

 

[colonelciller]

overview of the technique

 

[brad310]

Wow. I really appreciate all of that. I knew it would be an adjustment as its something ive never done...but it makes sense to me visually and based on what else i know that its probably the most suited cardio for me.

On the elliptical, i had gotten to where i could do an hour. Either constant or HIIT. Im guessing based on the display that you can vary the workouts the same.

Even tho that rower i linked is about $900, id get more out of it for longer...and more enjoyment out of cardio, which is something i dont care for and prefer weights almost exclusively.

 

[brad310]

Welp. I bought the one I posted above. Im excited about it. I think its gonna be fun. Thanks colon

 

[Harrod]

I'm alittle late to the party, I've had a concept 2 for the past few years and like it alot, it's pretty durable. I would say that one thing you should really do is wipe down the rail and wheels every month or so to avoid dust from caking onto the rollers of the chair.

 

[colonelciller]

I'm alittle late to the party, I've had a concept 2 for the past few years and like it alot, it's pretty durable. I would say that one thing you should really do is wipe down the rail and wheels every month or so to avoid dust from caking onto the rollers of the chair.

+1

have fun with your new machine

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

i'd say a good idea would be to try them out at the gym for a week before buying... most gyms will have concept 2's

I've read that these are the best.

 

[EvilYoda]

Congrats on the purchase. I didn't mention it the other day but the black rower that you're looking at is unique to Rogue - Rogue/CF introduced it last years for the Regional competitions and everybody was instantly in love when they showed it off. It's pretty badass!

 

[Harrod]

You may want to also look at this site. they make a sock that fits over the fan that will blow some of the air back towards you. http://www.ps-sport.net/nonathlon/

 

[brad310]

It should be in today when i get home. I super excited about it. Yes the black is appealing...i have a few of rogues other peices of hardware and i love the black powdercoat on it all.

 

[blackdogdeek]

unboxing vid?

also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-z9lkn3W_M

 

[brad310]

unboxing vid?

also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-z9lkn3W_M

lol OMG wow.

unboxed. super ez to assemble. very solid and fluid. def feel the quality.

 

[brad310]

Ok i added it to my routine today. I used it as a post lifting finisher to start doing some cardio. I was thinking after an hour of weights i could knock out 30 minutes of rowing, having never done it before. LOL. I did 10 minutes and i was done.

I will say one thing that suprised me was how fatigued my traps were. Main lifts today were squat and bench with some assistance for each, but man...i didnt feel it in my legs and back as much as i felt it in my traps and biceps. That may be a microchasm of my overall fitness anyway tho bc shoulder and bi's are my weak points anyway.

All in all, it was fun and im looking forward to using it on alternate days as its own workout. if i was fresh i could do 30 min.

Unexpected bonus, my kids are crazy about it.

 

[Headfoot]

Make sure you keep up with that Starting Strength though! Muscle uses calories just by existing

 

[Ns1]

@OP

still rowing? How's it going?

 

[roguerower]

I love my Model D. I rowed in high school and college and when I graduated I bought a new one so I could keep it up. For better or worse, my exercise program is almost 100% rowing, interval or HIIT on MWF, distance pieces (30min steady state or more) on TR.