Rowing As A Complete Exercise

[[old] jarnryd]

Hello,<br /><br />I am an active soccer player (age 41) and I have just started rowing as a way to cross-train during the winter to get ready for the Spring season. I know next to nothing about rowing. <br /><br />My basic question is how complete is rowing as a full body workout? Are there major muscle groups that are under-challenged? If my objective is both cardio and a good full body workout, is rowing enough or are there other supplemental exercises you would recommend?

[[old] jamesg]

If you pull a long hard and technically efficient stroke, erging and rowing or sculling are about as effective as they come, for full body action and extension. No impact either, and the read-out, at least for Watts, is 100% honest so you know what you've done. No idea what other exercises might be useful from a rational muscle-group analysis point of view, but I'd always stick in some freestyle, maybe 3km 2-3 times a week, because it twists the back.<br />There's a thread that no doubt you've seen that compares eliptical to erg.

[[old] andyArvid]

I've been rowing for 2 1/2 years now and used to do a fair amount of running (and still hope too). I play soccer every Saturday here in Brazil (when in Rome do as the romans). The extra upper body strength is great when going shoulder to shoulder. My only problem has been the last 5 months I have experienced several calf pulls in both legs. One in the right and 3 times in the left (all while playing soccer). When I experienced the first pull, I had been erging everyday and running 2-3 times a week. Today I went running after rowing for the first time (60 minutes on the erg, 10 minutes rowing). I hope to be able to run during my xmas trip to the states.<br /><br />So I would add some lower calf work (perhaps weights, but I don't do weights) or maybe some running 2 times a week.<br /><br />andy

[[old] remador]

jarnryd,<br /><br />Erging/rowing is a complete sport, that will provide you with i) a whole body workout; ii) an enormous stamina.<br /><br />So if you are looking for strength, muscular endurance, aerobic and anaerobic (sprint) capacity that may help your soccer training, I'm sure you've chosen the right thing. And, despite erging being a full-body workout, you may be sure that you lower back and your legs (very useful for soccer) will be strong as steel.<br /><br />AM

[[old] gw1]

If you are going to continue playing soccer you should continue running also, as well as multi directional cone drills. Rowing is a great total body exercise, however soccer movement patterns should be part of your soccer specific conditioning.<br /><br />GW

[[old] akit110]

Rowing works most of the major muscle groups but the muscles used in the drive portion of the stroke are taxed much more than those used in the recovery. <br /><br />I am sure someone with a better background in exercise kinesiology will come along and answer this in greater depth but muscle groups which I think could benefit from supplemental exercise would be mainly the pushing muscles of the upper body (chest, front deltoids, triceps), the 'pulling' muscles of the legs (hamstrings), and calves. If you do push-ups and do some sort of running, these muscle groups would be 'covered' from a general fitness point of view. <br /><br />Of course, since periods of fast running interspersed with periods of rest are essential to soccer, I would think some sort of interval training on a track might be more sport-specific than rowing to your sport.

[[old] remador]

akit110,<br /><br />Yes, in erging, the muscles used during the recovery are less taxed; however, your triceps, for example, are contracting isometrically during the drive (like in a pull-over), as well as your pec's. Moerover, in rowing (water), they will get even a more complete workout, not only during the drive itself, but during the recovery as well, as the oars are heavier than the c2 handle and, frequently, you will have to row against the wind. Besides, you can allways row backwards, which is very, very good, but you can't do it in an erg. <br /><br />OTOH, your hamstrings work <i>very</i> hard, both during the drive (hip extension), and, if you row/erg with proper technique, during the recovery - it's the hamstrings that take you to the catch position.<br /><br />AM

[[old] MarcusLL]

I think most muscleheads would agree that the vast majority of the skeletal muscle in the body was designed to do one of three things: push your ankles away from your hips, pull your hands away from your shoulders, and pull your hands towards your shoulders - in this context, rowing is missing an upper body push. <br /><br />If you were simply interested in total body conditioning (as opposed to weight-lifting type strength), I'd say adding 45 degree incline dumbell presses a couple of times a week after your rowing would round things off fairly efficiently. (Of course you could do all manner of pressing movements, but that's probably what I'd choose if I could only do one.)

[[old] MarcusLL]

I agree with Remador that your triceps contract isometrically in a pull-over, I don't think that they could (or should anyway) in the drive part of a rowing stroke though. <br /><br />Contracting isometrically implies that they're having to make an effort but don't actually move. I don't think you should be having to make a muscular effort to keep your arms straight in the drive - all the forces your legs, back, and that the machine are providing are ones tending to keep your arms straight! I don't think there's anything to contract _against_.

[[old] remador]

MarculLL,<br /><br />They really contract. Try the following: ask someone with good technique (aomeone who does not catch with bent arms) to row and, during the first phase of the drive, put your hand in his arm. You will feel what I am talking about. That's "empirical evidence" of what I am saying. <br />AM

[[old] Xeno]

<!--QuoteBegin-jarnryd+Dec 11 2005, 10:36 AM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(jarnryd @ Dec 11 2005, 10:36 AM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Hello,<br /><br />I am an active soccer player (age 41) and I have just started rowing as a way to cross-train during the winter to get ready for the Spring season.  I know next to nothing about rowing.  <br /><br />My basic question is how complete is rowing as a full body workout?  Are there major muscle groups that are under-challenged?  If my objective is both cardio and a good full body workout, is rowing enough or are there other supplemental exercises you would recommend? <br /> </td></tr></table><br />Hi<br />In rowing, it is very important to keep the hip flexors well stretched. Most rowers have short hip flexors and this leads to chronic "back" tightness. So in addition to rowing, make sure that you stretch those muscles. Rowers do not have large pectoral muscles.<br />I hope this helps further.<br />XENO

[[old] remador]

If you think about the drive, when you start opening your back, you make something similar to a pullover, contracting both your triceps and lats.<br /><br />AM

[[old] hjs]

On the erg you don,t have to use your hamstrings much(back of the legs).<br />You don't use you abs much.<br />The triceps (back off the arms) don't do much<br />And also your chest and shoulders don't do much. This with exception of the back off the shoulders.<br />So although rowing is a very nice way to work out. Its not a full body work out.<br />You need extra work fot that.<br /><br />I would advice to do some extra ab work and some push excercises. And do something for the hamstrings. Don't overdo it though.

[[old] MarcusLL]

Ok, a little experimentation at my desk, and I take your point that they do contract a little, but I'm sure you'd agree that there's a big difference between the triceps' involvement in a pull-over (where they can be often actually be the limiting factor - ie you can't use any more weight without getting your face squashed by the weight), and their involvement in rowing - I mean no one ever quit a race saying 'I can't go on - my triceps are knackered!', right?<br /><br />Silly example: if your tricep muscles were somehow severed, I'd have thought you could still do the drive part of a stroke couldn't you? (I agree you couldn't do the recovery . . .)<br /><br />I'd distinguish the rowing drive and the pull-over in that in a pull-over your triceps *have* to contract, whereas even if they do contract for some reason in the drive of a row - surely they're not actually performing any useful function by so doing?

[[old] remador]

Sorry, hjs, but I cannot agree.<br /><br />Your ab's work <i>a lot</i> during rowing. At the end of each drive, it's your abdominal muscles that stop much of your body's inertia and start to move you forward, along with some of your leg muscles. This is a <i>major</i> ab workout. Not to mention that some studies pointed out that your lower abdominal musculature is worked in such a way in rowing that most women who practiced it have their work as preagnants made quite easy.<br /><br />OTOH, erging is not as complete as rowing: in a sculling boat, for example, you will work your shouldes much more than in an ergometer, mostly because of the hard catch and because you pull in an arch.<br /><br />Finally, how do you think you go to the catch position without your hamstrings? Never felt them burning after a strong start?<br /><br />AM