Peter Beck Kim's Other Blog

Resisting the considerable pull of indoor rowing, but just barely

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 cachet and tradition. That describes rowing, sailing, and most traditional martial arts (guilty as charged). 

Remember why we came here:

1. Alternate continuous session cardio to cross train with walking/jogging/running
2. Joint sparing, even at high intensity levels
3. Quiet, doable at any hour without waking family
4. Potentially meditative, or soothing
5. Fits in within the home decor (only not an issue if you are Single with a capital "S")

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).

Why? To keep weight in check (more about food choices, but no question 70 min total/day of cardio helped), bp under control without meds (so far, so good!), and stress relieved. Plus hopefully all those other wonderful fringe benefits -- mainstream benefits, really: longevity, emotional stability, anti-aging, dementia risk chop down, brain neuron growth and complexity increase, improved learning and memory, antioxidant production. And so on.

Competition is nowhere in there.

But tracking numbers and comparing some can help keep the motivation up.

Then there's Daniel Pink's Third Drive.

Which is what a bit different from what I'm talking about just above; it's about the intrinsic value of the activity itself, as opposed to a reward you chase, or a punishment you avoid. Rowing, you can really find a groove, the groove, pretty easily, if you're not intent on "hammering it." That's a nice place to be -- stay awhile, then maybe play with things a little. Then it can seem fun to cruise towards certain target goals, as opposed to being driven by them.

That is the dog, with the rest being the tail.

I'm rowing my tuchus off with this guy

I could care less about what works for other people -- and so should you

Seven more steps to 14,000 steps for the day.

Post the 10k mark, most of those were getting long overdue shoes and clothes (translation: the every 5th year or so shopping trip with the wife to do it right).

But the base was the 30 minute treadmill power walk + run. And the 15-20 minute dog walk with da kids. And a ditto length walk with the pupster when waiting for the kids. Coulda journaled in the parking lot, but his baby browns would not be denied. Hard to write, too, with his paws on the back of my head.

Anyway.

In the span of just under a month, I've dropped about 17 lbs, and 30 mm Hg of blood pressure points. While simultaneously neutralizing a periodic, 3 AM freakout fest -- sweats and flushing, no rapid heart rate, didn't dare clock my BP -- and regaining some semblance of a mental middle path.

Brief, heavy strength training sessions didn't help. Numerous short walks throughout the day that added up to 10,000 steps didn't help counteract the lifting. And breathing exercises did not make the sweats go away, which I did not expect at all.

Straight cardio did. 30-40 minutes, morning and night. Good old, "folks were doing this stuff in the '70s" straight cardio.

The weight loss didn't hurt the blood pressure. But I'd already dropped some weight, and the BP didn't budge until I dusted off the treadmill.

There are some awfully darned good reasons for cardio to neutralize stress, drop weight, and reduce blood pressure. John Ratey goes into them, in his book, Spark -- to him, exercise is worthy because of the awetacular good it does for your brain; its benefits for your heart and muscles are secondary.

But bottom line, it's about finding what works, for you as an individual.

It could just have easily been strength lifts with mega weights, or kendo 4 nights a week, or hot yoga, or circuit training at Curves. For me, it was clearly, unequivocally, long session cardio, 6 days a week. The stress neutralization was palpable within 48 hours, and the BP started dropping within 10-14 days. Months of my previous regimen did nothing, for the things I was trying to correct.

There are a number of very strong, very fit individuals out there, who at least publicly disdain aerobics in favor of innovative strength endurance routines. Someday, I hope to count myself among them (minus the disdain).

But for now, I'm sticking with what has worked with a frakkin' shout.

It's stupid, arguing with this kind of success.