Getting Started

[[old] easyoars]

Ideas, ppl??

[[old] DIESEL]

<!--QuoteBegin-easyoars+Feb 18 2005, 10:42 AM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(easyoars @ Feb 18 2005, 10:42 AM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Ideas, ppl?? <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Fitness permitting - the combination that burns the most calories. Simple. <br /><br />Ideally, you'll be lifting weights along with the cardio - you'll burn flab even faster that way. <br /><br />Nothing smokes fast faster than High Intensity Intervals. You can't do those right off the bat, though. Work up to 5-10 minute intervals for a total of 40-50 minutes (including rest time - usually about 1/2 to 1/3 of work time) and you'll see that flab melt right off.<br /><br />good luck, <br />D

[LindaM]

No specific pace should be identified. It depends on the person's age, size, and previous history of exercise (if any). 2:15 can be beyond a small very fit woman's ability, let alone an unfit, flabby one.

[[old] Mark Keating]

I would refer to the training guide on the C2 UK site (www.concept2.co.uk). Some excellent advice there for those new to erging and new to training in general. A wide variety of topics are covered thoroughly ranging from stretching to nutrition to (of course) technique.<br /><br />Good luck,<br />Mark

[[old] H33]

What works for me is building up to a hour a day, 30 minutes straight with 30 minutes of interval training in two sep. sessions. Gradually extend the distance until you can go 45-60 minutes non-stop and keep the pace at 85-95% of peak every time. Workout at least 6 days a week and push hard.<br /><br />I did interval training in college with repetitive mile runs but it was the 10 mile runs that really got my conditioning going. I was extremely sedentary, 60 lbs. overweight on Jan. 22 but started doing an hour a day (after a false start in Dec. wrecked by flu and family illnesses). Today I am down to 174 lbs from 200 and it hasn't been hard at all, I had a few days recently where finishing a 30 minute row was grueling but I stuck to it. After 3 days of pushing myself the feeling of weariness and desire to cut a workout short vanished. Like any good habit consistency is vital to success.

[[old] akit110]

<!--QuoteBegin-H33+Feb 22 2005, 01:29 AM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(H33 @ Feb 22 2005, 01:29 AM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->What works for me is building up to a hour a day, 30 minutes straight with 30 minutes of interval training in two sep. sessions.  Gradually extend the distance until you can go 45-60 minutes non-stop and keep the pace at 85-95% of peak every time.  Workout at least 6 days a week and push hard.<br /><br />I did interval training in college with repetitive mile runs but it was the 10 mile runs that really got my conditioning going.  I was extremely sedentary, 60 lbs. overweight on Jan. 22 but started doing an hour a day (after a false start in Dec. wrecked by flu and family illnesses).  Today I am down to 174 lbs from 200 and it hasn't been hard at all, I had a few days recently where finishing a 30 minute row was grueling but I stuck to it.  After 3 days of pushing myself the feeling of weariness and desire to cut a workout short vanished.  Like any good habit consistency is vital to success. <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Wow - you lost 26lbs in one month of rowing! That's really impressive H33. Did you change your diet too?

[[old] H33]

Ideally you shouldn't lose too much weight in a short time but I know my weight loss now will be around 5-10 lbs. per month going forward. I did change my diet by reducing what I ate by 1/2, consuming 80% less sugar and cutting out practically all snacks. Check out the difference between a snack I used to do in one sitting vs what I eat today:<br /><br />BEFORE-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />NUTRITION FACTS (Cheese Puffs)<br />Serving Size 1oz (28g/ 3/4 Cup)<br />Servings Per Container 7<br /><br />Amount Per Serving<br /><br />Calories 150 Calories From Fat 90<br />% Daily Value**<br />Total Fat 10g 15%<br /> Saturated Fat 1.5g 8%<br /> <br />Cholesterol 0mg 0%<br />Sodium 130mg 5%<br />Total Carbohydrate 16g 5%<br /> Dietary Fiber 0g 0%<br /> <br /> Sugars 0g <br /> <br />Protein 2g<br /><br />AFTER----------------------------------------------<br /><br />NUTRITION FACTS (Baked Yellow Corn)<br />Serving Size 1oz (28g/ 3/4 Cup)<br />Servings per Container 7<br /><br />Amount Per Serving<br /><br />Calories 110 Calories From Fat 15<br />% Daily Value**<br />Total Fat 1g 1%<br /> Saturated Fat 0g 0%<br /> <br />Cholesterol 0mg 0%<br />Sodium 28mg 1%<br />Total Carbohydrate 22g 7%<br /> Dietary Fiber 2g 8%<br /> <br /> Sugars 0g <br /> <br />Protein 2g<br /><br />The food isn't quite as "tasty" (with salsa which is low fat it is good though) but after a couple of months your palate is retrained and these foods taste normal while the other stuff seems to be very rich. Soda now tastes like pure syrup to me, yech. <br /><br /><br /><br />

[[old] RacerX]

<!--QuoteBegin-DIESEL+Feb 18 2005, 11:13 AM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(DIESEL @ Feb 18 2005, 11:13 AM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-easyoars+Feb 18 2005, 10:42 AM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(easyoars @ Feb 18 2005, 10:42 AM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Ideas, ppl?? <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Nothing smokes fast faster than High Intensity Intervals. You can't do those right off the bat, though. Work up to 5-10 minute intervals for a total of 40-50 minutes (including rest time - usually about 1/2 to 1/3 of work time) and you'll see that flab melt right off.<br /><br />good luck, <br />D <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Actually the above is not true. High intensity intervals are good training to get faster, but not optimal for buring fat. If you do Metabolic testing you can find the optimal heart rate at which you burn fat. It is probably somewhere around 120-130 I think, but highly dependant on your genetic fat/carb burn ratio. Anything over the optimum rate and you will burn more carbs, less fat. <br /><br />Of course, the total calories burned in a given amount of time will be less, so for the same caloric balance you will need to go longer. Hence LSD or long, slow distance as the fat burning work-out.<br /><br />Matabolically speaking of course. Otherwise high-intensity intervals rock.<br /><br />Aaron<br /><br />

[[old] pduck]

<!--QuoteBegin-RacerX+Feb 22 2005, 02:37 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(RacerX @ Feb 22 2005, 02:37 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-DIESEL+Feb 18 2005, 11:13 AM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(DIESEL @ Feb 18 2005, 11:13 AM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-easyoars+Feb 18 2005, 10:42 AM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(easyoars @ Feb 18 2005, 10:42 AM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Ideas, ppl?? <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Nothing smokes fast faster than High Intensity Intervals. You can't do those right off the bat, though. Work up to 5-10 minute intervals for a total of 40-50 minutes (including rest time - usually about 1/2 to 1/3 of work time) and you'll see that flab melt right off.<br /><br />good luck, <br />D <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Actually the above is not true. High intensity intervals are good training to get faster, but not optimal for buring fat. If you do Metabolic testing you can find the optimal heart rate at which you burn fat. It is probably somewhere around 120-130 I think, but highly dependant on your genetic fat/carb burn ratio. Anything over the optimum rate and you will burn more carbs, less fat. <br /><br />Of course, the total calories burned in a given amount of time will be less, so for the same caloric balance you will need to go longer. Hence LSD or long, slow distance as the fat burning work-out.<br /><br />Matabolically speaking of course. Otherwise high-intensity intervals rock.<br /><br />Aaron <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Actually, the above IS true. You will burn a higher percentage of fat calories while doing low intensity cardio, but you will loose more body fat from doing high intensity interval training. The reason is that it creates a stronger "afterburn," which can continue for many hours after completing your exercise. The Tremblay studies showed that HIIT can make you lose as much as 9 times as much body fat as low intensity continuous training:<br /><br /><a href='http://www.worldfitness.com/fitness/topic/hiit_18.html' target='_blank'>http://www.worldfitness.com/fitness/top ... tml</a><br /><br />It is not, however, a smart way to begin training. It is something that needs to be worked into as your conditioning improves.<br /><br />Fortunately, we don't have to limit ourselves to one type of training or the other. We can (and should) mix different types of training in order to get the best routine.<br />

[[old] RacerX]

<br /><br />Aaron <br />[/quote]<br /><br />Actually, the above IS true. You will burn a higher percentage of fat calories while doing low intensity cardio, but you will loose more body fat from doing high intensity interval training. The reason is that it creates a stronger "afterburn," which can continue for many hours after completing your exercise. The Tremblay studies showed that HIIT can make you lose as much as 9 times as much body fat as low intensity continuous training:<br /><br />Fortunately, we don't have to limit ourselves to one type of training or the other. We can (and should) mix different types of training in order to get the best routine. <br />[/quote<br /><br />A very interesting article. Thanks for posting the link. It does make sense that metabolic levels would be higher after a HIIT. Do you know if the study compared total training time? Obviously during HIIT you would be burning calories at a very high rate even during the rest periods. So if we did, for example, 8X500 with 3 minutes rest, work time would be say 15 minutes and rest time 24 minutes. Adding the warm-up and down you probably are looking at a total training time of 45 minutes. The calorie burn should be more than the low intensity workout, even though actual work time is less. Correct? <br /><br />In other words, did the study compare equal caloric work? <br /><br />Aaron

[[old] pduck]

[quote=RacerX,Feb 23 2005, 05:01 AM]<br />Aaron <br />[/quote]<br /><br />A very interesting article. Thanks for posting the link. It does make sense that metabolic levels would be higher after a HIIT. Do you know if the study compared total training time? Obviously during HIIT you would be burning calories at a very high rate even during the rest periods. So if we did, for example, 8X500 with 3 minutes rest, work time would be say 15 minutes and rest time 24 minutes. Adding the warm-up and down you probably are looking at a total training time of 45 minutes. The calorie burn should be more than the low intensity workout, even though actual work time is less. Correct? <br /><br />In other words, did the study compare equal caloric work? <br /><br />Aaron <br />[/quote]<br /><br />Hi Aaron -<br /><br />I found another article where they did compare LSD type training with interval training while keeping the calorie expenditure the same:<br /><br /><a href='http://stephenholtfitness.com/guest_art ... t_loss.htm' target='_blank'>http://stephenholtfitness.com/guest_art ... htm</a><br /><br />They also discuss the optimum length of interval for fat loss. <br /><br />What I'd be interested in seeing is how 45 min of moderate rowing (60-70% of max heart rate) compares with higher intensity rowing (80-85% of max) as far as losing body fat is concerned. Intuition tells me that you'd loose more total fat from the higher intensity training even though you are burning a higher percentage of fat calories with the lower intensity, but I've never seen a study comparing the two over time.

[[old] maxima54]

<!--QuoteBegin-H33+Feb 22 2005, 12:29 AM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(H33 @ Feb 22 2005, 12:29 AM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->What works for me is building up to a hour a day, 30 minutes straight with 30 minutes of interval training in two sep. sessions.  Gradually extend the distance until you can go 45-60 minutes non-stop and keep the pace at 85-95% of peak every time.  Workout at least 6 days a week and push hard.<br /><br />I did interval training in college with repetitive mile runs but it was the 10 mile runs that really got my conditioning going.  I was extremely sedentary, 60 lbs. overweight on Jan. 22 but started doing an hour a day (after a false start in Dec. wrecked by flu and family illnesses).  Today I am down to 174 lbs from 200 and it hasn't been hard at all, I had a few days recently where finishing a 30 minute row was grueling but I stuck to it.  After 3 days of pushing myself the feeling of weariness and desire to cut a workout short vanished.  Like any good habit consistency is vital to success. <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Wow! awesome job! I am also 60 lbs overweight and just started rowing this week on my new to me Model C. I am 35 and have gained weight over that past four years. I lose weight fast when I put my mind to it but exercise is something difficult for me. I love the rowing so far and have a question for you. How many calories do you burn in 30 minutes of continuous rowing? also, how many strokes is that for you? do you row very fast or slower or both? thank you. Maria

[[old] dmhayden]

I just started a few days ago. For what it's worth, here's what I've done.<br /><br />Day 1:<br />2 x 500m, plus a little warm up and cool down. This got me used to the feel of the machine, gave me a sense of what sort of shape I was in, let me play with the PM, etc.<br /><br />Day 2:<br />3 x 2000m. I was careful to start off very slow on these rows. After a while, that slow pace didn't feel so slow anymore <br /><br />Day 3:<br />3 x 10 minutes with 2 minutes rest between. Still just working on building up strength and endurance.<br /><br />Tonight, I'm thinking of doing something like 3 x 15 minutes. My aim right now is to increase my endurance to the point where I can row 30 minutes non-stop.<br /><br />Overall, I recommend that anyone just starting out should experiment with damper settings, play with the PM, pay lots of attention to your technique, etc. Push yourself, but not too hard. You will improve very quickly at this stage. Definitely record your workouts so you can marvel at your astounding progress. <br /><br />But above all, enjoy yourself! Don't let it become a chore or you might give it up.<br /><br />Dave<br />