combining some strength training with rowing

[woodsy5]

After a bit of general advice. 40 yr old male, reasonable background fitness, bit overweight

Have rowed a bit on concept 2s, up until about 18 months ago when we moved and since then haven't been near one...but my good wife got me a 6 month gym membership (probably because I was banging on about wanting to get fit again ) and I'm keen to get back into it. I have dodgy feet and prone to calf and hamstring injuries so I like the rower over running for these reasons and it just gives you such a good workout. Previously when I was into the rowing, I pushed out 7400m in 30 mins and was close to a 20 min 5k, so I wouldn't mind getting back to these levels or better hopefully. I have looked at the Pete's plan and value this sort of approach.

I can realistically train 3 times per week (perhaps 4 at a push) and will allow myself 45 mins for training. My goals really are overall fitness and wellbeing, trying to get rid of a bit of a beer belly and perhaps improve on my above times. I get bored of the same routine fairly quickly though and want to mix up some rowing with some weights, for instance, do a 20-30 min rowing workout and try to supplement with weights, obviously harder rowing sessions might leave me too buggered to do any weights. I do enjoy longer steady rows and have done a few 10 k efforts which i really enjoyed.

So I guess what I am asking is for tips and advice around this sort of training, to not let boredom set in and make overall progress on my rowing journey!

Cheers all,

Chris

[Dangerscouse]

So I guess what I am asking is for tips and advice around this sort of training, to not let boredom set in and make overall progress on my rowing journey!

Cheers all,

Chris

Welcome to the forum Chris. First of all music or TV is a great way of curing boredom. For the rowing sessions, changing the stroke rate eg 18/20/22/20/18, or pace, is a good way of keeping you focused.

This can be done as a single session, or split into intervals eg 4 x 2k @ r22; r24; r26; r28 with three mins rest reps.

[mitchel674]

Welcome. It seems you wil have to decide what you want to accomplish. Three days a week at the gym and there only 45 minutes does not really give you much time (obviously better than nothing). Most would recommend doing more cardio than that weekly. If you've only got 20 minutes on the rower, consider just using it as a warmup for your weight training. When I belonged to a gym pre-covid, I would often row an easy 30 minutes or 10k prior to weight training twice a week. I found this really loosened me up and got the blood flowing. I was then able to easily transition over to the weights and complete that workout. I have the luxury of my own erg at home, so I would do my longer rows on other days at my home.

[btlifter]

Welcome to the board, Chris!

You mentioned having time for 3 (or maximum 4) sessions/week at the gym. As others have mentioned, it may be difficult to squeeze both rowing and weights in that window. Are you able to focus those times exclusively on rowing, and maybe add 2/3 at-home sessions of 15-20 minutes of bodyweight exercises at home?

[AndyWicks]

I get where others are coming from, but I rarely train more than 5 times per week and usually around 4-4.5hrs per week.

You can accomplish a lot if you train correctly. I’m not saying those above aren’t training right and are wasting their time, only you can still get huge benefits with the right programme. To put it into perspective, in last 6 months I’ve knocked my 5k row down from 17:18 to 16:56 as well as putting 2-5cm on my legs arms and upper torso, while reducing waist.

I do a mixture of weights and rowing (a 2-3 split, but alternate every few weeks).

The key for me is, with the rowing;
- set 1 - hard short session of intervals, if you can stand up straight after the last set you aren’t pushing hard enough. - set 2 - needs to be very comfortable pace where you have to keep slowing yourself down.
- set 3 (if doing 3 rows) - needs to be a steady state with a few faster efforts (just not 100%) this should feel comfortable but that you are putting in effort, think about being able to say 1 or 2 sentences easy, but not hold a full conversation.

For the weights, this depends, but basically you want to hit every muscle twice a week, it gets complicated and I could write a 5,000 word essay on this, but I wouldn’t recommend going too heavy, just make sure you never do 2x weight sessions back to back.

Happy to give you some pointers if you want, just remember what works for me or anyone else, won’t necessarily work for you!

Good luck

EDIT - with the weights, I also make sure I limit rest so start a new set every 2mins, this really controls the length of the session, I rarely do weights for more than 1hr as well, any longer and I think you gain very little

[woodsy5]

So much useful info thanks so much... yes it’s definitely a tall order trying to fit the weights in as well... perhaps I might just focus on the rowing and I could probably do some basic body weight stuff at home, I’ve got no home gym equipment but do value body weight stuff.

So perhaps I should do 3 varied rowing sessions per week... I note some examples of the sessions to try, would there be some resources on here to utilise for 45 min sessions? I do want to try to improve and get quicker so would be happy with some targeted sessions, rather than just steady away same speed stuff, although I will be doing one session like this I’d imagine. Thanks again all!

[mitchel674]

I get where others are coming from, but I rarely train more than 5 times per week and usually around 4-4.5hrs per week.

You can accomplish a lot if you train correctly. I’m not saying those above aren’t training right and are wasting their time, only you can still get huge benefits with the right programme. To put it into perspective, in last 6 months I’ve knocked my 5k row down from 17:18 to 16:56 as well as putting 2-5cm on my legs arms and upper torso, while reducing waist.

I do a mixture of weights and rowing (a 2-3 split, but alternate every few weeks).

The key for me is, with the rowing;
- set 1 - hard short session of intervals, if you can stand up straight after the last set you aren’t pushing hard enough. - set 2 - needs to be very comfortable pace where you have to keep slowing yourself down.
- set 3 (if doing 3 rows) - needs to be a steady state with a few faster efforts (just not 100%) this should feel comfortable but that you are putting in effort, think about being able to say 1 or 2 sentences easy, but not hold a full conversation.

For the weights, this depends, but basically you want to hit every muscle twice a week, it gets complicated and I could write a 5,000 word essay on this, but I wouldn’t recommend going too heavy, just make sure you never do 2x weight sessions back to back.

Happy to give you some pointers if you want, just remember what works for me or anyone else, won’t necessarily work for you!

Good luck

EDIT - with the weights, I also make sure I limit rest so start a new set every 2mins, this really controls the length of the session, I rarely do weights for more than 1hr as well, any longer and I think you gain very little

Andy, that's all great for you, but the OP wants to work out 3 days a week and for only 45 minutes.

[AndyWicks]

I get where others are coming from, but I rarely train more than 5 times per week and usually around 4-4.5hrs per week.

You can accomplish a lot if you train correctly. I’m not saying those above aren’t training right and are wasting their time, only you can still get huge benefits with the right programme. To put it into perspective, in last 6 months I’ve knocked my 5k row down from 17:18 to 16:56 as well as putting 2-5cm on my legs arms and upper torso, while reducing waist.

I do a mixture of weights and rowing (a 2-3 split, but alternate every few weeks).

The key for me is, with the rowing;
- set 1 - hard short session of intervals, if you can stand up straight after the last set you aren’t pushing hard enough. - set 2 - needs to be very comfortable pace where you have to keep slowing yourself down.
- set 3 (if doing 3 rows) - needs to be a steady state with a few faster efforts (just not 100%) this should feel comfortable but that you are putting in effort, think about being able to say 1 or 2 sentences easy, but not hold a full conversation.

For the weights, this depends, but basically you want to hit every muscle twice a week, it gets complicated and I could write a 5,000 word essay on this, but I wouldn’t recommend going too heavy, just make sure you never do 2x weight sessions back to back.

Happy to give you some pointers if you want, just remember what works for me or anyone else, won’t necessarily work for you!

Good luck

EDIT - with the weights, I also make sure I limit rest so start a new set every 2mins, this really controls the length of the session, I rarely do weights for more than 1hr as well, any longer and I think you gain very little

Andy, that's all great for you, but the OP wants to work out 3 days a week and for only 45 minutes.

He actually said 3, possible 4, im just saying that you don’t need 6 sessions or to train for long periods to really benefit and can get a lot from structured training.

Sorry for giving my opinion

[mitchel674]

I get where others are coming from, but I rarely train more than 5 times per week and usually around 4-4.5hrs per week.

You can accomplish a lot if you train correctly. I’m not saying those above aren’t training right and are wasting their time, only you can still get huge benefits with the right programme. To put it into perspective, in last 6 months I’ve knocked my 5k row down from 17:18 to 16:56 as well as putting 2-5cm on my legs arms and upper torso, while reducing waist.

I do a mixture of weights and rowing (a 2-3 split, but alternate every few weeks).

The key for me is, with the rowing;
- set 1 - hard short session of intervals, if you can stand up straight after the last set you aren’t pushing hard enough. - set 2 - needs to be very comfortable pace where you have to keep slowing yourself down.
- set 3 (if doing 3 rows) - needs to be a steady state with a few faster efforts (just not 100%) this should feel comfortable but that you are putting in effort, think about being able to say 1 or 2 sentences easy, but not hold a full conversation.

For the weights, this depends, but basically you want to hit every muscle twice a week, it gets complicated and I could write a 5,000 word essay on this, but I wouldn’t recommend going too heavy, just make sure you never do 2x weight sessions back to back.

Happy to give you some pointers if you want, just remember what works for me or anyone else, won’t necessarily work for you!

Good luck

EDIT - with the weights, I also make sure I limit rest so start a new set every 2mins, this really controls the length of the session, I rarely do weights for more than 1hr as well, any longer and I think you gain very little

Andy, that's all great for you, but the OP wants to work out 3 days a week and for only 45 minutes.

He actually said 3, possible 4, im just saying that you don’t need 6 sessions or to train for long periods to really benefit and can get a lot from structured training.

Sorry for giving my opinion

No worries! I didn't mean to come off all salty.

[woodsy5]

All good advice cheers everyone