Need to lose 40 lbs

[Bob S.]

Another "Oh, by the way" down at the bottom, they recommend between 5 and 20 minutes of warm up and the same for cool down depending on the type of workout, where the warm up is at an intensity to bring your heart rate to that same magic 2x rate. That could add some serious time (and meters) to the workouts. For some of the TR workouts in the plan you'd spend 15 minutes warming up, 16 minutes (plus rest time between intervals) in the core of the workout, and 15 minutes cooling down. I warm up for a long time (20 minutes) before I do intense interval work, and I do a cool down after those workouts, but I don't really see the point for distance work. So, what they recommend seems a bit long to me, but the people who put the plan together know a hell of a lot more about this stuff than I do.

Yes. When I used the IP (the regular one, not the weight loss one, but I assume that the basic principles are the same), I found that the overall workout time was about the same whether it was a long, low intensity piece with short WUs and CDs or a short, high intensity workout with long WUs and CDs. As a retiree, I didn't have too much of a problem with this, but I am sure that it is not easy for those who are employed full time.

Bob S.

[Andrew dixon]

No you don't need to lose 40lbs.... You need to understand what is going on.
If you are flabby and want to get fit and you start to exercise after a few weeks the muscles increase in weight and so do you! If you just use weight as an indication then it will seem that you are making no progress. What you need to measure is percentage body fat and reduce that. Don't worry about your body weight worry about the weight of your fat. There are 4 things you can do to achieve this. 1 Surgery 2 Diet 3 Aerobic Exercise 4 Weight Training. I will focus on the latter. If you increase by weight training (high load low reps) your muscle mass then that increases your metabolic rate thus using up fat when you are just watching TV.When you do aerobic exercise it's just like having a bigger engine and you will use more fuel ie fat.

[lkranker]

Hi n8tivva, I am in the same boat (no pun intended). Fitness is my focus now, but I am guessing I need to lose in the range of 40-50 pounds to achieve my goals. I rowed in college until a non-rowing shoulder injury required surgery, and I just purchased my own used Concept2 Model C. I am now overweight, 24 years old, way too busy in medical school, yet tired of making excuses. You mentioned competing was motivating for you. I also love to compete and prefer rowing distances to times. I have started using the online logbook to record/rank my workouts. Let me know if you (or anyone else reading this) would like to virtually "compete".

[Carl Watts]

Still found running to be the most effective at weight loss, however these days it's a killer with the impact. Bit of a catch 22 sport, you need to be light before you can do it and trying to loose the weight to get there is hard work over 40.

Still going down in weight on the Erg, has taken a year to loose 5Kg but the muscle mass has increased as well to I have no idea of the actual body composition change overall.

The Erg is a great way to loose weight if you can maintain your motivation.

[hjs]

Hi n8tivva, I am in the same boat (no pun intended). Fitness is my focus now, but I am guessing I need to lose in the range of 40-50 pounds to achieve my goals. I rowed in college until a non-rowing shoulder injury required surgery, and I just purchased my own used Concept2 Model C. I am now overweight, 24 years old, way too busy in medical school, yet tired of making excuses. You mentioned competing was motivating for you. I also love to compete and prefer rowing distances to times. I have started using the online logbook to record/rank my workouts. Let me know if you (or anyone else reading this) would like to virtually "compete".

If you take row pro you can row against others every day via the net. It has a free trial fase.

[lkranker]

I have a Model C with a PM1. I can't afford to upgrade the monitor at this point, so RowPro isn't an option yet (at least according to my understanding).