One of my goals for the past two years has been to work on the habits of having a healthier lifestyle. I don’t generally set specific health goals of “losing X pounds” or “lifting X weight.” I prefer to work on the habits of eating healthy, reducing alcohol consumption, and making sure I work out every day at the same time.
After once again hurting my lower back doing yard work a couple of months ago, I decided to focus on using the rowing machine for a little while. We bought a Concept2 rower about two years ago after looking for a good solution for a full body workout. My wife isn’t keen on the idea of lifting weights and finds steady state running to be terrible, so the rower seemed like a great addition to our little home gym.
Up until this year, I would use the rower for about 30 minutes a week. On cardio days, I find it much easier to just flip on the TV and jump on the treadmill for a run. Believe it or not, I found I wasn’t using the rower because it’s too loud to watch TV or use my phone audio and I keep my headphones in the mudroom for outdoor activities. By simply moving my headphones to the gym, I became a rower.
I have been rowing almost every day for two months. Ironically, the first day I didn’t row I got a muscle cramp in my neck. So now I just keep rowing. This is very low impact, I find it fun and challenging, and it’s nice to know that if all hell broke loose I could probably row across the Long Island Sound now.
Here’s what I’ve found after two months of rowing:
- It’s a great stretching exercise, especially for my lower back. My hamstrings do feel a little tighter, but my hamstrings are always tight.
- My posture has changed. Although I try to stand as much as possible, I work a desk job and it often means sitting at a desk for long stretches of time. There’s usually a lot of slouching involved in that. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that I sit much straighter in my chair now and that I can do it indefinitely.
- I haven’t really had lower back pain or muscle pulls despite doing some pretty stupid stuff with my 45 year old body. When I have had discomfort in my neck, back or shoulders, a day of light rowing really helps stretch those muscles.
- Concept2 has an app that offers some great free features. One of them is a live loop where you can row with others. There’s very little social aspect as everyone is represented as just dots on a screen moving in circles. I’m a very competitive person, so that’s enough to get me going. Plenty of the dots move slower than I do, some move way faster than I will ever row, but every now and then I encounter a dot moving at a similar speed to me. And goddammit I’m going to beat that dot! I’ve found that when I use the app, my times and distances are noticeably improved.
Although rowing is a great workout, offering both cardio and resistance training, I have been neglecting my weights. I will soon be incorporating a 75/25 rowing/weights split to my workout three times a week. While the results above have been encouraging, I haven’t noticed any amount of fat loss. I’m not tracking anything at this time, but I’ll have to incorporate some metrics like body fat percentage soon.
Regardless of results, I’m very happy with the habit I’ve cultivated and I feel great on the mornings I row. I’m sure if I keep it up, and continue to avoid any alcohol on most weeknights, the results will come.
Freed by 50 