Supplementary exercises.

[bscastro]

Hey guys,

I've recently gotten back on the erg after years since rowing in high school. With work and family, I find I can get to the gym 3-4 days a week to do this. What supplementary exercises do you do and how? For example, right now I do some sets of push-ups after my erg piece. On one of the off-days from erging I play basketball or volleyball.

Here are some specific questions:
*If you lift weights, do you do so in the same workout session as erging?
*Any runners who run along with erging during the week?
*Is there anyone who ergs as their primary exercise without much other supplementary exercise?

I guess I'm asking these questions because I'm finding I really enjoy erging and have cut down on other forms of exercise such as running and weightlifting. My gut tells me to throw those in for variety, but I wanted to hear what other people's experiences were. My gut also tells me to be glad I'm getting in the gym to work out at all!

Thanks,
Bryan

[Nosmo]

In answer to your specific questions:

1) There have been times I've erg and lift weights but never did it for very long. Basically don't like lifting, so I haven't much since college crew.
2) There are plenty of forumites that erg and run. I ran a lot while rowing in college. Don't anymore after a knee injury.
3) Since October erging has been my primary exercise as it often is in the winter or if work is particularly intense and I am pressed for time. Last winter I erged some but probably got more exercise walking my dogs with a 40 lb backback up steep fire trails.

[Glen Lake Crew]

Erging is definitely primary during the winter, although I do still commute by bike to work everyday, year-round. Come summer, the biking and erging will become more balanced (as far as number of workouts, not in time spent on each) but the bike never overtakes the erg, for some reason. Probably due to minimal time it takes to get in an erg workout. No kit to don, no bike to prep, no water bottles to fill, etc.

[rkbagley]

I usually work out 5 days/week - every weekday morning (early riser) Also cut down on the time involved by creating my own home gym...Bought my erg in 12/2005, already had the treadmill and weights. I'm a 52-year old former competitive road runner (bodybuilder in my youth), so I've been training anwhere from 4-6 days/week for most of my life.

Currently I erg 3 days/week (mon, wed & fri) and run on tues & thurs. Much easier on the joints. Usually I erg anywhere from 30 - 45 minutes, and running days I keep down to 3 miles or so now (usually with pickup intervals thrown in for 2 of those miles). After every cardio workout, I do calisthentics and weights for ~30 minutes (nothing heavy, high reps). Legs, abs and lower back every day, split train everything else. Gives me a reasonable all-around workout in anywhere from 1 - 1.5 hours every weekday.

Love the erg, but couldn't get in a quality workout if I did it every day. This schedule allows me to get some decent cardio work on consecutive days without trying to row with a tired back. Unfortunately, I've found as age creeps up that muscle recovery takes longer than it used to.

Plus the cross-training helps with flexibility and erg'ing power

[bscastro]

Thanks for the replies...

A couple follow-up questions -

Do you lift weights before or after you erg, or do you use a different session if you do it on the same day?

When you bike do you find that your quads are sore or tired as I would think that works the same types of muscles - or do you just get used to it?

Thanks alot...ultimately, I think consistency with any program or plan is better than no plan at all, but I want to learn from your experiences.

Bryan

[Glen Lake Crew]

I've never had any problem going from the erg to the bike, or vice versa, and I do both on the same day, three days a week. I've found my bicycle commute seems easier when I've erged that morning. Like my legs are primed, or something.

[rkbagley]

I view weights as supplemental to rowing. Therefore the erg'ing comes first (or running on the off days), and weights come after immediately after the erg or running workouts. There's other good reasons for this approach - for one thing, your whole body has been fully warmed up and you can pretty much go right into working weight sets without worrying about warmup sets. That's also the reason why I tend to do high reps - you have to keep the weight reasonable, and the resistance work is being geared towards improving endurance work.

I try to design the weight workouts to help improve my rowing. For example, on the days that I row my weight workout looks like this:

. Legs - Squats, high bar position, narrow foot position, go deep (try to sit on ankles), use a weight that I can get 20 reps. Try to explode out of the deep squat for pulling strength.
. Side bends - For the core stabilizer muscles. Dumbell in one hand, bend in direction of dumbell for a good side stretch. Use a weight for 30 reps each side.
. Shoulder shrugs for trapezius/neck - I used to get some soreness in my traps after a longer rowing session. Not anymore I use a weight that I can do for 30 reps. Gives a good burn.
. Wrestlers bridge or stiff-legged deadlifts for lower back and hamstrings- 25 reps
. Leg raises for lower abs - go for the burn
. Back - Wide-grip chinups (palms facing away) supersetted with barbell bent-over row or dumbell row. Two supersets, 20 reps on the rows, currently 8 reps on the chinups.
. Shoulders - Two supersets dumbell presses (15 reps each) with rear deltoid cable pulls (20 reps per set).

I try to work the weights pretty fast - keeps the heart rate up and the sequence is designed to allow going from one exercise right into the next. I view rowing days as a complete back workout day, so I give my back a day off in between. On the between days I do the running workout and the weight workout variant that works chest and arms. As I mentioned before, I do core muscles and legs every day, but on running days I use no weight on the deep knee bends. Instead, I do a fast set of 50 - 60 reps right after getting off the treadmill.