Ergs with Weightlifting (not weight training) or Powerliftin

[Jack S.]

As I age (almost 47) I'm thinking about getting an erg for health benefits. My exercise for the last year has been trying to learn how to Weightlift. How much do you think rowing 3 to 5 times per week will effect my Weightlifting?

As a side, which would benefit indoor rowing more, Weightlifting or Powerlifting? How much would indoor rowing effect Powerlifting 3x weekly?

Thanks,
Jack

[Dreadnought]

As I age (almost 47) I'm thinking about getting an erg for health benefits. My exercise for the last year has been trying to learn how to Weightlift. How much do you think rowing 3 to 5 times per week will effect my Weightlifting?

As a side, which would benefit indoor rowing more, Weightlifting or Powerlifting? How much would indoor rowing effect Powerlifting 3x weekly?

Thanks,
Jack

I don't know for sure, but here are my thoughts.

Powerlifting: the deadlift is closest to rowing. The benchpress would be of no benefit.

Olympic lifting: the power clean may be related, but it is a jerkyer movement. The overhead jerk would not be of benefit to rowing.

[TomR]

here's some information on rowing and lifting:

http://home.hia.no/~stephens/rowstre.htm

also lots of other info on endurance training and rowing.

[Dreadnought]

here's some information on rowing and lifting:

http://home.hia.no/~stephens/rowstre.htm

also lots of other info on endurance training and rowing.

I've seen that article before. I don't understand the reason for one-leg squats or stright-leg deadlifts.

[Big Fat Fishy]

Single leg squats and single leg deadlifts have several benefits. Firstly, they make you look weird at the gym. People will see you and think, "Wow, that loosks strange. That guy must really know what he is doing."

Seriously I think the benefit has something to do with making sure both your left and right sides are doing their own work, aiding muscle symetry. It makes it harder for a strong side to compensate for a weak side. It's also a balance and posture challenge, so it forces to you to use other muscles for stability. I've done these myself, they're challenging.

As for Bench Press being no benefit, I don't completely agree. Bench Press muscles (biceps, pectorals, etc) might not be used directly in the rowing action but exercising them promotes muscle balance. Plus, you can accent that nice rowers V-taper with some poppin' pecs and look good at the beach!

[TabbRows]

In addition to BFF's comments, while we all want to focus on our rowing muscles, as we age--and I realize there are those of us on this forum who don't or don't want to --we need to pay attention to overall muscle balance so being sure to weight train all major muscle groups is important. If you're on a 3 day rotation, you might want to make the middle day the day your sets are focused on the muscle groups targeted by the excercises in the article or that you don't use as much in rowing. Also a good idea to do yoga or pilates for core benefits. You can usually incorporate a rowing session or weight session into the days you do yoga or pilates. And always remeber to mix up the weight routine every six to 8 weeks. This keeps you from falling into a rut and forces your muscles to perform in slightly differnet ways, further developing strength.

Try a local bootcamp training program that uses kettleballs and tire pulls, et.al., for a real change of pace. Not rowing specific but very good all round fitness routine and can be more fun that jockeying with the gym rats for the Smith machine.

There's also an interesting website

[/url]http://quatrofitness.com/[url] that uses body weight for 4 minute o ... o the gym.[/url]

[Jack S.]

Thanks for the input so far. How about helping me approach this from the other direction..,,,

I figure rowing or any endurance/cardio work has some amount of detrimentel effect on maximal strength. In your opinions, would the negative effect be greater or the same comparing OLing to PLing?

Jack

[Dreadnought]

Thanks for the input so far. How about helping me approach this from the other direction..,,,

I figure rowing or any endurance/cardio work has some amount of detrimentel effect on maximal strength. In your opinions, would the negative effect be greater or the same comparing OLing to PLing?

Jack

That is a very difficult question to answer. I don't think you have to worry too much about losing muscular strength with rowing compared to distance running. For example, many triathletes shun rowing because they are afraid that it will lead to too much bulk.
The main issue that you may have to deal with is too much stress on the back. Power cleans, squats, deadlifts all work the back to a large extent. Adding rowing to that may be pushing the envelope. I would suggest trying it, and see how it feels. If it doesn't cause back discomfort, go for it.

[Jack S.]

Concerns of overtrainng the lower back. I got it . Thanks.

[Carl Henrik]

Last time I checked, endurance training, without specification as to what that actually means, generally has a negative impact on eplosiveness, strength and hypertrophy, also generally.

Since you only need the latter two for powerlifting, but all three for olympic lifting you might be more successful in powerlifting combined with rowing.

The powerlifting movements are also less technical, and requires less time to perfect, therefore it will also be easier to perform powerlifting well while taking time do other training aswell.

This is not implying that a powerlifting training regime will support rowing better than an olympic lifting regime.

There may be many reasons why endurance training will be negative for explosiveness, strength and hypertrophy. At least on of these reasons can be cancelled out easily through a somewhat enjoyable trick.

If you include rowing, start eating like a horse. If you didn't do that earlier it may even take your strength training to a new level. Should you find some of what you put on is just fat you now have the tool to shed that rapidly, so it's not a problem either.

For maximum performance in both powerlifting or olympic lifting and rowing, you will need to periodize your training for different seasons where one is priority. Alternatively you could do shorter periods of 2 weeks for example, where you cut back partially on one and do more of the other. This is short enough to just be good recovery, without loosing much, and will keep working out very varied and interesting.

[Jack S.]

Thanks Carl, makes sense.

[jbell]

Can any of you guys post some differences between power lifting and Olympic lifting? I think I read somewhere that olympic lifting is good for lightweights as it doesn't make you bulk up as much and just makes your current muscles stronger. I don't know how true that is, but . . .

[kipkeino68]

Power lifting is squat, bench press, and dead lift. The person who lifts the highest combined weight wins. I read somewhere that the deadlift is a good one for rowers.
I'm not sure of the Olympic lifts.

[Dreadnought]

Power lifting is squat, bench press, and dead lift. The person who lifts the highest combined weight wins. I read somewhere that the deadlift is a good one for rowers.
I'm not sure of the Olympic lifts.

If you look at the motion of the legs and back during a deadlift, it is similar to rowing, except that the weight is not subsequently pulled up to the chest. Powercleans do bring the weight up to the chest, but in a motion much unlike rowing.

I personally believe that doing deadlifts and also cable "rows" or bent over "rows" will target most of the muscle groups for rowing.

i would be interested in kowing how a top level power lifter can do on the erg. Lets say someone who can deadlift 800lbs-how many watts can he/she generate on the erg?

[Jack S.]

Olympic Lifting is the snatch and the Clean and Jerk.

As far as Olymic lifting and getting bigger, it can happen but doesn't have to. Olympic lifter do a lot of squats. If you do the snatch and the clean and jerk, keep your squats to a minimum and don't eat more, you won't pack on muscle mass.

I am not sure about a power lifter generating a lot of power. They move the weights slowly. I'd like to see the difference in a top notch power lifter verses a top notch OLer to see who generated more power. In the book "Explosive Lifting for Sports" Harvey Newton discusses the power output in the OLs verses the squat and the DL in top lifters of both types. The OLers use generate a lot more power in their lifts. He also discusses people that don't want to add bulk training with the OLs. I'll try to read it sometime soon and post my interpretation.

Jack