Bike and Rower

[marvy1]

Hello - I have started to use a stationary bike in addition to rowing. I am doing this to strengthen my left knee after rupturing my quadriceps tendon back in September 08.

So my exercise regimen is 15 minutes on the bike and 15 minutes on the rower. Previously I just did a full 30 minutes on the rower alone.

Is this sufficient time on both machines for cardiovascular and weight loss?

Thanks - Marvin

[Bob S.]

Hello - I have started to use a stationary bike in addition to rowing. I am doing this to strengthen my left knee after rupturing my quadriceps tendon back in September 08.

So my exercise regimen is 15 minutes on the bike and 15 minutes on the rower. Previously I just did a full 30 minutes on the rower alone.

Is this sufficient time on both machines for cardiovascular and weight loss?

Thanks - Marvin

I was told several years ago that there was an extensive study that established that, to improve cardiovascular fitness, it was necessary to do at least 30 minutes continuous exercise at 80-90% max HR to have any significant result. That does not include the initial warmup needed to get into that 80-90% zone. I got this from a physician and ran it by my daughter, who is also a physician. She confirmed it and added that further research by the same group showed that additional time, up to 60 minutes, made it even more effective. I heard nothing about weight loss in this regard. It was all about strengthening the heart muscles. My own favorite workout is a 40 minute piece, with increasing rates for the first few minutes to get up into the zone, steady state for the middle of the piece and decreasing rates for the last few minutes as a cool down. By the end of the cool down my HR usually has just reached the bottom of that 80-90% zone.

There are a couple of caveats here. The first is that I never did look up this study to confirm it first hand and the second is that HR max is a rather nebulous concept unless you find it out by working at increasing rates to exhaustion. I have never had the guts to do that. The report of the study may tell what they used for determining HR max, but, as I said, I have never read it.

Bob S.

[jprekop]

I've been doing something similiar to what you are doing. I'd do a 2K row followed by a 30 minutes indoor trainer (Cycle-Ops) ride. I'm now doing a 5K row in around 20 minutes and then the 30 minute Cycle-Ops session. FWIW I also lift weighs for around 30 minutes 3 times a week.

Losing weight is a matter of using more calories than you take in. As for cardio fitness I feel the combination works fine for me. I consider myself a cyclist and row to stay in shape when it's not possible to get out on my road bike.

Keep up the routine and increase yoru times or distances as your fitness improves.