Weight Lifting and Rowing - Recovery?

[Hasdiel]

I've rowed off and on, but never really stuck with it until recently. The key, for me, was getting a TV setup where I can watching something as I row, otherwise I often would just get bored while rowing which made me not want to do it. I've been rowing regularly for about the last 3-4 weeks and would like to add weight lifting to my routine, but I'm concerned about recovery days.

Let me also state that I am neither a serious rower, nor a serious weight lifter; my overall goal is to lose weight, stay healthy, and gain strength; I'm not concerned about any sort of huge personal bests or competition. Previously I would row continuously for about 50min (length of a House of Cards episode) four days a week. When I first started 50 minutes would put me around 7k, then 8k, and now I'm hitting about 9.5k in 50min. This week I'm adding lifting to the routine, I'm following the 5x5 StrongLifts program which is pretty straightforward. My (tentative) plan is as follows:

Monday: Row normal +9.5k, lift weights
Tuesday: Row casual 5-6k (same duration, 50min, but at a casual pace that puts me at about 5-6k when complete)
Wednesday: Row normal +9.5k, lift weights
Thursday: Row casual 5-6k
Friday: can't exercise
Saturday: can't exercise
Sunday: Row normal 9.5k (possibly also lifts weights, but maybe just row)

My concern is rowing, even casually, on the days after weight lifting. I know the common practice is to let muscles rest on recovery days, but I'm not sure how intensive rowing is in that regard. Is it okay to row casually after a lifting day? Can I go even further and row the normal 9.5k every day? I feel as though I can row the 9.5k every day, but I intentionally go at a very casual pace on the off day thinking it may help recovery.

[Hasdiel]

Guess we can't edit posts here? Bummer...

Replace the "casual" 5k above with 8k. After lifting this last round, I found I recovered much faster the day after and was able to easily do an 8k at a still casual pace. Also, my plan is to eventually change my normal rowing days with intervals. Initially I just wanted to get used to regular rows at a decent pace to get my body used to the routine and work on form. I figure in another week or so I'll switch to intervals for better cardio.

[Bobpond]

Sounds like a good start. The two work very well together. I'm finding that rowing on the day after lifting really helps recovery.

SL you start with just the bar, you will know you are out of recovery time when you start to miss, but that should take a while.

I would not lift on Sunday and Monday back to back. My suggestion is do SL on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday. If you're going to have a hard rowing day (intervals, HIIT) make it Thursday because you then have two recovery days. Monday and Wednesday I would do the less stressful rows, keep the intervals to days when you lift as well and make the in between days partial recovery days.

This is biased towards lifting. Others may suggest two days of lifting, which is fine too in that case I would lift on Sunday and Thursday.

fWIW I'm doing Starting Strength and doing steady state UT2/UT1 rowing for 30 to 60 minutes every day with one interval or HIIT workout tossed in per week. Same goal, fat loss and overall conditioning. I don't need to be great at these, but if I can get to where I row at UT1 for an hour and lift 200/300/400 at age 55 that would be decent milestones.

[Bob S.]

Guess we can't edit posts here? Bummer...

??? Yes, posts can be edited. On your next post, check out the right side of the top row. There should be a row of boxes for edit, delete, attention, and quote.

[Bob S.]

I figure in another week or so I'll switch to intervals for better cardio.

??? Intervals are generally regarded as strength builders, with distance work for cardio improvement.

[jackarabit]

The edit button disappears after a bit and delete post option with it.

[Bobpond]

I figure in another week or so I'll switch to intervals for better cardio.

??? Intervals are generally regarded as strength builders, with distance work for cardio improvement.

When I saw "intervals" my mind went to HIIT as that's what you'll see discussed on the strength training forums. When OP pops back in maybe he will clarify.

There is the opinion that HIIT is more efficient than steady state at least as a supplement to strength training, and that perhaps there are some specific adaptations that HIIT encourages that assist in set to set recovery time during a strength training workout. The focus is really more on how supplemental work will assist during the weight workouts rather than on how the supplemental work will improve upon itself.

Personally I think if you're going to use a C2 for HIIT the way I see it discussed on StrongLifts or StartingStrength (20s all out sprint, 140 second rest, repeat 7 times), then you better have spent quite a bit of time learning to row correctly, put in lots of meters steady state, gotten 500m intervals down to something relatively respectable for your ranking group or you will either be wasting time or get hurt. I can't do that yet. I'm using a protocol I got from the book "Strong Medicine" that is heart rate based on the rare occasion I make a stab at HIIT.

[Hasdiel]

Awesome, thanks for all the input guys!

This is biased towards lifting. Others may suggest two days of lifting, which is fine too in that case I would lift on Sunday and Thursday.

My focus my main focus right now is more on the weight loss side, which would lean me more towards rowing as my primary and lifting as a secondary. So lifting two days a week sounds more my speed right now. Once I've trimmed down some my focus will probably shift more towards lifting at which point I'll flip to three days of lifting.

??? Yes, posts can be edited. On your next post, check out the right side of the top row. There should be a row of boxes for edit, delete, attention, and quote.

Yeah I guess the edit button went away because it was my first thread (had to be approved) and there's a timer on it?

??? Intervals are generally regarded as strength builders, with distance work for cardio improvement.

When I saw "intervals" my mind went to HIIT as that's what you'll see discussed on the strength training forums. When OP pops back in maybe he will clarify.

Yes, HIIT, sorry still fairly new to all this and get the terminology mixed up. From what I understand HIIT will be more optimal for weight loss, but I could totally be wrong. From the sound of it, though, I need to log many more kilometers before I try to tackle that.

[jamesg]

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), where high means flat out. The original Tabata said 20s on 10s off, flat out, repeat to failure. There are plenty of variants, such as shown here:

http://indoorsportservices.co.uk/training/fast_track

[hjs]

I figure in another week or so I'll switch to intervals for better cardio.

??? Intervals are generally regarded as strength builders, with distance work for cardio improvement.

When I saw "intervals" my mind went to HIIT as that's what you'll see discussed on the strength training forums. When OP pops back in maybe he will clarify.

There is the opinion that HIIT is more efficient than steady state at least as a supplement to strength training, and that perhaps there are some specific adaptations that HIIT encourages that assist in set to set recovery time during a strength training workout. The focus is really more on how supplemental work will assist during the weight workouts rather than on how the supplemental work will improve upon itself.

Personally I think if you're going to use a C2 for HIIT the way I see it discussed on StrongLifts or StartingStrength (20s all out sprint, 140 second rest, repeat 7 times), then you better have spent quite a bit of time learning to row correctly, put in lots of meters steady state, gotten 500m intervals down to something relatively respectable for your ranking group or you will either be wasting time or get hurt. I can't do that yet. I'm using a protocol I got from the book "Strong Medicine" that is heart rate based on the rare occasion I make a stab at HIIT.

Doing 20 max rows are very tough, be very carefull.

There is nothing magical about hit, most gym people have very poor alround fitness. If there is one thing you can,t learn from them its about aerobic training.
There is a point though, aerobic training, should be long enough and does train the slow twitch muscle fiber, not the fast twitch. Does come in play only when you go beyond aerobic work. So yes, doing some faster stuff is helpfull. But remember, this training is much harder to recover from. So keep both the volume and sessions limited for these.

Re combi weights and aerobic fitness. No problem if the weights are not overly heavy. Without saying anything about what you do there is not much to say. It can be heavy dealifts squats, very tough. Or some easy machine stuff, hardly taxing.

Most important, go by feel, your body never lies. Eating is number one. That will make or break your body composition.