Erging at Home or Club?

[mrpeepers]

Folks,

I have been content to row at my rowing club and other communal facilities for the last few years. I am now ready to contemplate the dramatic step of buying a C2 erg for home.

Here's my big reservation: one of the big benefits to rowing at the club is that I get out of the house. My wife and I live in a 2-BR apartment (two floors) that is likely to contain a baby in the new year, and I'd have to erg in the living room. Would having an erg at home still provide me with sufficient escape/detachment from everyday affairs? I wouldn't be able to blast the music (due to neighbor and wife concerns), and I generally find it difficult to put on headphones to zone out.

Jon

[Quatroux]

Would having an erg at home still provide me with sufficient escape/detachment from everyday affairs?

This must be your first baby. Let me tell you how this works.

You need two things. First, you need to buy a really cheap fan. Put it in the baby's room and leave it on at all times. Tell your wife that the air circulation prevents SIDS. Between you and me, the real reason is that the constant hum of a cheap fan will cancel out any noise you make in the rest of the apartment. It really works! You owe me a beer for this advice. Prepare to laugh at your friends that tiptoe around their house while the baby is sleeping. They are chumps! That won't be you!

The second thing you need is one of those swings that take the big D batteries. You can easily get an hour on the rower while your baby swings side to side. You need to occupy the baby while you row. Your wife will murder you in your sleep if she sees you "detached from everyday affairs" on the rower while she wrestles the baby. She may seem like a nice woman now, but lack of sleep and hormones will change that. They get murderous!

The only thing that would be worse than you rowing in the apartment is if you disappeared to the gym and left your wife alone with that kid. You might as well be playing poker with Candi in the champagne room at your local strip club. Get some headphones. Perhaps the ear buds don't work for you. I got some over-the-ear noise cancelling headphones from Sony for $40 at Sam's Club. They are awesome, but ugly. You're officially a grown man now so you can start to yell at kids to get off your lawn, wear dark socks with shorts (unless you are German and do that already), and let go of any concern about what other people think. You have been liberated!

I enjoy the gym atmosphere and am motivated by being surrounded by others. If you can afford to buy a rower with a baby on the way (congrats on that), do it. Cancel anything you have planned until you and the wife are comfortable leaving the baby with a babysitter AND a public germ factory (ex: the nursery at your gym). That's kind of the test on if you can start to add things back into your life or not. Until then, stick around the house and be one of those new age dads that do everything. Then, you can slowly start to transition into the role model father you and your wife had that disappears to the garage for weekends at a time. Those glorious days have to be earned.

[DavidA]

Would having an erg at home still provide me with sufficient escape/detachment from everyday affairs?

This must be your first baby. Let me tell you how this works.

You need two things. First, you need to buy a really cheap fan. Put it in the baby's room and leave it on at all times. Tell your wife that the air circulation prevents SIDS. Between you and me, the real reason is that the constant hum of a cheap fan will cancel out any noise you make in the rest of the apartment. It really works! You owe me a beer for this advice. Prepare to laugh at your friends that tiptoe around their house while the baby is sleeping. They are chumps! That won't be you!

I didn't even bother with a fan, the erg itself makes a great, rhythmic whirring sound that helped keep the babies asleep

David

[Quatroux]

I didn't even bother with a fan, the erg itself makes a great, rhythmic whirring sound that helped keep the babies asleep

David

You are on to something! Could he justify the cost of the erg by saying it is to help the baby get to sleep? That makes me think of those couples that put their baby in the car ‘just once’ and now they have to drive around the block every night.
I'm picturing some poor rower that has to pull 100k each night or the baby doesn’t sleep.

[jamesg]

Mr P, your wife is the one who needs the erg at home.

[mrpeepers]

I take it that everyone agrees that the erg is a good idea.

[gregsmith01748]

Quatroux: that may be the best post I've ever seen on any forum ever. My kids are now 22 and 19, but I remember "the change" very well. I second the fan idea. My wife is a very light sleeper, and we have one to drown out noise from our adult kids staying up all hours during college breaks and it works great. I recommend a cheap box fan. Ours has 3 settings, gentle hum, not so gentle hum, and helicopter landing.

[Little John]

As soon as my daughter was born, I dropped my gym membership. Over time, I've gotten a bicycle trainer (now retired), a Total Gym, a C2, and a weight bench. When you have a little one, you start to realize exactly how much time you're spending being selfish, and going to the gym for an hour is closer to two, with changing, driving, finding a parking space, waiting for equipment, etc. You can then bank those hours up and cash them in on something fun, like going to the movies alone wearing gym shorts, black socks and flip-flops.

[Quatroux]

Quatroux: that may be the best post I've ever seen on any forum ever. My kids are now 22 and 19, but I remember "the change" very well. I second the fan idea. My wife is a very light sleeper, and we have one to drown out noise from our adult kids staying up all hours during college breaks and it works great. I recommend a cheap box fan. Ours has 3 settings, gentle hum, not so gentle hum, and helicopter landing.

Greg-
I missed your post until now. I should have thanked you earlier for the kind words. We had twin boys and had to walk thru their room to get to our bedroom and the fan did wonders. They are 5 1/2 now and we still have a fan in their room. I hope you don't have to set it to 'helicopter landing' too often.

[Quatroux]

cash them in on something fun, like going to the movies alone wearing gym shorts, black socks and flip-flops.

Get off my lawn!!!!!

The shock of the payroll tax increase and passing the 1 month mark before my local CRASH-B satellite hit at the same time so I decided to start spending lunch at the gym. I just drink a recovery shake which saves me as much as $10/day and is healthier than what I was eating. I still row when I get home and perhaps that is a bit selfish. I'm setting a good fitness example for my kids, but could just as easily row after they go to sleep. I'm going to give this a try, in my black socks with sandals.

[Little John]

cash them in on something fun, like going to the movies alone wearing gym shorts, black socks and flip-flops.

Get off my lawn!!!!!

The shock of the payroll tax increase and passing the 1 month mark before my local CRASH-B satellite hit at the same time so I decided to start spending lunch at the gym. I just drink a recovery shake which saves me as much as $10/day and is healthier than what I was eating. I still row when I get home and perhaps that is a bit selfish. I'm setting a good fitness example for my kids, but could just as easily row after they go to sleep. I'm going to give this a try, in my black socks with sandals.

I row on Tuesday, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. I work from home on Fridays to take care of my daughter, so I have no feelings of guilt disappearing when my wife gets home, so the only time I "ignore" my daughter is Tuesdays, when I row as soon as I get home (5-6pm), but she goes to bed at 7:30, so there's plenty of hang-out time. I can't row after I eat dinner, and I won't have dinner at 9pm, so that's the only way it'll work.

I lift on Mon and Thurs, and have no problems lifting on a full stomach. And I often wear black crew socks with my white/silver sneakers and a do-rag.

[buckyswider]

Concur about Quatroux's post. Rings so, so true.

I am also trying to work out getting a D for my house. My situation is pretty much the same- my life is mine between 9PM-7AM, and when The Kid is at school (and I'm working). So during the 40+ degree whether (early spring-late fal), my alarm rings at 03:55 at I bike 40 miles. I get home at 7AM which is The Kid's official "wake up time". If he wakes up before then, he just stays in his room. During the bad weather months, I go to they gym and do a frenetic weight circuit for 25 minutes 2x a week, and row 60 minutes on those days; I row 80 minutes the other three days. The gym doesn't open until 5AM, so that's all the time I have. Sat/Sun they open later and close earlier, so I can't row on those days.

I do like the gym atmosphere (and sightseeing ), but I'm really bothered by the inefficiency of it all. I spend 15 minutes commuting each way; then set-up*/pack up time; etc., so rising at 04:35 and returning to home at 7AM yields me 85 minutes of workout. Whereas in biking season, waking up only 40 minutes earlier yields me 160 minutes of workout time.

So I'm considering a home machine. Problem being, there's really no good place I can row at 5AM that won't wake the house. I could use the basement, but this is a 200+ year old house with a dank, damp, musty basement. There's one other room I could potentially use, but I couldn't store the rower there. So I'd have to lug it up and down a set of stairs every day. Is it hard to handle once separated? Seem like it wouldn't be too heavy, but I'm not sure how awkward it is to haul. Plus, it would give me the added benefit of getting in some daytime sessions if necessary (even on long, boring, conference calls since I work from home). I could set up in my home office if nobody is sleeping.

Anyhow, that's my story right now. Oh, if earbuds haven't worked out for you, try the ME Electronics M6-CL-MEE earbuds. INCREDIBLY comfortable. I do one ear on my bike ride and leave them in for the whole trip and barely know it's in there. Only 20 bucks too.

Wow, that was long. Thanks for listening, if you're still here.

*- People must laugh at my "set-up". I wipe the handle of the D in the gym; put my 2 seat cushions on the bench; put my hand towel and water bottle next to the machine; set up a battery-powered fan on the floor near my left foot; put on my heart rate monitor (zephyr hxm); put on my bluetooth earphones; start up my audiobook from my phone; put on my wrist weights (non-lifting days only); then finally start up my exercise monitoring app (SportyPal) and make sure the HRM is synced. Then, FINALLY, I can strap my feet in and start pulling.

p.s.: I sure wish Planet Fitness had C2 rowers. I could go anytime I wanted, and it's a much easier drive for me. I wonder why they're resisting the rowing revolution. Need to light a fire under the C2 salesguy.

[the prawn]

Would having an erg at home still provide me with sufficient escape/detachment from everyday affairs?

This must be your first baby. Let me tell you how this works.

That is an amazing post. I'm still laughing. Please write more!

[wilyliam]

"I could use the basement, but this is a 200+ year old house with a dank, damp, musty basement."

Isn't that how Rocky got so tough?

One thing about the two bedroom apt with the baby coming - I think that baby is going to take up more space than you think. If you want an erg, and your hoping to continue living with the family as well, you might need a bigger place.