Concept2 Forum

I see a lot of words on this page that I don't quite understand such as erg, what is that anyways? I just went and picked up a used rower (in good shape) the one with the fan in the front. The monitor on it is kind of on the blink and all that displays is how many strokes I have made and how many miles I have rowed. I am a 31 year old female that has been overweight for about seven years, by fifty pounds. My weight over these past seven years has differed one way or the other by about ten pounds. Anyways my problem is this.... I have rowed, and rowed, and rowed some more. About 40 miles worth of rowing over the past three weeks. I have not increased my caloric intake at all but instead have started slimming down portions a bit, not by much but still... I remain 170. How in the world can one row daily, and I mean everyday, forty miles in total over the three weeks and still not manage to lose a pound? What gives? I am getting kind of discouraged. I have lost a half inch here and an inch there, but no weight. I understand that in the beginning there will be muscle gain (which weighs more than fat), especially since I have been so sedentary over the past seven years, but how much muscle gain can there be, for how long before I might lose one darned pound. Does anyone out there have words of encouragement? Or perhaps something that can be said that may help my situation? Well, if you made it to the bottom of this post, thank you so much for your time. Looking forward to hearing from someone that may be able to help. I am just so tired of being overweight and have read from numerous sites that rowing is supposed to be the ultimate exercise for your body and to help aid in weight loss. By the way just in case it matters I have about 11,000 strokes recorded so far.

First of all, welcome to the world of rowing or erging. ERG is short for Ergometer - a machine for measuring work.

I understand your frustration, but I'll bet that 50 lbs you want to lose was not put on in a short period of time. I started some 10 months ago and I've lost 20 lbs (put 5 back on over xmas) having just completed a million meters - that's 620+ miles. Now I am much fitter and I do fit into my clothes much better, but like you, I wish the lbs would fall off easier - but there's no easy solution here. We have to keep working at it.

I know you will get lots of encouragement here, so stay with it. Apparently 1 pound per week is about what you can expect over the long term.

I had quite a bit of success with this weight loss program - see here on the UK site:

http://www.concept2.co.uk/weightloss/interactive.php

I would suggest you post some further details: you height might help and how long are you rowing in any particular session.
Also post what pace are you rowing? and your strokes per minute (SPM) and what number is your damper set to...that's the moveable arm on the fan.

Good luck Brian

I'll add my experience to the mix, for what it's worth. I'm currently working to lose a bit of weight before motorcycle riding season. So far, so good... I've managed to drop 4.6 lbs in the past two weeks, because:

- I've rowed 158,800 meters (about 98 miles--but you'll generally hear meters instead of miles on this site) since Jan 1, averaging a little over 11K meters (about 7 miles) per day, broken into a morning and evening session.

- I've RELIGIOUSLY tracked everything I eat or drink, and I've kept my daily calorie total between 1500 & 2000.

- I walk, at haul-ass pace, at least half an hour every weekday (15 minute commute to/from work).

Losing more than 2lb/week isn't a sustainable groove for me, but for now it's a welcome side effect of the extra rowing I'm doing for the January Virtual Team Challenge. I purposely chose an eating routine I'll be able to stick to for the long haul, and one that will still allow me to lose weight, though much more slowly, once I drop my daily meter total down to a more moderate level after the Challenge is done. I'd like to sustain 5K/day through the end of 2009.

OK, that's my story. Given that you're averaging about 3K/day, and haven't cut your intake much, I'm not surprised you haven't seen the scale change in three weeks. It's really hard to get those numbers moving in the right direction!

I see a lot of words on this page that I don't quite understand such as erg, what is that anyways? I just went and picked up a used rower (in good shape) the one with the fan in the front. The monitor on it is kind of on the blink and all that displays is how many strokes I have made and how many miles I have rowed. I am a 31 year old female that has been overweight for about seven years, by fifty pounds. My weight over these past seven years has differed one way or the other by about ten pounds. Anyways my problem is this.... I have rowed, and rowed, and rowed some more. About 40 miles worth of rowing over the past three weeks. I have not increased my caloric intake at all but instead have started slimming down portions a bit, not by much but still... I remain 170. How in the world can one row daily, and I mean everyday, forty miles in total over the three weeks and still not manage to lose a pound? What gives? I am getting kind of discouraged. I have lost a half inch here and an inch there, but no weight. I understand that in the beginning there will be muscle gain (which weighs more than fat), especially since I have been so sedentary over the past seven years, but how much muscle gain can there be, for how long before I might lose one darned pound. Does anyone out there have words of encouragement? Or perhaps something that can be said that may help my situation? Well, if you made it to the bottom of this post, thank you so much for your time. Looking forward to hearing from someone that may be able to help. I am just so tired of being overweight and have read from numerous sites that rowing is supposed to be the ultimate exercise for your body and to help aid in weight loss. By the way just in case it matters I have about 11,000 strokes recorded so far.

First of all, you don't say what kind of rower that you are using. There are many that have a fan on the front. The fact that the one you describe displays miles and strokes suggests that you do not have an indoor rower made by Concept 2, the basis of this forum. The Concept indoor rowers display a number of different items, but not the number of strokes (I wish that they did). Also, they display meters, not miles, although that may be an option of which I am not aware. You can still get good advice here and are welcome to it, but it is difficult to judge your performance if it is being done on a different make of rower.

Note that 40 miles in three weeks is not really a lot of exercise. At least it would not be considered to be much on one of the C2 machines. That is about 64 km total, or less than 22,000 meters a week - not a very heavy work schedule.

I don't have any experience with working on weight loss, but I have seen a lot of messages on this forum that indicate that it is normal to have no loss of weight in the first three weeks. It also seems to be normal to have weight shifts in that initial period that indicate muscle gain and fat loss.

Another item is that your message does not indicate the intensity of your workout. The distance alone does not really tell the story. There is probably not going to be much weight loss unless you are working fairly hard at it. If you are not sweating freely by the end of each session, you are not working hard enough.

Bob S.

You should be aiming for an hour or more of vigorous aerobic activity a day, and second, count calories. Daily caloric intake depends a lot on your size, weight loss goals, and how many calories you are burning in exercise each day. You need to find the number that doesn't leave you hungry, but still leaves you with a calorie deficit at the end of each day. 3500 calories equals a pound.

I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to respond to my posting. I was so frustrated with my lack of progress that I didn't even notice that this was a forum for individuals using the concept 2 rower. In answer to some of the questions asked the model I am currently using is the Stamina 1400 air rower. I am 5 3" in height (which I think makes me look pretty round, as many people joke telling me that I am short). As if its not attention grabbing enough that I am an Irish redhead with green eyes. I have spent most of my life slim so it has been especially difficult for me these past seven years being overweight. The input I received from your responses was very supportive, as well as sobering. I think that I was expecting instant gratification, and became distraught when it did not occur. It was a good point that I did put this weight on slowly, and therefore need to be more patient in the process of taking it off. Also I have been rowing three to four times a day for 15 to 25 minutes (probably a large part of my problem) I am guessing that I need to buckle down and go in for the long hall starting at a forty five minute goal in one sitting. I do not know if the fan on my rower can be adjusted one way or the other, but I am about to go check it out and see if I can find anything on it that looks as though it can be adjusted. Currently it seems the faster I try to row the more tension there is which makes it a little difficult for me seeing as I am new to rowing. I will keep pushing and try to pick up the speed. I seem to be averaging out at 22 strokes per minute which I am guessing is a turtles pace in comparison to most rowers here. I am curious what the average stroke per minute is for most people rowing. Anyways, thank you again everyone for your support and advice I have found it to be most helpful. Also, I weighed in at a pound and a half less this morning (yea!!!!) But will keep in mind that weight can fluctuate and that I need to quit fooling around and get busy if I want to see real permanent results. God Bless, Dawn Marie

Hi Dawn,

I read your posting and good luck in your pursuit of the new(old) you. I am new to erging as well, but have learned that increasing your strokes per minute (SPM) is not really the goal. From reading many treads in this Forum, I have learned that keeping your SPM under 25 seems, to be preferred for training. There is really no need to pull faster and faster. Rather the goal is to pull harder and concentrate on the proper form. I find it's easier to pull harder, and really get my legs driving, when I go slower. At least with the Concept 2, I'm not sure about your unit, you can row more meters in a given amount of time, by pulling harder and slower than easier and faster. When it comes to racing though, the goal is harder and faster.
Also, I think 45 minutes is overlly ambitious and will burn you out big time. If you can row for 25 minutes solid, you go girl. You should be totally pitted out (women refer to it as "glowing" I think) if you are doing everything right. Many threads also discuss varying your rowing from a shorter series of splits going full out, to longer rows. This keeps your body quessing, as I undertand the body won't respond as efficiently if you always row the same set each time.
That's my two cents. What do you think?

Stu

dawnmarie1978 wrote:
In answer to some of the questions asked the model I am currently using is the Stamina 1400 air rower.
God Bless, Dawn Marie

I checked that one out on the net, and it appears to be a light weight version of the old Concept 2 model B with its open cage. I couldn't see any sort of damper setting on it. At that price, it is my guess that it doesn't have one. Damping can be achieved by simply blocking off part of the cage, but there would be no point in doing that unless you felt that you wanted a lighter feel to the pull. Not knowing anything about the monitor, I can't tell what this might do to the readings. The C2 monitor automatically adjusts its output report to account for any change in the amount of damping.

There doesn't appear to be any correlation of Stamina and C2 monitors, so it is difficult for members of this forum to get a good idea of how hard you are really working. The one thing that you can count on is what I mentioned before is that you should end up sweating fairly freely — just as Stuminator implied in an other response.

As far as the time of the workout is concerned, that is an item that has been argued back and forth ad nauseum on this forum for as long as I can remember. I personally prefer long workouts, like 40 minutes or more at a moderate intensity. Another item is the importance of warming up and cooling down. My own favorite workout is 40 minutes continuous, starting out with 10 minutes of stepwise increasing stroke rate and intensity, 20 minutes of steady state at moderate rate and intensity, and 10 minutes decreasing each at about the same values as the initial 10 minutes of warmup. For longer sessions, I do more or less the same warmup and cooldown, but increase the time spent on the steady state middle portion. For competitions, it is important to get in some high rate and high intensity workouts, like intervals, but I don't see any need for this for conditioning and weight loss.

Bob S.

Stuminator wrote:You should be totally pitted out (women refer to it as "glowing" I think)...

Nah, we say pitted out, too.