Starting from sedentary feeling discouraged

[Aj1]

Hello. I almost don't want to post here because after lurking for some time most of you are amazing and I...am not.

I lead an almost completely sedentary life. I suffer from depression and that doesn't help. I've decided to get healthy. I had a concept two before but I had to sell it to pay for vet bills, and soon after my dog died which is probably the start of my downfall. She was everything to me. She kept me healthy and active. I pretty much lost the will to do anything at all two years ago when she died at age ten. I was an avid hiker and camper. Things have snowballed to where I am today.

Anyways.

As I said I'm a pretty sedentary person who is about 35 lbs over weight and probably 99%fat as far as body composition .

I got my new rower the other day and so far have been doing five, you read that right. Five minute rowing sessions with a stroke rate of 20. I'm sore the next day especially in my lower back and lower abs. I don't think this is form, I think it's my really weak core. but I keep doing it. I'm hoping it gets better, please tell me it does. I'm probably the worst shape of my life.

I do watch what I eat and I have for years. But I still gained alot of weight. Using a good tracker I inherently eat about 1200 calories a day just naturally so the fact. Gaining weight on that is pretty depressing. I eat eggs and toast, fresh fruit, whole grains, lots of veggies, I don't eat dairy much, or red meat or meat much at all. Chicken breast and fish, etc. My diets nailed down pretty hard. Very little junk food or sweets.

My goals are pretty simple. I'm intimidated by the machine and all the specs and stats. Heck I don't even know what the damper does much less all the terminology. My only goal here is to build muscle and hope that makes my body burn more calories naturally, and lose some weight from that. I can't imagine a better machine to do that on, I'm just not sure how hard to push myself and what a reasonable daily goal on the machine should be. Right now my form is pretty good, I've had that checked by my partner and previous personal trainer. It's just hard getting started .

If anyone is still reading this can you tell me, has anyone started off as bad as me and made a turn around ? I'm not feeling sorry for myself just starting at zero and would like to hear from others who did the same.

[winniewinser]

Hello. I almost don't want to post here because after lurking for some time most of you are amazing and I...am not.

I lead an almost completely sedentary life. I suffer from depression and that doesn't help. I've decided to get healthy. I had a concept two before but I had to sell it to pay for vet bills, and soon after my dog died which is probably the start of my downfall. She was everything to me. She kept me healthy and active. I pretty much lost the will to do anything at all two years ago when she died at age ten. I was an avid hiker and camper. Things have snowballed to where I am today.

Anyways.

As I said I'm a pretty sedentary person who is about 35 lbs over weight and probably 99%fat as far as body composition .

I got my new rower the other day and so far have been doing five, you read that right. Five minute rowing sessions with a stroke rate of 20. I'm sore the next day especially in my lower back and lower abs. I don't think this is form, I think it's my really weak core. but I keep doing it. I'm hoping it gets better, please tell me it does. I'm probably the worst shape of my life.

I do watch what I eat and I have for years. But I still gained alot of weight. Using a good tracker I inherently eat about 1200 calories a day just naturally so the fact. Gaining weight on that is pretty depressing. I eat eggs and toast, fresh fruit, whole grains, lots of veggies, I don't eat dairy much, or red meat or meat much at all. Chicken breast and fish, etc. My diets nailed down pretty hard. Very little junk food or sweets.

My goals are pretty simple. I'm intimidated by the machine and all the specs and stats. Heck I don't even know what the damper does much less all the terminology. My only goal here is to build muscle and hope that makes my body burn more calories naturally, and lose some weight from that. I can't imagine a better machine to do that on, I'm just not sure how hard to push myself and what a reasonable daily goal on the machine should be. Right now my form is pretty good, I've had that checked by my partner and previous personal trainer. It's just hard getting started .

If anyone is still reading this can you tell me, has anyone started off as bad as me and made a turn around ? I'm not feeling sorry for myself just starting at zero and would like to hear from others who did the same.

Welcome to the forum. Don't worry about what time everyone else does....it's your journey and the fact you were willing to share that and post is a great start. I'm sure some of the more experienced among the member will have some great experiences to share.

But there is no 'bad start'.....just a start.....and things can and will get easier along the journey if you stay on the bus long enough.

Good luck

[DavidA]

As winniewinser said, don't worry about how fast/how much/etc. anyone else is doing.
Deciding to do something to help yourself is what's important.
Good luck with all of it.
There is an "FAQ" section that will help you with a lot of the terminology.
It can also be helpful to post a video of you rowing, as there are a number of very people here who can give you pointers.

David

[Dangerscouse]

If anyone is still reading this can you tell me, has anyone started off as bad as me and made a turn around ? I'm not feeling sorry for myself just starting at zero and would like to hear from others who did the same.

Welcome to the forum. I can guarantee that there are many people who started off as "badly" ** as you, and have made significant progress. It's been many years since I started rowing, but I do have a vague recollection of it being torture when I started, and it still is when I've had significant time off too.

The big thing I notice is that you used to be an avid hiker, healthy and active. This is very fertile ground for you to build upon, and is going to be a secret weapon for you.

Core exercises are easy to do with just bodyweight, and regular sessions. Plank variations, press ups (on the knees is fine too), lunges and air squats are great examples of what you need to be doing. I'd highly recommend Pilates if you can find a class, or maybe on YouTube.

The beauty of being a beginner is that fairly quickly you'll keep making significant progress, as you adapt and develop. It will eventually plateau, but rowing is notably meritocratic, and you will progress if you keep going. Best of luck.

As a dog owner, of a female 10 year old dog, I can understand your severe distress when she passed away.

Best of luck with it all, and I always say that you need to love the process, whilst treating the results as secondary, and you will far more effectively build a routine and habit that will pull you through the days when you don't want to do anything.


** you're not bad, you're a beginner.

[JaapvanE]

I got my new rower the other day and so far have been doing five, you read that right. Five minute rowing sessions with a stroke rate of 20. I'm sore the next day especially in my lower back and lower abs. I don't think this is form, I think it's my really weak core. but I keep doing it. I'm hoping it gets better, please tell me it does. I'm probably the worst shape of my life.

It will get better. THe sore feeling is your body repairing and improving itself, that is normal for the first few weeks.

My goals are pretty simple. I'm intimidated by the machine and all the specs and stats. Heck I don't even know what the damper does much less all the terminology. My only goal here is to build muscle and hope that makes my body burn more calories naturally, and lose some weight from that. I can't imagine a better machine to do that on, I'm just not sure how hard to push myself and what a reasonable daily goal on the machine should be. Right now my form is pretty good, I've had that checked by my partner and previous personal trainer. It's just hard getting started .

Start slowly, make sure its fun. There are some video's explaining the damper (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4COPlfJfnuA). Long story short: play with it until you find a setting that feels right and stick with it.

5 minutes is a great start. It is more than most people do. Getting on the machine, that is most important. When you row more often, times will become longer. No stress about it.

Sometimes ego gets in the way: times and distances become a goal in themselves. Sometimes it stimulates people to have tangible goals or use a training plan. For me, I like to just set a certain distance and row it, with music. Just make sure it stays fun and doesn't become a chore.

If anyone is still reading this can you tell me, has anyone started off as bad as me and made a turn around ? I'm not feeling sorry for myself just starting at zero and would like to hear from others who did the same.

Everybody has their own road to travel, and we start somewhere and have our own obstacles to overcome. As long as you keep it fun, you can sustain rowing frequently and benefits will come. It probably will not make you Arnold Schwarzenegger, but you'll improve. For me, after training for over a year my (walking) VO2Max went from 35 (pretty bad for my age) to 47 (pretty good for my age).

[Ombrax]

Aj,

Congratulations on getting another rower and starting again, and condolences on the loss of your dog. I'm also an animal lover, and one thing that helps me is to know that they and the good times you had together will always be with you in your memory.

The most important thing is that you're back on track rowing, even though you might only be at the beginning of the journey. Keep at it, and things will improve. As was stated above, the good thing about being a beginner is that initially noticeable gains will come. Start a log, figure out where you are now, and keep going - you'll see how you're improving, which will motivate you to push a bit harder. Good Luck.

[jamesg]

Five minute rowing sessions with a stroke rate of 20.

You're off to a good start. Make it a habit.

Target will no doubt look something like 5' warmup, 10' stiffish work at low rate, 60 minutes walk the new dog. Not knowing your age can only guess that the next fifty years will be the best.

I'm sore the next day

Make sure you use the right muscles. They're in legs and hips and are strong. It's always technique:
https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/ ... que-videos

Drag is best kept low so that you can pull a long quick stroke without jerk.
Technique and Posture are helped if you keep your feet as low as possible, so that you can get your weight forward for the catch, and so use the legs.

[p_b82]

Hi & Welcome!

Be proud of your achievement already - that you've decided to make a change and are doing so daily; I don't row every day, so you're already doing better than me in that respect

The erg is pretty simple a machine so don't sweat all the fancy numbers it can tell you, as others have said find a DF (drag factor) you like and go with it, I started on about 110 and have now settled around ~120; starting low may help ease your core into things.

When I started about 6 months ago, I was too focused on distances and speeds and "improvement" - each session was max effort and I got off the machine feeling pretty beat up for a couple of days; my epiphany came when I got a HR monitor, did some research about steady state (UT2/1) & dug out my old mp3 player.
I genuinely had a mind-shift, disconnected my ego and ignored the pace & just listened to music; I just so happened to be rowing at the same time.

It felt to me like it did when I was out walking - calming and relaxing - just going from point a-b in an enjoyable fashion.

With my HR monitor, I was able to see the amount of "drift" that occurred, and learnt to back off the effort to keep things in this lower relaxing effort zone. First couple of months, every row got quite a lot slower start to finish, but I did steadily increase my seat time with this approach.

Having been an avid walker/hiker I'm sure in no time your body will remember it's capabilities and you'll see that those 5mins will become 6mins, become 10mins and before you know it - as I found myself - an hour and upwards will be achievable.

If you can start to get yourself outdoors again in tandem with the rowing; I reckon that you'll surprise yourself with the progress you will make - even if right now you feel it's an impossible task.

Good luck!

[mromero680]

As someone who rows during the fall and winter and runs in spring and summer, I start off every fall with that feeling. Every fall I wonder how I will ever get to where I was the previous year. But it happens every year! If you stick with it, take in the information you get here, and do what works for you, you'll be amazed at your progress. That's what I love about the C2, instant feedback and quantifiable progress.

[Joebasscat]

Great advice has been been given here already. If you feel you have a really weak core as you said, google the McGill Big 3. Link below. Has done good for this old man!

https://squatuniversity.com/2018/06/21/ ... stability/

[gvcormac]

Congratulations on getting back to it!

Don't be distracted by statistics and techniques. Just sit on it. Listen to music or watch TV. Do you watch anything regularly? Add sitting on the rower to your routine. Pull as gently and as slowly as you wish.

[Aj1]

I wanted to thank everyone for their words of support and encouragement. I have looked for a dog but haven't found one yet. For someone who asked, I am 48.

I am still concentrating on my form and have looked at all the links and support posted, as well!

I woke up yesterday with a rotten cold so did not row. I'm not feeling better today and so will keep this reply short. I also am having an RA flare up. But I won't give up because I know a stronger body has kept me off RA drugs this far. will keep you guys posted on my progress ? I thank you so much !

[Dangerscouse]

will keep you guys posted on my progress ?

Definitely do that. We're a very inclusive bunch and vicarious enjoyment from others' success is a big part of the camaraderie that naturally follows from something that 99% of people don't understand / enjoy.

[Sakly]

will keep you guys posted on my progress ?

will keep you guys posted on my progress ?

Definitely do that. We're a very inclusive bunch and vicarious enjoyment from others' success is a big part of the camaraderie that naturally follows from something that 99% of people don't understand / enjoy.

+1!

Keep us updated in the "What Training Have You Done Today" thread.

[Erik A]

i restarted again after a couple of years off and like you was severely unfit and overweight. i have changed my diet a bit and lost about 12kgs in the last year. when i started back on the erg i was so unfit that all i could do was 1 min on and 1 min rest intervals. started at about 10 of these. now 6 months later i am easily doing 10-15kms 4 or 5 times a week. currently back in a slump with issues at work (too much work not enough staff or time) and issues at home (wife has seizures and recently fell and hit her head on a wooden table) and also we are doing a lot of reno work on the house.
i suspect that i am suffering from the big black dog and hes not letting go.

anyway small steps and gradually increase is where im going with this. there is a lot of useful information on this site and a lot of fantastic people to help. the great thing about having an erg at home is you can get off the couch and go and do a session (however big or small it may be) then go and rest and then go and have another session.
good luck on your journey and ask if you have any questions as someone here will have the answer