Concept2 Forum

what if we quit weight lifting and go on with concept 2 rowing and bodyweight exercises like pull ups, push ups. after 40 years old age.

thanks

Ideally you should do both, but going purely rowing, its likely you will lose some of your muscle mass but gain some aerobic capacity. Not to different from a weight trainer switching to bicycling or running, except rowing would probably preserve some muscle size in your upper body compared to those two sports.

Your results might vary with what type of rowing you do: anaerobic high intensity interval training (ex: 8x500M/2'rest), or a low stroke per minute 30 minute grey zone slog to build your force curve strength (ex: 30'R20), or an aerobic long slow easy distance steady state (ex: 90'R20).

There are quite a lot of benefits of just bodyweight exercises if you plan it properly, and use slower movements. I hardly do any weight lifting now.

You will be in good shape to progress on with rowing but what you will find initially is that your cardio system falls over. You can have a lot of strength but very little endurance. Weight lifting is short duration high intensity and you don't lift weights for minutes to 30 minutes non stop. You will currently have a really good 500m time but the wheels will fall off for a 2000m.

3 to 6 months of training on the rower will give you good performance gains. Pretty much had all my PB's in my early 40's of course its all relative as my PB's would have been much better in my 20's and 30's but I did not get serious on the rower until my late 30's.

Good luck and post some results of your progress.

shevchenko wrote: ↑

September 12th, 2020, 12:44 pm

what if we quit weight lifting and go on with concept 2 rowing and bodyweight exercises like pull ups, push ups. after 40 years old age. thanks

IMO you should not stop weights ever - muscle mass becomes more important as you age, not less. Strong people with muscles live longer healthier lives so do both. If you are seriously training on the erg for racing then some weight training is useful too - both to complement/strengthen the muscles you use on the erg and to balance the muscles you don't use so much (such as chest and biceps).

shevchenko wrote: ↑

September 12th, 2020, 12:44 pm

what if we quit weight lifting and go on with concept 2 rowing and bodyweight exercises like pull ups, push ups. after 40 years old age.

thanks

Could work, maybe buy a few extra things for home. You can,t stay super strong, if you are, but after 40 training really hard becomes tough. Focus on keeping what you have and staying injury free becomes more and more important.
Pull ups, pushups, maybe with some extra weight, 1 legged work, otherwise bodyweight is not enough. Overhead stuff is a bit difficult.

thank you all for replies

i don't have enough energy to set dumbbells for every set as I was 20s 30s .
I think I ll sell my bench and adjustable dumbbells . and I ll do 2 times a week rowing. and 3 times bodyweight exercises. 20 lbs sandbag and trx exercises.

lindsayh wrote: ↑

September 13th, 2020, 1:01 am

shevchenko wrote: ↑

September 12th, 2020, 12:44 pm

what if we quit weight lifting and go on with concept 2 rowing and bodyweight exercises like pull ups, push ups. after 40 years old age. thanks

IMO you should not stop weights ever - muscle mass becomes more important as you age, not less. Strong people with muscles live longer healthier lives so do both. If you are seriously training on the erg for racing then some weight training is useful too - both to complement/strengthen the muscles you use on the erg and to balance the muscles you don't use so much (such as chest and biceps).

This is very true. Sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass) naturally occurs as we age. We must fight this tendency if we want to live longer, healthier and more physically able lives. The only way to fight this is with weight training. Resist the urge to stop. It's also never to early or late in life to start. Three simple compound exercises are all you need: Deadlift, Squats and Bench press. Throw in some pull ups and overhead press if you can (but not necessary).

shevchenko wrote: ↑

September 13th, 2020, 5:19 am

thank you all for replies

i don't have enough energy to set dumbbells for every set as I was 20s 30s .
I think I ll sell my bench and adjustable dumbbells . and I ll do 2 times a week rowing. and 3 times bodyweight exercises. 20 lbs sandbag and trx exercises.

Resist the urge. Funny, but with my gym closed, I'm now buying a bench and more dumbells.

mitchel674 wrote: ↑

September 13th, 2020, 7:50 am

shevchenko wrote: ↑

September 13th, 2020, 5:19 am

thank you all for replies

i don't have enough energy to set dumbbells for every set as I was 20s 30s .
I think I ll sell my bench and adjustable dumbbells . and I ll do 2 times a week rowing. and 3 times bodyweight exercises. 20 lbs sandbag and trx exercises.

Resist the urge. Funny, but with my gym closed, I'm now buying a bench and more dumbells.

thanks for advice. I ll give a chance

lindsayh wrote: ↑

September 13th, 2020, 1:01 am

shevchenko wrote: ↑

September 12th, 2020, 12:44 pm

what if we quit weight lifting and go on with concept 2 rowing and bodyweight exercises like pull ups, push ups. after 40 years old age. thanks

IMO you should not stop weights ever - muscle mass becomes more important as you age, not less. Strong people with muscles live longer healthier lives so do both. If you are seriously training on the erg for racing then some weight training is useful too - both to complement/strengthen the muscles you use on the erg and to balance the muscles you don't use so much (such as chest and biceps).

I wish this was put in everyone’s mailbox. It’s like vegetables and sunshine. We need to stay strong. Unfortunately many haven’t grown up with weight training, or think it’s about body building. But let’s face it, if we aren’t getting stronger, we are getting weaker. And being strong will help us remain upright and vital. To me, in the end, it’s more important than being an amazing endurance athlete. We really don’t need the high volumes of aerobic work we all strive for, but eventually, we will need to be able to get up off the floor

I've been rowing for weight loss since April. It has been super effective and I'm planning to hit 5m meters over the next 100 days.

I think its been successful in ironing out any imbalance of strength so my arms initially were tiring way before my legs and my abdominal strength has improved.

I am just about to add in some very moderate weight bearing exercises so lunges / step ups / suspension training as I feel my endurance has really improved but my strength is down.

Its also been brilliant for cardio training. I am only training at 107bpm but I've noticed that my splits for this heart rate are a lot better and I'd say from 2 min splits to 2.40m splits - i am 20 bpm per minute better.

I think the success you have will depend on your goals you are targeting and how much time you have available. I think it would be risky to train for power on an ERG because the speed of the stroke needs to be quite quick for more power and I'd say that there is a limit here and risk of injury would be heightened.

I think its an essential part of my fitness toolkit but not as a standalone item.

Well, like others have said if you can don't completely give up weights. At 52 I have went from doing nothing but weights for decades to CrossFit to a combo of it all to now where I mostly row but get in 2 weight/CF sessions a week. I find I can keep most my strength and muscle mass with this and still improve cardio a lot. I use bodyweight movements on weight training days quite often and they can work but some basic weight movements still seem best but....I never really max out any more.

mitchel674 wrote: ↑

September 13th, 2020, 7:48 am

lindsayh wrote: ↑

September 13th, 2020, 1:01 am

shevchenko wrote: ↑

September 12th, 2020, 12:44 pm

what if we quit weight lifting and go on with concept 2 rowing and bodyweight exercises like pull ups, push ups. after 40 years old age. thanks

IMO you should not stop weights ever - muscle mass becomes more important as you age, not less. Strong people with muscles live longer healthier lives so do both. If you are seriously training on the erg for racing then some weight training is useful too - both to complement/strengthen the muscles you use on the erg and to balance the muscles you don't use so much (such as chest and biceps).

This is very true. Sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass) naturally occurs as we age. We must fight this tendency if we want to live longer, healthier and more physically able lives. The only way to fight this is with weight training. Resist the urge to stop. It's also never to early or late in life to start. Three simple compound exercises are all you need: Deadlift, Squats and Bench press. Throw in some pull ups and overhead press if you can (but not necessary).

Any link to research that shows exactly what is required to meet the standard for "weight training"? I'm pretty sure it's not doing 3 sets of 5 squats/press/deadlift and actually getting strong. If it's just aimlessly moving around some dumbells or machines (ie, what 95% of the "weight lifting" population does) then how is that different than erging (or any cardio with reasonable resistance)? I'm pretty sure you're not going to get weak with regular erging...

gisborne wrote: ↑

September 14th, 2020, 9:03 pm

mitchel674 wrote: ↑

September 13th, 2020, 7:48 am

lindsayh wrote: ↑

September 13th, 2020, 1:01 am

IMO you should not stop weights ever - muscle mass becomes more important as you age, not less. Strong people with muscles live longer healthier lives so do both. If you are seriously training on the erg for racing then some weight training is useful too - both to complement/strengthen the muscles you use on the erg and to balance the muscles you don't use so much (such as chest and biceps).

This is very true. Sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass) naturally occurs as we age. We must fight this tendency if we want to live longer, healthier and more physically able lives. The only way to fight this is with weight training. Resist the urge to stop. It's also never to early or late in life to start. Three simple compound exercises are all you need: Deadlift, Squats and Bench press. Throw in some pull ups and overhead press if you can (but not necessary).

Any link to research that shows exactly what is required to meet the standard for "weight training"? I'm pretty sure it's not doing 3 sets of 5 squats/press/deadlift and actually getting strong. If it's just aimlessly moving around some dumbells or machines (ie, what 95% of the "weight lifting" population does) then how is that different than erging (or any cardio with reasonable resistance)? I'm pretty sure you're not going to get weak with regular erging...

Just IMO - but I think ‘weight training’ is the wrong term. It should be ‘strength training’ I.e. training that either makes you stronger, or maintains sufficient strength to function well.
A simple example being sustaining sufficient leg strength to stand from a sitting position without using your arms or other assistance. You don’t need to train with weights to achieve that. ‘Aimlessly moving dumbbells or machines’ won’t do a lot for sports specific strength or to make you massively strong but it will maintain more strength in an ageing person than sitting for 12 hours a day who classes their exercise as a five minute stroll around the block.