11 inactive sedentary years

[Holly62]

Warnie, what a small world
Well after ten days puffing and panting about the place, I got on my Concept2 today and I'm now 10k to the good, nothing special about fifty ish minutes, heart rate up to 130,sats stable at 100%..
So all good.
It was a bit like, starting an old lawn mower, once I got the revs up, everything cleared and I settled into my normal 22/23 stroke rate, and in an hour I was through the dread phase...
And back into my life. The second best purchase I've made this year has been my polar h10 heart rate monitor, amazingly reliable bit of kit, and so reassuring.
When I was in the dread phase I almost picked up a cigarette, the little demon was on my shoulder, insanity never far away, that was close.

[Tugger*#]

Good to hear from you Tugger.

Hey Jerry,
Nice to see you are well and active my friend, have to say you and Holly62 are quite the inspiration to me when I look at your posted distances and split times. They spur me on no end to keep pushing forward, I have only been seriously erg rowing since May 2021 on a water rower then moving on to a C2E Jan 2022. It has all been quite the learning curve but very enjoyable and good for my damaged heart - quite able to do a HM in sub 2hrs and regular distances of 10k - 19k just not in yours or Holly62's split times.

[Tugger*#]

Warnie, what a small world
Well after ten days puffing and panting about the place, I got on my Concept2 today and I'm now 10k to the good, nothing special about fifty ish minutes, heart rate up to 130,sats stable at 100%..
So all good.
It was a bit like, starting an old lawn mower, once I got the revs up, everything cleared and I settled into my normal 22/23 stroke rate, and in an hour I was through the dread phase...
And back into my life. The second best purchase I've made this year has been my polar h10 heart rate monitor, amazingly reliable bit of kit, and so reassuring.
When I was in the dread phase I almost picked up a cigarette, the little demon was on my shoulder, insanity never far away, that was close.

Hey Holly62
You and Jerry are my rowing inspirations keep up the good work and be safe & healthy. Keep well away from those death cancer sticks - the worst thing ever brought to the human race.

[Holly62]

Too right, I haven't smoked a cigarette in one year and one day, funny thing about heart attacks, I only have to look at a cigarette to remember that hulk like punch in the chest..
Like I'd exchange my 100% O2 Sat's rate and my level of fitness for a cigarette, the demon thought it was worth a try, never again .
That's all the stenting for this lifetime, and now it's all down to me and my lifestyle.
Regular cardio, good clean diet, minimal dairy, no cigarettes, or alcohol (except for some brandy over Christmas ) and I remain fit and healthy, at 160lb.
A year ago, I had no cardio and I mean none, high fat low fibre diet, which had me weighing in at 238lb, twenty cigarettes a day plus, an inability to deal with stress, no wonder my heart nearly gave out.
If you're just starting rowing or you are exploring ways to make a positive change in your life, just get a concept 2, my recovery revolves around this simple piece of equipment, which is the central hub of all my lifestyle changes..
I don't work for them or anything, I'm just a humble nurse.

[max_ratcliffe]

Too right, I haven't smoked a cigarette in one year and one day

Congratulations on the anniversary. Yours is a fantastic story Holly.

[DarrellA]

Hi Holly, great to hear that you are back to rowing and a 10K no less. I have the Polar H10 as well and I feel it is critical to make sure that I stay in the correct BPM range. Keep up the good work. I am impressed with your weight loss. I was about 241 lbs when I had my event, close to your peak. I am down to 195 and I am awestruck at your loss to 160 LBS. When I was a wrestler in High school, a few years ago, I could only cut down to 173 lbs. My goal is 185. Wow way to go

[JaapvanE]

If you're just starting rowing or you are exploring ways to make a positive change in your life, just get a concept 2, my recovery revolves around this simple piece of equipment, which is the central hub of all my lifestyle changes..
I don't work for them or anything, I'm just a humble nurse.

Holly and the others here,

Just a big thank you for being such an inspiration to make these lifestyle changes. I am a bit younger (not much) and I want to prevent heart issues (a thing that does run in my family) and getting on my C2 is one of my highlights of the day. I'm certainly not the fastest, but I my walking VO2Max improved from 35 to 45. You guys keep reminding me to supress my competitive nature and ignore all those people aiming for 1:14/500m and focus on my own health. Thank you!

[JaapvanE]

Question for all: Any idea why there is such a perceived difference between doing curls with one solid bar/ two hands and doing them with two bars? Same total weight: one bar=45 lbs, individual bars are 22.5 lbs each.

Could it be one arm is doing more work than the other and helping the weaker arm?

Sometimes, although the bar wouldn't stay level that way. What typically is the case, is that the supporting muscles are underdevelopped. When using a single bar, the supporting muscles are less used as the sideway movements of the bar are easier to coordinate with two hands on the same bar. With a dumbell, that coordination is much more difficult.

Best way to see this, is to do a bench press with dumbels. A single olympic bar (20 kg / 40 lbs) with weights is easy to coordinate as most movements to the sides can be compensated by two hands, and there is some natural balance by keeping the hands further apart from the shoulders. Doing a similar bench press with dumbells requires much more coordination as the dumbells move independently and you don't have that natural balance. It requires much more muscles to be involved.

As a comparison, when I was a fit young guy, my bench press with the olympic bar was around 90 kg (180 lbs). With dumbells, I ended with 34 kg each as the coordinating muscles couldn't handle more. As a rule of thumb, the dumbell weight we use for this training is the weight used on the bar, minus the bar itself (20 kilo for the olympic). Currently that is a bit closer with 28 kilo dumbells for the bench press, 65 for the olympic bar, and 80 on the machine, but there is a huge difference in excercise.

If I'm honest: I like the dumbells more as they tend to make the excercise less isolated on one muscle group. Ego gets a bit in the way as the weight used drops, but it results in much more useable strength for daily life.

[Holly62]

Thanks Darrell, throughout my life I tried all kinds of fad of the moment miracle diets, when all I really needed to do was eat better, we all know what that means, it's no secret, and do a bit of rowing, and the weight just falls off until you reach a stable weight, how simple really.
You were a wrestler
Over here we call that rugby, no seriously, amazing.

[Holly62]

Jaap....
Whatever you do, don't leave it, or ignore the situation, as I'm sure you're not, competition is great, but, start laying plans for your future health as well.
I wasted twenty years of my precious life, just thinking I was getting old, and I should slow down a bit..... Rubbish... All of it, if I could visit my fourty year old self there's a few things I'd tell her, and the conversation would start with a slap around the face.
Get up get moving, get some cardio in, do it today.

[Holly62]

Too right, I haven't smoked a cigarette in one year and one day

Congratulations on the anniversary. Yours is a fantastic story Holly.

Thank you max, stopping smoking is hard, if anyone needs help with this, pm me, I'll scare you out of the habit

[jerrytheplater]

Question for all: Any idea why there is such a perceived difference between doing curls with one solid bar/ two hands and doing them with two bars? Same total weight: one bar=45 lbs, individual bars are 22.5 lbs each.

Could it be one arm is doing more work than the other and helping the weaker arm?

Sometimes, although the bar wouldn't stay level that way. What typically is the case, is that the supporting muscles are underdevelopped. When using a single bar, the supporting muscles are less used as the sideway movements of the bar are easier to coordinate with two hands on the same bar. With a dumbell, that coordination is much more difficult.

Best way to see this, is to do a bench press with dumbels. A single olympic bar (20 kg / 40 lbs) with weights is easy to coordinate as most movements to the sides can be compensated by two hands, and there is some natural balance by keeping the hands further apart from the shoulders. Doing a similar bench press with dumbells requires much more coordination as the dumbells move independently and you don't have that natural balance. It requires much more muscles to be involved.

As a comparison, when I was a fit young guy, my bench press with the olympic bar was around 90 kg (180 lbs). With dumbells, I ended with 34 kg each as the coordinating muscles couldn't handle more. As a rule of thumb, the dumbell weight we use for this training is the weight used on the bar, minus the bar itself (20 kilo for the olympic). Currently that is a bit closer with 28 kilo dumbells for the bench press, 65 for the olympic bar, and 80 on the machine, but there is a huge difference in excercise.

If I'm honest: I like the dumbells more as they tend to make the excercise less isolated on one muscle group. Ego gets a bit in the way as the weight used drops, but it results in much more useable strength for daily life.

Wonderful and very informative and makes sense. Thanks for this reply Jaap. Keep exercising. I was stupid to just stop. I've lost so much muscle mass and replaced it with fat. Since starting rowing in Feb, buying new dinner plate set (Corelle) which drops the dinner plate from 13.5" to 11+", and massive change in diet after the heart attack I've gone from 215 lbs to 192 lbs right now. In college during competitive rowing I was 175 lbs.

My weight set is a Chinese knockoff of the York Olympic weights. I bought it over 20 years ago-maybe even 30. I'm glad I didn't give it away as I thought over the years. I made the two dumbell bars at work way back when in order to be able to use the Olympic weights on them. Bought four extra 2.5 lb plates and cut them down to 1.25 lb on the lathe at work. Bar with clamps is 3 lbs. No bearings like the big bar. So maybe my big bar is 40 lbs. I tried weighing it last week but it and me go over the capacity of my scale. I thought it was 45 lbs.

I am going to continue doing the curls with the dumbells, even though I can bearly complete 3 sets of 10 at 23 lbs each right now. My arms ache, but it is a great ache. I need to build up all of my muscles. Core included. Up to 25 sit ups.

[Holly62]

Well done Jerry amazing work, good to see your rehab is going well to plan.
I've done three 10k rows in the last three days, each getting progressivly quicker, as the front of my heart realises it has something to contribute to the party.
It's like putting braided oil hoses on an old kawasaki rex, it's not immediately apparent anything has happened until you start pushing the engine, and I'm breathing cleaner and feeling invigorated.
I'm on surgery leave until the sixteenth, and at the time I wondered if it was going to be enough, well, I'm just going to get my rowing head on and enjoy my leave.

[JaapvanE]

Jaap....
Whatever you do, don't leave it, or ignore the situation, as I'm sure you're not, competition is great, but, start laying plans for your future health as well.
I wasted twenty years of my precious life, just thinking I was getting old, and I should slow down a bit..... Rubbish... All of it, if I could visit my fourty year old self there's a few things I'd tell her, and the conversation would start with a slap around the face.
Get up get moving, get some cardio in, do it today.

Thanks for the good advice. According to my wife, me holding back won't be an issue I encounter.

I row around 5K a day, trying to keep it in Heart Rate Zone 3 with "some" excursions to higher heart rates when I see an opportunity to improve my times. However, at 50, I should not get too focussed on getting close to those youngsters trying to hit a 1:16 on the 500 meters. I need to push my own envelope, with some humility (tore my biceps a couple of weeks ago due to bad combination of rowing and judo). They way back is an excercise in humility, gaining seconds back per training, but knowing that 8 weeks ago I was much faster (around 1:58/500 meters on the 2K instead of the 2.20 it is now). But I'll get there, hopefully sooner than later.

[Holly62]

Stunning Jaap, I'm pushed doing yoga and rowing, but judo seriously impressed.