So when I rowed last week I was going through the workouts in the system and found a great one!  It looks like this:

1 minute rowing / 1 minute rest
2 minute rowing / 2 minute rest
4 minute rowing / 4 minute rest
2 minute rowing / 2 minute rest
1 minute rowing / 1 minute rest

That’s a total of 12 minutes of rowing and 12 minutes of rest.  It’s a great way to get back into it and force me to conserve energy and increase stamina.  I will be using it, hopefully, tomorrow.  If not, it will have to wait until next week.

I’ll keep you updated.

So, I took a hiatus from rowing… well basically, from all cardiovascular exercise in general.  I lost a good amount of fat with diet and exercise (anaerobic).

Now, however, for personal reasons I want to start again.  Not only should I lean up a bit more, but I’ll use muscles a barely use on a daily basis.

Since I don’t have a trainer, and because there are very few resources available out there, I will be posting  my ideas and results here.

I decided to work on stamina and longevity first, since, I am out of shape with regards to cardiovascular health.  Therefore, my plan is to row for 500 - 1000 meters at a consistent speed, or rather, row a steady pace (not killing myself, but not falling asleep either - about 50% exertion) and rest for an equal amount of time. I believe it will take about 3 minutes to complete 1000 meters, but that’s just an untrained guess.

Unfortunately for me, I have more (much more) slow twitch muscle fibers than fast twitch.  I can add muscle very easily with a simple increase in calories and maintaining my lifting (I’m an endomorph I believe, or an endo-mesomorph).  Anyway, cardiovascular stamina as well as muscular stamina, are what I lack. Therefore, I must get my few fast twitch fibers into shape slowly, and then I can train for speed and time.

2 weeks of the following workout (1 - 2 times per week):
20 minutes total: 3 minutes rowing + 3 minutes rest

Today I did 23 minutes of cardio on the elliptical machine to warm up.  Then I did a single interval of 500m, then some weights.  My exact workout and notes are below.

Cardio:  23 min @ 6 intensity, Alpine Program
Rowing: 500m: 2:01.1
Weights: Clean and Jerk, deadlifts, bicep curls, tricep extensions, weighted crunches (abs), chest press.

Thoughts:

My 500m time improved.  I give credit to this for the through warm up (the cardio) and the fact that I only did a single interval.  My previous attempts were 2000m in one shot, with my final time being affected drastically because of breaks.  So what I intend on doing is using the 500m interval workout, increasing the intervals and decreasing the rest time.  Since I only did 1 interval today, there technically wasn’t any rest time between intervals.

The weight training was more of a circuit training, using light weights and high reps.  I did this because 1) I hadn’t been to the gym in about a week or 2, and 2) because I want to train my fast twitch muscle fibers more, to increase my muscular endurance.  I have power, but I lack endurance, so I believe the weight training and using the interval training (rowing) will help me decrease my 500m times, and ultimately my 2000m times.

Great site: http://home.hia.no/~stephens/rowing.htm

Attached is a page from the website regarding training. I will, as soon as I have a moment, write up a plan of action for training. My personal training. It will include current state of fitness, some measures, etc. Then I’ll elaborate on course of action, measures, etc. I hope that others will be able to use what I will do as a framework for their own development, both physically and in the sport.

Rowing Technique- The Mike Spracklen Philosophy

I have fallen in love with rowing (crew). I’ve long had issues with my legs and joints, so I’ve always been weary of lower body exercises (although I do use the elliptical machine religiously at the gym). Well, this weekend I decided to try that darn rowing machine that I always walk past and rarely see anyone on. I did, and it was fantastic! I found a sport that I like (being a techie, sports are a waste of time, no? hehe). Since I have a well developed upper body (muscle wise) and fair leg strength, it went well in my opinion.

My stats for my very first run in life are below:

3:03 / 500m
11:11.0 / 2000m

These numbers aren’t anything to brag about (the online community shows that ~1:30 is a good time for 500m, I have something to train and aspire to.

So I have a new personal fitness goal, to make it down to 1.30 / 500m, which would bring my 2000m time to ~6:00.

Just thought I’d share my excitement! Any tips and technique stuff I find I’ll be posting.