Concept2 Forum

Ok,

So I'm nearing the end of my novice season, and I've come to the conclusion that my heart lies with coxing. Only problem is to cox men I need to lose 50 pounds by the beginning of September, and then another 10 pounds before spring.

Any suggestions on how to get there. I've already lost 30 since I started rowing.

Do you really have 50-60 lbs to loose?

Thats about 10 lbs per month, which I consider fast weight loss for that length of time. Its doable but you really need to exercise a lot--which will get easier as you loose weight, unless you start to get too skinny.

Lots of exercise, portion control, don't eat for two to three hours before bed time. Lots of vegetables, no junk food at all. Make it a life style change not a diet. You need to figure out how to eat so you can exercise and still maintain energy during the day.

Yes, I have 50-60 pounds to lose

I'm 5'5 and at last weigh-in I was 190. I'm going into this with a positive attitude, but if it gets to the point where I can't lose any more weight, then I'll know that's where my body needs to be.

As for getting into the exercise grind... I already practice 2-3 hours a day, and I plan on adding in a second run, because that's how our coxies keep at weight.

I know if I'm a bit heavy at the beginning of the fall season it won't be a problem because I can make up the lost time by steering a good course. If worst comes to worst, and I don't make weight, I can cox the intermural team and continue to row JV/Varsity. Right now I'm shooting for 150 by September 1st so that I can cox fall, and then 130/140 for the spring.

I'm gonna go with what everyone else has said, start running and doing ab workouts. When I was a junior and coxing, I was 5'5" and about 130-135 and then between my Junior - Senior year I gained 15lbs and 6" so I couldn't cox anymore, but my 2k dropped like a rock b/c I finally had the stature to row well.

More power to you for wanting to cox. I know it wasn't the most enjoyable thing to do b/c everyone hates you after a particularly difficult practice since you aren't as tired as they are (even though ur rear is just as sore, those coxswain seats are not comfortable), but you are a key part of the boat.

My senior year I rowed on a light 4 and our team was short on coxswains so there were 5 of us competing for the 4, so we took a vote and then turned one of the rowers into a cox for 1 season just for our boat. probably wasn't the best thing since he weighed 145 lbs whereas our girls light 4 coxswain weighed somewhere near 90 (our boat woulda flown if we had her in the back seat). All sorts of fun

I honestly feel like I"m meant to be a coxswain. I'm the girl in the bow who keeps us together (Don't ask about our cox... nobody likes her, she doesn't function well as a coxswain)

I'm the one at 5:00 in the morning up and ready to go, happy as a clam.

I'm the one behind the guys during their 20 minute speed tests just screaming "F*CK YEAH! THATS IT, DRIVE THE LEGS"

I think it's where I'm meant to be on our crew.

I know that this is an older post, but I would just like to add my two cents about coxswain weight.

Last spring, I rowed in our Women's ltwt 4+. We were pretty good, even held our own against open weights. Then one week, about three days before a regatta our cox had an emergency medical procedure that caused her to be unable to cox for that regatta. Her replacement? A 160 lb. male... with him weighing down our bow we still won our race by 15 seconds, and got third in the open weight race b.y .5 seconds.

My point is, so long as you're motivating it really shouldn't matter what you weigh.