Concept2 Forum

Hi all, thanks everyone for the great advice here. I have been lurking a while reading, I thought I should pop in and ask for some advice.

I am 35 years 6'4, 200 pounds. I put on 30 pounds after stopped exercising, due to 4 hour commute per day, marriage, baby (I am running out of excuses...). I used to do 20-25 hours of training (basketball and weights plus college rowing at Cambridge), always athletic, huge appetite but always burned it off. After stopped exercising (maybe 3-4 hours per week), appetite stayed the same, so weight piled up...

I am a OK rower, I did below 7min in my mid 20s but now I do 7:40... I have been using rowing as my main exercise due to bad knees (blown ACL playing basketball), so low impact is great. I am currently using the Interactive program, but most times I just do long steady state of 1h @ 18spm due to the calorie and fat burn. I can't do too high intensity stuff as my knee bothers me.

I also fancy rowing on the river again. I want to keep the steady state and add weights, do 3 maybe 4 sessions per week. Now... my question is, do I first lift and then row or the other way around? Apologies for the long intro for a simple question, I just thought to introduce myself.

Many thanks in advance.

Fusiform...

You'll probably get a variety of answers. Different strokes for different folks. But most trainers and exercise physios say it depends on your goal.

If you want to lose weight more than build strength row first--especially interval type sets versus long and slow. Not really THAT much difference in calories of fat burn between the two, just longer to get to the fat burn point in the later. Body burns glycogen first until its all gone then works on the fat. You use itup glycogen faster via intervals than long slow. But long slow is good for endurance and heart health. On th eother hand, if you want to get stronger while losing the fat, do weights first. Any cardio first will tire you and could lead to injuries or even less of a weight work out. Do be sure to warm up properly before hitting the weights or hitting the erg hard. Best getting back into fighting form.

Welcome to the forum! Earlier this year we were exactly the same height, weight, age, and 2k time! What are the chances of that? Seriously. I erged a 7:39.9 2k in February before joining a local rowing club. I’m now down to 190 and grew an inch (okay, I was always 6’5”, but we’re still amazingly similar). I have no idea what my 2k is now, but I did also start lifting weights 8 weeks ago.

Take a look at these two articles over at Sportlyzer Academy:
‘Strength and conditioning practices in rowing’ https://academy.sportlyzer.com/rowing-r ... in-rowing/
‘Strength Training Before 2000 m Rowing Performance?’ https://academy.sportlyzer.com/rowing-r ... rformance/

They tell us that strength training is a common component of a rower’s training program. I state this just to make it clear that you aren’t treading new ground here.

They also tell us that your strength training could be done in such a way as to not have a major impact on your rowing.

There are a lot of details missing, but these were the best articles I could find. I feel like the type of rowing you are going to be doing isn’t going to be compromised by any strength training. I don’t think lifting before you row would undermine your rowing. I also don’t think rowing before you lift would undermine your lifting.

I lift 5 or so hours before my steady state rows. I don’t have any problems. However, I’m not doing any really hard intervals (ex: L1 or L2 to borrow some Wolverine Plan terminology). If I was, I'd do the L1 right before any leg work. I'd probably want my back lifts to be the second farthest away from an L1 and possibly right after an L2.

@Tabbrows.

Many thanks for the advice. As I said I would rather not do much high interval stuff until my legs get quite a bit stronger, as my knee bothers me. I do like HIIT though, once I get my legs back I will go for it. I prefer it to LISS...

@Quatroux Thanks, very informative. I was just wondering what coaches are doing in training when everything has to be done in one session. As far as I know from Cambridge training, water work, weights and erg was done in different sessions (usually in that order during the day). Thank you for the Wolverine Plan suggestion, it looks quite interesting and probably will follow it!

To be fair I am still a bit confused what my goal is. I do want to loose the weight, but at the same time I am getting the rowing bug. I rowed last summer after 7 years, did amazing in City bumps (Blades!!) and now I miss it. So as I see it, I probably would go for a performance-specific plan, rather than just loosing weight. I want to invest at least 6 months in serious training, 4-5 two-hour sessions per week. So not sure how to go about out.

Any ideas greatly appreciated.


Any ideas much appreciated.

I recently added Concept 2 to my regular regimen and have begun using it as a warmup prior to my weight workout. I row for 10 minutes to get warm then lift weights for 45-60 minutes. The 10 minute row allows me to work on my 2k times, but I save heavy rows for days when I am not lifting.

When I did strength training, I usually did a fletcher style warmup first (about 5k), and then did my weight session, then did a 2k cool down on the erg.

I lifted 3x per week and did mostly steady state session on off days, with one complete rest day. At 50, I felt like I needed to take it a bit slower to give myself more recovery from the strength training sessions.