Go with the row
Posted: September 22nd, 2023, 11:20 am
So following on from John's excellent running efforts, I tohught I'd expand a bit on my rowing exploits.
I guess a lot of us are pushing on a bit here and most of us look for ways to stay active and some of us may be thinking of finding ways to get active.
...and I've tried them all.
Winter is the problem for me. You can set yourself a goal for the year and it goes well when the weather is nice. Its so easy to lose motivation when it's raining, windy &freezing - even if it's getting in the car to go to the gym.
Walking. Now I do enjoy a good walk in the countryside, or up a hill - even in the wintertime (provided I have the right gear on) and I do try to walk on the beach in the woods or around the town when ever possible...but if I open the front door and it's rubbish outside...then I don't bother.
Running. Nope. There's no way I'm hauling my wheezing carcass around a park with all the sprightly you chicks sniggering at my flailing arms and legs and bright red face. And my knees...oh Jesus.
Cycling. Winter cycling in the UK is generally a poor experience. In Scotland it's truly awful. I've literally been in tears trying to pedal into a Scottish storm knowing I still have 12 miles to go before I get home. I guess its character building. Aye, right.
The gym. Unless you go in the middle of the night, it's always busy in the first 3 months of the year before the part time people get around to canceling their direct debits. I've always said that the people that go to a gym are the people that dont actually need to go to a gym. i.e. posers. Plus you have to actually go there and mix with these freaks. And there's communal changing, which must be brilliant if your a lady but its really quite disturbing if your a bloke. Plus the floor is always wet, the showers are full of pubes and you never really get dry (unless you repurpose the powerful hand dryer in our local gym changing room.....). Then you pass the sweetie machine on your way out and you discover that one Star Bar destroys all your efforts for the day.
Swimming. See above. it's a PITA to actually get to a pool and find an area where some wee shite isn't going to bomb you.....Plus swimming in pish = yuk. And I can swim if I had to, but a 50m length is a long way to go without ingesting much of the pool's contents.....
Indoor cycling at home. Now this has some potential...but it only works your legs.
Indoor treadmills at home. See Running/knees and they're pretty noisy, which is fine if you live in a detached property I guess. And again, it's mostly legs.
There are those indoor skiing/walking things you can get which are pretty good (I've tried one in a gym). So a 'maybe' here.
Indoor rowing. Ok, so It took me a while to figure it out that this was the way forward. It was actually a mate who had bought a machine a couple of years earlier that inspired me to buy one (and the wife mocking my commitment before I had started to strengthen my resolve). My approach in the early days (6 years ago) was to get home from work, immediately strip down to the drawers, jump straight on the machine and get it done. Then you have the rest of the night to relax with a large glass of smugness.
Now my mate's rower (a Concept 2) is in his garage and it's freezing in there, so that's another barrier for me. Not a big one, but I need to remove as many obstacles as possible. So I have one in my living room (a Water rower)
Which ever machine you get, Indoor Rowing is a great exercise. It's been said that it works 85% of your muscles from your legs to your middle to your arms/shoulders/neck/inner ear (probably). And it's cardio as well as strength training. You can vary from long paced out control rows of say an hour to short intense thrashes. Our a combination of the 2. In short, it's pretty much the only exercise you'll ever need to do. And it burns calories like buggery.
Anyway, after 5 and a bit years of it, I realsied I'd never really set myself a target (to be honest it took long enough to get a reasonable technique and a reasonable level of fitness to even think about a target)
After a good 2022 rowing, 2023 saw a step up in my rowing and a target of 100 miles / 161km per month was set on January the 1st. Unlike almost all other exercise, it's easy to smash exercise targets in the wintertime because like any normal human you're actually indoors when it's lashing down and where it's nice to be.....
So there you have it. Buy a rowing machine. Do it now. You won't regret it.
To recap....
......from there, I've built it up, similar to yourself, to row 100 miles a month (161km)
January = 241km
February = 182.9km
March = 186km
April = 165.4km
May = 132.63km
June = 162.2km
July = 180.69km
August = 161.3km
September (so far) = 142.2km
I guess a lot of us are pushing on a bit here and most of us look for ways to stay active and some of us may be thinking of finding ways to get active.
...and I've tried them all.
Winter is the problem for me. You can set yourself a goal for the year and it goes well when the weather is nice. Its so easy to lose motivation when it's raining, windy &freezing - even if it's getting in the car to go to the gym.
Walking. Now I do enjoy a good walk in the countryside, or up a hill - even in the wintertime (provided I have the right gear on) and I do try to walk on the beach in the woods or around the town when ever possible...but if I open the front door and it's rubbish outside...then I don't bother.
Running. Nope. There's no way I'm hauling my wheezing carcass around a park with all the sprightly you chicks sniggering at my flailing arms and legs and bright red face. And my knees...oh Jesus.
Cycling. Winter cycling in the UK is generally a poor experience. In Scotland it's truly awful. I've literally been in tears trying to pedal into a Scottish storm knowing I still have 12 miles to go before I get home. I guess its character building. Aye, right.
The gym. Unless you go in the middle of the night, it's always busy in the first 3 months of the year before the part time people get around to canceling their direct debits. I've always said that the people that go to a gym are the people that dont actually need to go to a gym. i.e. posers. Plus you have to actually go there and mix with these freaks. And there's communal changing, which must be brilliant if your a lady but its really quite disturbing if your a bloke. Plus the floor is always wet, the showers are full of pubes and you never really get dry (unless you repurpose the powerful hand dryer in our local gym changing room.....). Then you pass the sweetie machine on your way out and you discover that one Star Bar destroys all your efforts for the day.
Swimming. See above. it's a PITA to actually get to a pool and find an area where some wee shite isn't going to bomb you.....Plus swimming in pish = yuk. And I can swim if I had to, but a 50m length is a long way to go without ingesting much of the pool's contents.....
Indoor cycling at home. Now this has some potential...but it only works your legs.
Indoor treadmills at home. See Running/knees and they're pretty noisy, which is fine if you live in a detached property I guess. And again, it's mostly legs.
There are those indoor skiing/walking things you can get which are pretty good (I've tried one in a gym). So a 'maybe' here.
Indoor rowing. Ok, so It took me a while to figure it out that this was the way forward. It was actually a mate who had bought a machine a couple of years earlier that inspired me to buy one (and the wife mocking my commitment before I had started to strengthen my resolve). My approach in the early days (6 years ago) was to get home from work, immediately strip down to the drawers, jump straight on the machine and get it done. Then you have the rest of the night to relax with a large glass of smugness.
Now my mate's rower (a Concept 2) is in his garage and it's freezing in there, so that's another barrier for me. Not a big one, but I need to remove as many obstacles as possible. So I have one in my living room (a Water rower)
Which ever machine you get, Indoor Rowing is a great exercise. It's been said that it works 85% of your muscles from your legs to your middle to your arms/shoulders/neck/inner ear (probably). And it's cardio as well as strength training. You can vary from long paced out control rows of say an hour to short intense thrashes. Our a combination of the 2. In short, it's pretty much the only exercise you'll ever need to do. And it burns calories like buggery.
Anyway, after 5 and a bit years of it, I realsied I'd never really set myself a target (to be honest it took long enough to get a reasonable technique and a reasonable level of fitness to even think about a target)
After a good 2022 rowing, 2023 saw a step up in my rowing and a target of 100 miles / 161km per month was set on January the 1st. Unlike almost all other exercise, it's easy to smash exercise targets in the wintertime because like any normal human you're actually indoors when it's lashing down and where it's nice to be.....
So there you have it. Buy a rowing machine. Do it now. You won't regret it.
To recap....
......from there, I've built it up, similar to yourself, to row 100 miles a month (161km)
January = 241km
February = 182.9km
March = 186km
April = 165.4km
May = 132.63km
June = 162.2km
July = 180.69km
August = 161.3km
September (so far) = 142.2km