Learning to Row – My 20-minute a day, 1-year Rowing Journey
Confessions of a New indoor Rower
People started asking me about my toned arms, my fit legs, and how it happened. I say - oh, I learned to row. LOL. A 15 to 20-minute row every day is a health tip on steroids.
Intrigue - My Rowing Adventure Begins in London.
Just over a year before writing this, I occasionally would stop to watch people at the gym on rowing machines and thought, “I should try - looks interesting, kinda rhythmic.” After some solid research I settled on two options – the Nordictrack RW900 and Hydrow rowing machines, concluding both to be equally good. I took the plunge, and an indoor rower arrived at my door a week later.
I had way too much apprehensiveness to attempt learning to row in the gym (although that would have been a lot cheaper 😊). So, the next day, I switched on my brand new Nordictrack iFit Powered rowing machine and selected a 20-minute beginner session on the River Thames with Alex Gregory, 2-time Olympic rowing Gold-medalist. Easy enough, my rowing adventure began in London.
ROW SESSION #1
Rowing is a Workout
Prior to arrival, I watched a how-to-row video online. Awesome, as I thought about all the cute rowing clothes, while browsing the web with club symbols and cool insignias. I pictured myself rowing on the water and how cool it would be. Ok, Let’s Go. I hopped on the seat, strapped my feet in, and reached for the handle. Well, that is quite a reach, aha so I stretched a little more.
My warm-up’s wrapping up and I have not started. Whoops! The workout began and I took my first ever rowing stroke – a sequence of four steps, (apparently) and it felt more awkward than expected. What?! I tried another one and thought wow, this is hard. Alex was happily babbling on the screen, but I could not focus on his words, or instruction as I was trying to get into a flow (a thing when rowing supposedly stroke after stroke, one objective in rowing is to consistently repeat the flow and rhythm of each stroke to be the same as the other).
As I looked at the screen and saw London, I was breathing hard and wondered if the 20 minutes were nearly up – sadly, the clock showed 3 minutes and 5 seconds had elapsed. I was trying to keep it together and thought 15% through - Yikes! My mind said, “Just stop,” but the momentum of the rowing stroke had me locked in and I was determined to find my flow. At the 10-minute mark, I hit the iFit pause button. I love that button! (Hydrow has one too) I was 150% out of breath, my arms hurt, my chest heaving, and my quads, were burning. At that moment, as awful as it sounds, I remember thinking to myself – this is a serious work out!
You can row in just about any small space, Rowers are long but you standup most rowers to save floor space
I could see getting fitter and stronger doing this. I returned to the session, where Alex was still smiling and calmy chatting away dropping stroke tips and advice while explaining historic tidbits about the sites we were rowing past. I have no recollection really of anything he said during that first session til about 18 minutes in I hear, “I know your arms and legs are just flailing around and you want to stop, but just finish, there are less than 2 minutes to go. Just finish.” I did just that, I had no form, no rhythm certainly nothing that looked like those polished rowers in the gym, but I had finished and got through my first rowing workout. Number one was in the books.
Later that week
At day 5, I was beginning to feel strong enough to start swearing at iFit instructors midway through workouts and towards the end where they always say, “Give it your all we are almost done”. Fuuuuuc%$!k that I yell to nobody. My family is getting a little worried as they ask “What are you doing? I simply reply loudly - learning to row!
“With expletives coming from my home gym my family is getting a little worried as they ask “What are you doing in there? I simply reply - Learning to Row!”
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AT ONE MONTH IN
Learning to Row is a Journey
But by the end of the first 30 days, I could finish a 20-minute workout without feeling completely stressed and drained. Little did I realize that I was just getting started. But at least at this point, I found a flow, I could start listening to instructions on breathing, form, power, legs, body, arms, and rhythm. I could not do all that yet, but I was starting to understand the process. I came to realize that learning to row was a journey, not a race, not a sprint but a journey that keeps improving as do you, as you row.
LET'S GO ROWING
By the Three-Month Mark
At three months in I found Kevin Scott’s French Polynesian Fast and Fit challenge series consisting of 12 rowing sessions. It was the first time I really relaxed rowing. The scenes were just beautiful. Like Alex, Kevin never lets you forget the tie to nature, water, the environment, and the feeling of being in the moment. Each workout in this series was different which kept it interesting, fun, and challenging. I still could not quite keep the stroke rate and split time constant, but that did not stop me. I knew I was improving so I just kept on rowing.
The best parts that I had not experienced yet were the all-out pushes at a race pace. Kevin said we were practicing starts and the skill of getting ahead of an incoming wave! Sometimes you need to move out of the way to avoid a collision – I thought I was navigating my rower on the water how cool! I really liked it when he says join my crew and feel like you are in my boat rowing with me. I matched stroke to stroke with him and for the first time was on stroke pace.
Game Changer
That was a game changer as I began to feel the flow of the stroke. In another three months I would be able to push hard at low stroke rates - keeping my split times low. The most amazing thing is when you can shut your eyes and row ten strokes then open them again, and you are still on stroke pace and split time. You can feel the rhythm and the flow without looking. When you can do this, I think you can think of yourself as a rower. I was super happy with my achievement and progress.
IN THE END – At One Year
One year later, people ask about my toned arms, my fit legs, and how it happened. I say Oh I learned to row. LOL. A twenty-minute row every day is a health tip on steroids. It is amazingly engaging, immersive, and mind-challenging, and gives you a real sense of accomplishment and it low-impact on your body and muscles.
So, when people ask what exercise they should do – I now reply try learning to row and stick with it – after 6 months you’ll know if it’s for you. Getting through those early weeks was harder than I anticipated, but there is a happy ending if you just stick with it, keep rowing and follow your trainer’s advice.
Success in your learning to row journey. Best of luck.
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