Not usually one to care, but glad for K. Bigelow; remembering with a daughter, this isn't possible all over the world
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Had to stretch a bit, going past the 30 minute target. Ratcheting back and forth between "just 2 minutes more" and "just 500 meters more," helped to stagger step up to today's 10,000 meter (arbitrary) goal. A wonderful but dietarily wild weekend with the family in the snow didn't help: lots of carbs, protein, and salt.
Even a little blotto-ness is really noticeable when you go knees to chest for nearly an hour.
Was trying to do a moderate intensity, steady state cardio for half an hour...and ended up adding 7 work intervals of 1-2 minutes each over the baseline stroke rate, for 45 minutes overall. Just like Xeno's 45 minute classes, which are usually based on intervals.
Funny, how things work out.
About 21 strokes per minute (spm), with a 500 m split time of 2:14 yielded a HR of 120-130-ish. That's my moderate intensity target as a 45 y.o. fart.
Borrowing from the Concept2 workout booklet, went for 30 minutes, and rowed hard for 10 strokes every 5 minutes (at about 31 spm, with a 1:40 split, HR in the low 160s briefly, and back down to 130 within 2 minutes). That works out to almost exactly a 10% hard interval workout by time, a basic starting recommendation when trying interval training.
It certainly kept things interesting. So did the puppies needing to go out 15 minutes into the previous workout -- false alarm! And when back inside, the monitor had reset to zero.
But starting over was a pleasure with my new WaterRower. On the We-Row forum, one member put it beautifully:
In order to move [a] boat faster, you must pull the oar throught the water faster than the water is moving past you...Again the same is true on the water-rower, you must pull the blades of the rower through the water faster than it is spinning. The design of the water rower is a never ending river conveniently rolled into a small circle.
NB: if you're a new WR owner, and hear little ticks or creaks, get out the included Allen key and resnug the nuts. You've probably worked some lose with your initial enthusiasm.
For a HR of 130-135, that's about 20-21 strokes per minute, with attention to decent form throughout, at about a 2'20" pace per 500 meters.
The emphasis is on the HR, not comparing race paces, though.
Will study whether 30-35 minutes at that HR is comparable to the same while jogging on a treadmill; I'll know if with a total daily exercise duration of 1 hour, my "fitness factors" are optimized.
Not competitive racing speed and short split times, but
Plus, there are just enough variables to pulling a perfect stroke to keep you coming back for more, seeking that synchronous total body pull. Nowhere near as ridiculous as golf, thankfully.
Sent from my iPhone
I can't think of a better example of a technology working so quickly, so directly, so without any kind of special prep or FEMA-approved infrastructure, to help individuals connect in the most catastrophic of conditions.
Usually, communications are the first things to implode in times like this!
There are lessons to be learned, here, re: network durability, viral participation, and the primacy of doing what needs to be done.
This story could not have happened without people participating, working hard to help. And it could not have happened without the global software and hardware system collectively known as social networking.
Yes, it really works.
Another morning session with Xeno at the Iron Oarsman. Not the most death-defying MetCon workout I've ever had, but spent most of the 45 min class close to my max HR, and definitely felt gassed in the last few minutes. Xeno managed to keep the session balanced between warmup, technique focus, interesting intervals, and getting delicately smoked.
Really liked the 10 or so minutes afterwards, just "paddling" (probably because of what ended immediately before). Went from 17 strokes/min up to a more comfortable 20, feeling the coordinated whole body ease of it; HR was in the 140's, so even that was technically high intensity cardio. Am sure I could learn to throttle it back, probably by having less water in the WaterRower's tank for resistance. How do you gauge how much water to put in the tank?
Got to try the Concept2; gotta admit, it felt nice, probably due setting it on a lower dialed-down resistance, plus the rounder handle cross section. But my Xeno model WaterRower is on its way, and it's definitely more pleasant in its liquid swoosh, what I'd imagine a scull on the water sounds like. The chain sound isn't unpleasant on the C2, neither is its soft airfan whir, which may actually be quieter than the water moving away from the WR's tank paddles. But the C2 is definitely more gym equipment in construction and feel, and would not fit our home. And I refuse to row a fan-based machine in the garage.WaterRower's website lacks robustness, compared to C2's. It's focused, but doesn't feel as full and inviting, like you could learn everything you wanted about indoor rowing from it, short of having a machine. I hope the company does well in other areas, because I'd hate to lose mechanical support down the road if its lesser Internet presence causes it to tank.Certainly am hoping that Xeno's efforts can create a viable meeting ground to fill that niche...and that WR will come around.C2 is the standard for competitive indoor rowing ranking. There are ways to offer something similar for WR; these should be learned from, not copied. The most unoccupied niche seems to be fitness for the new rowing enthusiast focused on other things besides competing.Look at pedometers; there's an immediate thrill from seeing those steps really add up. A walk around the block adds hundreds of steps to your daily total, typically shooting for the magic 10,000 mark. The meters rowed statistic functions similarly, like today's session + the 10-ish minute paddling: 13,018 meters. You can rack up the meters, time rowed, HR and time, torque, and stroke rate, or any combination. Offhand, meters rowed feels the most tasty, with the HR + time being a close second in terms of sensibleness. Just like walking/treadmill cardio for fitness, and the pedometer + HR & time.Online logging definitely adds something, tho'. Especially with new or virtual friends/training colleagues.Hey, hear that sucking sound? That's the whirlpool of communal, tribal proof and competition calling.It's a frakkin' siren call, is what it is. An easy Charybdis to fall into and get lost. It can be surprisingly hard to resist the pull of a thankless, seemingly left-field niche, filled with the earnest young and young at heart, training and competing in extremis. With hundreds of years of cache and tradition. That describes rowing, sailing, and most traditional martial arts (guilty as charged). Remember why we came here:
Still planning on doing 1 hr most days of cardio...would like it to be 30 min of moderate walking/jogging/running, and 30 minutes of moderate rowing. And 20-ish minutes twice weekly of high intensity rowing (plus strength training).
On my march back towards a more well-rounded (yet clearly effective) exercise regimen, I've added indoor rowing -- aka erging -- into my schedule. Once or twice a week, for 45 minutes, courtesy of Xeno Muller in the video above. He leads a class of us, on the WaterRower, and his energy is infectious (which coming from a physician is saying something).
For me, weight control, stress neutralization, and BP management go hand-in-hand with continuous session aerobic exercise -- hence, the old treadmill in the garage getting 6 day a week use, 30-40 moderate intensity minutes per session. That, plus Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution eating habits (an Amazon.com affiliate link, but I'm following that regimen myself, feel free to find it separately if you like), has so far kept my weight to within a pound of 200 lbs -- which for my 6'2" frame, I haven't weighed since college.
But the next step is to add two higher intensity, shorter session days, while keeping the total days/week at 6. And something other than running faster or harder had a certain joint sparing appeal.
Hence, the WaterRower, and Row2go.
My 220-age max heart rate is estimated at 175. Today's workout, where I really pulled for the first time like I had a purpose, pushed it to over 181. Not that rowing is about maxing out, but it just goes to show how you can get your heart really going with what is essentially a zero impact activity.
I'm basing my strategy on John Ratey's outline in Spark [another affiliate link], which touts exercise first and foremost for brain health: 4 days/wk of moderate cardio, 2 days/wk of high intensity but briefer cardio, and on those 2 days some strength training. Dr. Gundry's book gives some interesting counter arguments for a more genteel yet focused regimen, emphasizing not too long but slow cardio + occasional sprints + strength training. Like the Taoists, trying to avoid burning yourself up (along with your muscle mass).
Will continue to evolve. Oscillating now, to find that exercise sweet spot. So far, with the weight, cortisol, and BP behaving, that seems to be brisk walking/jogging most days, plus rowing.
At work, I'm a medical director, primary care physician, and healthcare IT consultant for an EHR.
Twitter handle: @doccottle
Main blog: http://www.MedicalRecordShow.com
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