Weight Training Necessary?

[[old] spaddy]

Hello All,<br /><br />I bought a Concept 2 back in October of 05 and absolutely love it. I was doing weights for about 3 years prior and just got tired of all the nagging soreness and aggrivated little joint injuries. If I want to stay toned and in good shape is weight training still needed if I do rowing?

[[old] H_2O]

<!--QuoteBegin-spaddy+Jan 22 2006, 01:59 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(spaddy @ Jan 22 2006, 01:59 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Hello All,<br /><br />I bought a Concept 2 back in October of 05 and absolutely love it.  I was doing weights for about 3 years prior and just got tired of all the nagging soreness and aggrivated little joint injuries.  If I want to stay toned and in good shape is weight training still needed if I do rowing? <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Most rowers lift weights but I do not do it.<br />I actually improved strengthwise on the rower when I stopped lifting weights and concentrated on the rowing.<br /><br />I may start again doing one set, 8 reps (more reps on the incline press) once a week to prevent injury.<br />

[[old] akit110]

<!--QuoteBegin-spaddy+Jan 22 2006, 02:59 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(spaddy @ Jan 22 2006, 02:59 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Hello All,<br /><br />I bought a Concept 2 back in October of 05 and absolutely love it.  I was doing weights for about 3 years prior and just got tired of all the nagging soreness and aggrivated little joint injuries.  If I want to stay toned and in good shape is weight training still needed if I do rowing? <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />If you do enough rowing and have a good diet, you will probably be toned and in good shape in comparison to the general population. However, for a unit time of exercise, weight-training is much more efficient in terms of muscular development.<br /><br />Weight-training is also good for exercising those muscles that aren't stimulated as much by rowing (i.e. muscles used primarily in the recovery portion of the stroke like the front and side shoulders, the chest, the triceps, the calves and the hamstrings). <br /><br />

[[old] FrancoisA]

I think it would still be a good idea to work the muscles not used in rowing as well as the core muscles. I would do that as a preventive measure to avoid injuries. <br /><br />I do weights at most 3 times a week for 30 min, and use relatively light weights and high repetitions. Don't forget to work on your flexibility, which I find even more important, by stretching or doing yoga. I have to admit that weight training is an insignificant % of my training schedule (about 18 hours a week), and that I also work the muscles not used in erging by swimming, biking and running.<br /><br />IMO physical well being is more correlated with aerobic capacity than brute force! The erg is great for developing the former!<br /><br />Happy erging!<br /><br />Francois

[[old] akit110]

I would like to add that though I prefer rowing to weight-training most of the time, the single biggest impetus to keep me lifting is that weight-training becomes more and more critical to helping one maintain bone and muscle mass as you get older. <br /><br />When you're very young, endurance exercise like rowing, biking and running alone may be enough to maintain excellent muscle tone but as you get older, I suspect it's often not enough of a stimulus by itself to find off the ravages of time.<br /><br />If you look at older athletes who have done a lot of weight-training throughout their athletic careers, their bodies often show relatively little change from their youth even into their sixth and seventh decade of life.

[[old] jbell]

Our coach says that lifting weights will help, but we shouldn't just make that our primary thing. Lower weights x high reps are what we are told to do. He also said that things like chest press and other stuff don't do much for crew, if any at all. When I went to the yale camp, the heavyweight coach (andy card) said that the core is one of the most important muscles for crew because it transfers the power from the legs to the upper torso.

[[old] DIESEL]

<!--QuoteBegin-jbell+Jan 23 2006, 07:13 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(jbell @ Jan 23 2006, 07:13 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Our coach says that lifting weights will help, but we shouldn't just make that our primary thing.  Lower weights x high reps are what we are told to do.  He also said that things like chest press and other stuff don't do much for crew, if any at all.  When I went to the yale camp, the heavyweight coach (andy card) said that the core is one of the most important muscles for crew because it transfers the power from the legs to the upper torso. <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />your coach is wrong. if that's your lifting routine, it's a waste of time. low weights / high reps are pretty much worthless. <br /><br />whether you should lift or not depends on what your goals are. <br /><br />If you want to be a fast rower - you have to row a lot period. Lifting may give a second or two because of the strength, but mainly it's too keep your pushing muscles balanced with the pulling muscles which get the brunt of the force in rowing. <br /><br />if you row for health and want to look good naked, you should lift. Nothing shapes you up faster than the combo of rowing and lifting. <br /><br />I hope that's a suitable answer.

[[old] akit110]

your coach is wrong. if that's your lifting routine, it's a waste of time. low weights / high reps are pretty much worthless. <br /><br />whether you should lift or not depends on what your goals are. <br /><br />If you want to be a fast rower - you have to row a lot period. Lifting may give a second or two because of the strength, but mainly it's too keep your pushing muscles balanced with the pulling muscles which get the brunt of the force in rowing. <br /><br />if you row for health and want to look good naked, you should lift. Nothing shapes you up faster than the combo of rowing and lifting. <br /><br />I hope that's a suitable answer. <br />[/quote]<br /><br />Just to clarify Diesel - are you saying lifting should be used primarily for building muscular <i>strength</i> (i.e. low reps/high weight) and one should focus on building specific muscular <i>endurance</i> through your sport (e.g. rowing, cycling, running) rather than through weight-training?<br /><br /><br /><br />

[[old] DIESEL]

[quote=akit110,Jan 24 2006, 09:37 AM]<br />your coach is wrong. if that's your lifting routine, it's a waste of time. low weights / high reps are pretty much worthless. <br /><br />whether you should lift or not depends on what your goals are. <br /><br />If you want to be a fast rower - you have to row a lot period. Lifting may give a second or two because of the strength, but mainly it's too keep your pushing muscles balanced with the pulling muscles which get the brunt of the force in rowing. <br /><br />if you row for health and want to look good naked, you should lift. Nothing shapes you up faster than the combo of rowing and lifting. <br /><br />I hope that's a suitable answer. <br />[/quote]<br /><br />Just to clarify Diesel - are you saying lifting should be used primarily for building muscular <i>strength</i> (i.e. low reps/high weight) and one should focus on building specific muscular <i>endurance</i> through your sport (e.g. rowing, cycling, running) rather than through weight-training? <br />[/quote]<br /><br />Yup. Pretty much. It's pointless to lift for low weights / high reps - like circuit style - if the given goal is to build muscular endurance - you are already doing that through your interval workouts on the boat or in the erg. Your time in the gym is better spent building up your limit strength and working on the muscles that are not being directly worked in the rowing stroke to keep your body balanced. Another way to look at it is that if the body is out of balance, the body will not let the stronger muscles to continue to grow, so maintaining that balance is key to your overrall development. <br /><br /> <br /><br />D

[[old] radmanzulu]

The scientific research on training and performance boils down to three variables<br /><br />SPECIFICITY - you have to train with the exercise/sport you plan to compete<br />INTENSITY - sometimes you have to train hard<br />DURATION - in general more training = better performance<br /><br />If you want to train for rowing, you have to row (specificity). Furthermore, if you want to train for sprints, you have to do sprint and so on. There is no credible scientific evidence that I am aware of that cross training helps performance much. The more different the two sports, the less crossover. Weights may move the same limbs as rowing but they don't necessarily recruit the same fibers or use the same enzyme systems in the muscle to produce energy.<br /><br />Weight training may be counter-productive by switching your predominant muscle fibers from Red to White or vice versa. <br /><br />The use of cross-training (such as weights) may help you avoid injuries by balancing your muscle development and stopping one set of muscles involved in Rowing by becoming over-balanced in relation to another set, not involved in rowing. Of course if your program of weights focuses on Rowing muscles, you will just make it worse.

[[old] twija681]

You should be able to stay in pretty good shape if you stick to the erg. Depends how often you train on it of course, and how hard!<br /><br />I'd say the biggest thing you'll find is boredom. Weights, runs, cycling all break up your training a bit. Variety is the spice of life!<br /><br />Also have a play with different workouts at different drag settings on the erg. Shorter peices with a higher drag will help out with your strength but not so much your fitness for example. Drag of about five on the other hand will mean you can plod along for ages and bump up that aerobic fitness.<br /><br />You get out what you put in!

[[old] Yoda1]

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Anyone that thinks they can reach the highest level of performance without some type of resistance training is fooling themselves. For those that think they can, let me ask the question, what do you do to raise your performance when you've gone as far as you can without additional resistance training? </span> Why does every professional athlete train with some type of resistance other than the specific sport they are involved in? There is a reason for this. Time has proven that crosstraining is the only way to raise yourself to the highest level your body can reach. It may only be something as simple as bodyweight exercises, but it is still resistance training.<br /><br />Yoda (No yelling, here)

[[old] RowedandRode]

I work out with weights in my rec room gym. I find it very meditative!<br /><br />Three times per week, I row first, then I lift for about half an hour, and then go running. On non-running days, I might combine a longer row with weight training. In summertime, I spend less time lifting and rowing, and more time running and cycling, because I want to be outside taking advantage of good weather.<br /><br />It's true that working the different muscles has a great deal of benefit to your overall fitness and keeping injuries away. The comment someone made about rowing & lifting helping you to look good naked is true - provided that you watch your diet as well! There's nothing like weight training to really change the look of your body, and it complements the cardio work.<br /> <br />I personally believe that any cross-training helps to keep motivation levels high. But I agree that low weights/ high reps is a bit of a waste of time - to see a real change in your body, you need to WORK the muscles really hard, not just "go through the motions". Choose one muscle group to hit especially hard one day, then switch to another muscle group on another day, keeping the rest of that day's routine more moderate. Rotate around your body, but work your abs <i>every day</i>! <br /><br />

[[old] gaffano]

Diesel....was wondering how you determined that "Nothing shapes you up faster than the combo of rowing and lifting."? <br /><br />Not critical, just curious. In terms of the cardio, why rowing as opposed to running, biking, cross country sking, etc? <br /><br /><br /><br />

[[old] Carl Henrik]

Judging from your goals you should definitely do weights as well as rowing. Especially benchpress. If you don't like to do much more, throw in deadlift and front squats. These will keep the growth hormones flowing and keep the whole body muscular and strong in a general aspect.