What's your weekly indoor rowing routine?

[slnm]

I just got my Model D with PM4 and I'm curious to know how frequently people row. For example, how many of you row 5 or more times per week? I may want to row 5 or 6 days a week until I've burnt off some fat and then slow down to 3 or 4 but I'm not sure how wise it is to row nearly every day. That's my motivation for asking this question. I want to do lots of rowing but minimize the chance of getting injured and if lots of you tell me that you row almost every day I'll worry less.

Thanks.

Sol

[tjf0]

I row just about everyday between 7 - 10 k a day...I also cycle a bit and play racquetball twice a week...when I cycle more than 30 miles I do not row but on the other days I try to get on the erg...I also usually mix up my erg workouts to add variety and do some weight work two days a week in between short rows of 1 - 2k. I have found having the erg at home makes it easy to get in the meters and it is much easier on your body than running which I use to do regularly but had to stop due to Achilles problems.

[slnm]

Tim - How long have you been erging? I also lift weights (and do some assistance exercises to go with that) but I'm interested in erging as my cardio routine.

Sol

[jvincent]

Depending on how hard/far you row you can definitely over do it if you row every day. I finished 200K for the holiday challenge which meant rowing 11 days in a row at one point and I definitely felt it.

I got a Model D just about a year ago. I started rowing 2/3 days and then taking a day off. Now I will go 4/5 days before a rest, but the rows are longer/further than when I started.

What I have found has worked well for me is to mix up my rowing using the following workouts.

1. 30 minutes max distance
2. Intervals. Warm up, 8 intervals 50 sec on/ 1:40 rest, warm down
3. 10K

Depending on day of the week, how tired I am I will alternate the steady rows, choosing either 30 min or 10K, with the intervals. When the body tells me to take a rest, usually after day 4 or 5, I take day off.

I will also mix in 2K and 5K rows every month for ranking purposes. The online rankings are a good way to track your progress. When I first started I was near the bottom for my age group and I'm now in the upper half.

Good luck.

[johnlvs2run]

I rowed more than 2 hours a day for 2 years and felt it was all good exercise.

[Bob S.]

For me it is age dependent. Three or four years ago, I was sometimes doing the 6 days a week bit, especially when getting ready for competition, but a major feature of aging is that one gradually takes longer and longer to recover from anything - exercise, drinking, overindulgence, trauma - whatever. So I have been taking longer and longer numbers of rest days. Currently (at 87) I am on a one day on, two days off schedule with more off occasionally when illness or travel interferes.

Bob S.

[tjf0]

Tim - How long have you been erging? I also lift weights (and do some assistance exercises to go with that) but I'm interested in erging as my cardio routine.

Sol

Hi Sol, I have been rowing since winter 2008. Rowing is definitely my primary cardio activity and I have found that I can do it almost daily without injury ...here is a link describing a bit about how I got into rowing at 60 https://sites.google.com/site/rowing60/
back then I thought a million meters was an impossible goal in terms of distance but got my tshirts from Concept 2 at 1 million, my long sleeve shirt at 5 million, and am closing on on 10 million which I will probably hit next year and I must say that it is great for Concept 2 to provide these incentives to rowers.

[johnlvs2run]

Tim,
That's an nice write up of your rowing accomplishments.
It would help to read if you broke it up into more paragraphs.

Now I needed to drop 5 lbs by race time and I was back to my high school wrestling days of stepping on a scale every day restricting myself to two meals a day and if I got down to 165 I would register at the door. The day before the race I weighed 164 and decide to go to the race.

Could you say more of your meal restriction plan, and do you still follow it?

[tjf0]

Tim,
That's an nice write up of your rowing accomplishments.
It would help to read if you broke it up into more paragraphs.

Now I needed to drop 5 lbs by race time and I was back to my high school wrestling days of stepping on a scale every day restricting myself to two meals a day and if I got down to 165 I would register at the door. The day before the race I weighed 164 and decide to go to the race.

Could you say more of your meal restriction plan, and do you still follow it?

Hi John, I will take a look at the web page to break is up a bit.

In terms of losing the wt. I went on a low carb diet which dropped the weight. The two meals a day had very few carbs in them. I have easily kept my wt below 165 since then by continuing to row between 7 - 10 k on most days (the benefits of rowing and wt control). I try to stay around 162 but do not follow a low carb diet now since I love pizza. If I ever get over 165 I just reduce my carbs for a week and my wt comes back down. In the spring and summer I need to try to keep my wt above 160 since it tends to go down just from working around the house and exercise.