Concept2 Forum

Hi All

Apologies for yet another newbie thread…I have my C2 on order and its arriving Thursday! I’ve come up with a beginner’s plan of sorts…but would appreciate any feedback from more experienced rowers.

I am a pretty unfit 43 yr old, I work in an office all day and weighed 250 pounds in July, since then I have been doing the “couch to 5k” running programme and while I have 2 weeks left I cracked the 5k last week. This has increased my fitness and helped with the weight loss and I am now at 225 pounds.

My aim was to mix up the running and rowing, moving more onto the rowing and maybe running just once or twice a week, and rowing maybe 2-3 times a week.

Bar a couple of sessions in the gym on holiday I have never rowed before….so what's the best way to start? Here's my plan..is this a reasonable way to get into rowing on the C2?

Set up drag factor to 115-130

• Week 1-2, purely focus on technique not worrying about anything else
  Week 3-4 start to get into it maybe couple of 2-5k’s depending on how its going
  Week 4 onward maybe look at a beginners plan eg Pete’s plan

I would like to get into good habit’s early, I was thinking of trying to get into a rhythm of 24 spm…what should a guy in my shape be aiming for?

Any help appreciated

Thanks

First, congratulations on changing your life and becoming more fit Well done!

Another newbie here. I spent two weeks focusing on technique. There are several great videos online that can help you with that. I particularly like the Dark Horse and RVA Performance videos. The pick drill was especially useful for me.

Seems to me you have a sound plan. Personally, I'm using the British Rowing beginner plan but I'm not in as a good shape as you and I prefer to start slow.

All the best

The beginners Pete or the British Rowing beginners are fine though for a real newbie you still need to ease into it.
there is a mountain of good advice here on this Forum if you search including a lot of technique info and links
This thread was a good one and looks at some of the simple things to get right
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=185257

best of luck - it is a lot of fun and can be life changing

Best of luck with it. For stroke rates, try and get used to r18-r30 as they are all necessary in certain sessions, and mastering all rates is a great way of building your fitness.

If you struggle with r28/30 just do it in small bursts of 50-100m and build up. Your breathing sequence may be your limiting factor to start with as it's generally easier to breathe at lower rates.

Vanguard wrote: ↑

September 23rd, 2019, 5:38 am

Hi All

Apologies for yet another newbie thread…I have my C2 on order and its arriving Thursday! I’ve come up with a beginner’s plan of sorts…but would appreciate any feedback from more experienced rowers.

I am a pretty unfit 43 yr old, I work in an office all day and weighed 250 pounds in July, since then I have been doing the “couch to 5k” running programme and while I have 2 weeks left I cracked the 5k last week. This has increased my fitness and helped with the weight loss and I am now at 225 pounds.

My aim was to mix up the running and rowing, moving more onto the rowing and maybe running just once or twice a week, and rowing maybe 2-3 times a week.

Bar a couple of sessions in the gym on holiday I have never rowed before….so what's the best way to start? Here's my plan..is this a reasonable way to get into rowing on the C2?

Set up drag factor to 115-130

• Week 1-2, purely focus on technique not worrying about anything else
  Week 3-4 start to get into it maybe couple of 2-5k’s depending on how its going
  Week 4 onward maybe look at a beginners plan eg Pete’s plan

I would like to get into good habit’s early, I was thinking of trying to get into a rhythm of 24 spm…what should a guy in my shape be aiming for?

Any help appreciated

Thanks

Welcome,

No need for apologies, we were all newbies at one time. I like to see threads like this tbh, it takes me back to when i was starting out in similar circumstances and came here for some good guidance.

I recommend you looking at concept 2 workouts of the day, these are a great way to become accustomed to the machine and gets you familiar with all the various stuff you can setup in the monitor. It also gets you doing various SPM ratings with rate ladder work etc etc. You could start with the short ones, or if you feel up to it maybe the mediums to get your fitness going. Don't race though, this is a mistake many newbs make and it's wrong... training should never be raced Row at a speed that feels like you are working, but not so that you're breathing too heavy. Also, i would suggest you working on your technique a lot, there are many videos on youtube to help with that if necessary.

Some stuff you seem to have a grasp of already which is a good sign!!! Setting up the DF 115-130 is fine and rowing at 24spm would work fine too in these early phases.

Have fun.

whats the best way to start?

Push with the legs and pull the handle? Sorry.

I think it also depends on your personality. It seems joining a group for the running was really helpful for you, finding something similar for rowing may also be helpful. After you get a foundation of fitness and technique joining one of these teams may help keep you motivated http://c2ctc.com/ Just be prepared to limp along in a 'slow boat' for a while and to be astounded by the times others post!

I had rowed 5k's regularly as a warm up at the gym in my 20's and 30's, but looking back my technique was really bad... good technique will make your times faster and will also help to avoid injury as you move toward pb attempts. For me, pb attempts often simply emerge from poor self control and my mind getting soft as I get riled up during a row lol. The monitor has a funny way of getting me hyper focused on the seconds ticking by and how fast I can go Like a previous poster mentioned, leave the PB attempts for a month or two -- after that they start to form a really good benchmark to work from. Also, as that poster mentioned, PB attempts are an occasional thing not the way to train daily.

Hi All

Many thanks for the advice, a lot of useful info. Once my machine arrives (which should hopefully be tommorow), I’ll look into joining one of the teams...