Concept2 Forum

HI there
just a little background to start, I'm a 21 year old 6"5 78kg (171 pounds).
I was very athletic before rowing and i think i hit the ground running (or water)
30 minute - 7942 m
5k - 18:20 minutes
2k - 6:56

i train three times a week with my club and by myself between four or five. i eat very healthy, for a student i don't really go out much so cutting down on drinking won't help because i don't really do it.
i have always had a very skinny physic and i don't think its mattered to me until now.
I HAVE SERIOUS TROUBLE GAINING WEIGHT!
if theres one thing I've found from research about professional rowers they are all at least over 90kg (200 pounds). Ive got very good cardiovascular fitness but I'm having real trouble putting on the muscle weight to help reduce times.

i really need help to try and do this if it is the main holdback weather through nutrition or exercise type.
any advice or personnel stories would help and be greatly appreciated
thanks for reading

At 21 arguably you still have some filling out to do. I think I reached the "right" size around 24. Otherwise weight training if done strategically can add useful mass and some strength.

Very simple, Eat more!, no junk, but more, and no socalled "clean food" no, real food, with proteine every meal/snack, and get good fats in. This in combination with good training will at your age always make you gain weight. But it will be some fat to, you can,t prevent that. If you still don,t gain weight, you don,t enough!

What Henry said. More food. If you think you're eating enough - you're not
You've got a serious metabolism and a big frame, you should eat until you hate food and then do it again the next day lol

Also, eat strategically. Carbs like potatoes/sweet potatoes , rice etc. right after a workout with a good serving of protein. Plan your biggest meals around your big workouts.

lsm1994 wrote:HI there,just a little background to start, I'm a 21 year old 6"5 78kg (171 pounds).
I was very athletic before rowing and i think i hit the ground running (or water)
30 minute - 7942 m, 5k - 18:20 minutes, 2k - 6:56
i train three times a week with my club and by myself between four or five. i eat very healthy, for a student i don't really go out much so cutting down on drinking won't help because i don't really do it. i have always had a very skinny physic and i don't think its mattered to me until now.
I HAVE SERIOUS TROUBLE GAINING WEIGHT! if theres one thing I've found from research about professional rowers they are all at least over 90kg (200 pounds). Ive got very good cardiovascular fitness but I'm having real trouble putting on the muscle weight to help reduce times.
i really need help to try and do this if it is the main holdback weather through nutrition or exercise type.
any advice or personnel stories would help and be greatly appreciated thanks for reading

What is this 'club" that you are talking about? rowing club, crossfit box or what?
what are the workouts there?
HOw long are you there per session?
For your "by myself" workouts: what workouts are you doing for these 4 or 5 sessions? time ? exercises?
What are your goals?

the main things involved in weight maintenance are unique physiology, energy output, energy input.
then people can get very detailed and obsessed about different or specific macros and then types of carbs/fats/protein,
then people may get obsessed about timing.
Then people get into supplements. They sometimes jump the gun and start in with suppplements at the start without looking for improvement areas in their current diet.
and by Diet, I don't mean Cal restriction: I use it to refer to the foods that you eat. just your normal food intake.
Have you done a food intake diary for the past 7-10 days to figure out an approx daily Cal intake? Essentially, what do you eat now , how much and when

You may be one of those with a hyper-metabolism but often , with young athletes especially, what is frequently encountered is just a semi-normal person who is performing so much/many exercises that they burn off 4000-5000 Calories per day. or extra 4000- 5000/day

They may only need 2200 - 2400 Cal/ day if they weren't so active but due to their activities, they must eat more food. When they stop exercising, they discover that they dont' have a high metabolic demand at all- it's just normal.
But their activites over time may lead to increased muscle mass and may put themselves into a higher energy demand in general.

it is very rare that anyone recommends that a person reduce their activity but sometimes ,depending on what is going on- it may be the best thing. I am not suggesting that you do this. However, sometimes, some people get ahead of themselves and for every 2 steps they try to take to get ahead, it pushes them back 3 steps.

another way to look at this is :

what is your weekly meters total in rowing? what is your total time?
how much of this effort is spent in high intensity and how much is in moderate or low intensity stuff?

your goals are important.

if you are planning on doing on the water rowing, then some people would advice that with your power, perhaps being lighter is better, especially at your height and wing span ( assumed ) .

if you plan on tackling the indoor rowing circuit, then perhaps more weight would be beneficial.

cheers guys, gain 4 kilos so far

You need to eat more and you probably aren't eating nearly as much as you think you are.

I was 6'5" 180 lbs at 18. By 20 I was 6'7" 230 lbs. I learned how to eat more.

Yep you will find you gain weight as you get older anyway.

Was your exact weight and age when I got back from my OE to Europe after being sick for a week.

No trouble gaining weight these days, in fact all the training is focused on maintaining or even better loosing weight.

Just went under 100Kg for the first time in years, just sweating it out in the heat and doubling the distance.

I remember a guy told me when he was in the military he was really skinny, the way the military made him gained weight was to feed him potato everyday

Well, the basic eat more strategy worked. A couple of years learning how to do it through pricing, nutrition and learning how to eat a lot I'm now a solid 94kg and my ergs have dropped a lot.
Thanks for the advice!!!