New rower, a couple questions...

djmd · Post by **djmd** » October 24th, 2007, 4:56 pm

Hello all! Excited to finally make my first post.

I'm 32, 5'11", 245lb. Pretty out of shape. My two goals are to get my blood pressure down and lose ~50lb in a year.

I kayak on the weekends, primarily flatwater and some class 1 rivers. I heard about the concept2 on paddling.net and bought a model D less than a week later. That was about 3 weeks ago, done about 35k.

I've had 3 or 4 pieces of exercise equipment in the past. All are now in the landfill. But I'm totally addicted to this erg. I find myself working out longer than I expected most of the time. But here's my dilemna... I travel. A LOT. Sometimes 1 or 2 nights... sometimes a week at a time. I always stay at hotels with exercise rooms. My question is this - what should I do when I'm on the road to maximize the effectiveness of what I'm doing on the erg at home? All I've done so far are exercise bikes. I have never really liked treadmills. They usually have bikes, treadmills, maybe an elliptical, and sometimes some free-weights or maybe a basic nautilus machine. Totally sucks that they can't put rowers in

If anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears.

Glad to be here!!

PaulS · Post by **PaulS** » October 24th, 2007, 5:06 pm

Use the Machine Finder utility on the C2 Home site to find hotels that have C2 machines in their exercise rooms.

Welcome to the fray.

djmd · Post by **djmd** » October 24th, 2007, 5:27 pm

PaulS wrote:Use the Machine Finder utility on the C2 Home site to find hotels that have C2 machines in their exercise rooms.

Welcome to the fray.

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately I think that's a really rare occurance. I've never seen one in a hotel... and I would wager that the only time you are going to see them are in big resort hotels that have staffed fitness centers. I would think that a rower in a unsupervised room in a Hampton Inn would be a huge liability.

However, occasionally hotels that don't have exercise rooms will hand out day passes to local gyms... that might be a good thing to check out.

tbartman · Post by **tbartman** » October 24th, 2007, 7:38 pm

I agree it is tough to find machines, but you may be surprised. Some larger hotels I've stayed at would have 15 treadmills, a bunch of bikes, and one dusty rusted model B erg in the corner!

If there's no rowing machine, try to find the most aerobic and least violent exercise you can (swimming, bike, stairmaster, treadmill probably in that order). Worse comes to worse, you can always try going for a run, jog, or walk (as long as it doesn't bring you past the Dunkin' Donuts). A good way to prevent that (and getting mugged) is to only bring your ID and your hotel key on the jog - with no money you can't buy that snack on the corner.

Good luck sticking with it. I lost 75 lbs in about 9 months on the erg, and have been rock steady the last 4 months. I've gotten pretty scrawny, but still have a little tire to pinch, so I'm currently debating whether to try to start a muscle building phase or try to knock of the last 10 lbs of extra fat. After the success I've had, the notion of intentionally gaining weight (even if 90% of it will be muscle), seems so weird and scary!!

DavidA · Post by **DavidA** » October 25th, 2007, 3:52 pm

djmd,
Welcome to another Cincinnati erger!

Congratulations one getting the erg and joining the forum.
Good luck with the weight loss and finding ergs while traveling.

David

tbartman · Post by **tbartman** » October 26th, 2007, 12:53 pm

I didn't realize that all 3 of us are from Cincy. I live in Montgomery. Let's keep supporting each other, and maybe sometime we'll even arrage a face-to-face. I'll be rowing in the indoor contest on January 27th, if we all want to make that a goal (I'm figuring on sub 7, maybe between 6:50-6:55).

DavidA · Post by **DavidA** » October 26th, 2007, 2:34 pm

I am there most years, but I won't be anywhere near as fast as you.
It is always nice to meet some of the other forumites. (I hate met a few there the last couple of years.)

David

tditmar · Post by **tditmar** » October 26th, 2007, 6:48 pm

Here is a workout straight from crossfit that will have you getting all the workout you need on the road. All you need is a jump rope.

5 rounds of:

50 squats (bodyweight, any kind)
100 skips

You might add some pushups- great erg compliment exercise

bostonwnb · Post by **bostonwnb** » October 28th, 2007, 9:21 pm

Hi

Yes I have also not found a C-2 in a hotel gym except at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. However it is worth checking if there is a YMCA close by; in Lincoln NE there was a Y across the road and for a few dollars I worked out there - they had 2 C-2's...

In November, I am going to be in Africa for most of the month; don't expect to be doing any rowing. Can't run in the bush either as something may want to pull me down for lunch... I guess I will have to do some ab exercises and the jump rope. Will try some squats as well but they tend to be hard on my quads.

djmd · Post by **djmd** » October 30th, 2007, 8:18 pm

Give me a little time to catch up

Yeah, I've been on a bike for the last 5 days or so while out in LA. It's been alright. But if someone in else in the exercise room is using the 8 pound weights I feel out of balance! haha.

One thing I'll be doing this spring for a little encouragement is going to one or more of the junior rowing regattas out at east fork. There are 3 between april and june. Pretty intense event! That's where I do most of my kayaking so it's wild to see the place with hundreds of kids screaming!

djmd · Post by **djmd** » November 3rd, 2007, 6:20 pm

Wow... all I can say is keeping up with the exercise bike while away for 10 days really paid off. I easily rowed about a third further than I had before. Not working out my arms though - yeah, I felt that big time in the first 10 minutes but after that I forgot about it.

I am having blister issues. Specifically on my middle fingers just below the first joint, and a little on the ring fingers. . I know this has been discussed ad nauseum in the forum, particularly with the new model D grip. I will work it out...

I love this damn thing. I really look forward to getting on it. I don't even have a TV in front of it yet! But I do have a radio playing...