My Ass Is SORE!
My self-imposed (ha!) running hiatus is a real pain in the ass. I just didn't realize that this would be a literal pain in the ass until I started in on this thing in an effort to stay in some sort of "shape":
Although I have been having great upper body workouts recently in the weight room I really needed to do something to work out the old heart muscle as well. Biking to and from work every day just doesn't cut it, and now that my Achilles is hurt I can't really push that very much anyway. This means the indoor bike is also ruled out. Elliptical? Tried that a long time ago and my feet went numb. Pool running? Tried that too, and it was good, but right now there's an access to a pool issue.
Anyway, Tuesday was my first attempt at this torture contraption and it was tough! Immediately upon starting in on this thing I noticed that there are a lot of metrics on the display for the stats-obsessed. The main one in rowing seems to be pace per 500m. Low and behold as I started rowing I was pretty damned close to 2:00/500m pace! A nice round number for which to aim. You can guess what happened next...
My goal was to row for the 45 minutes I usually spend at the gym and get a decent aerobic workout, but nothing too stressful. It was also to test what this type of exercise would do to my heart rate. For this I wore my Garmin and checked on it now and again. As I plowed on keeping my pace under 2:00/500m I was pleasantly surprised to see that my heart rate was in the right aerobic zone (140bpm, give or take a few). However, as I tried to maintain this pace two things happened:
1. My heart rate slowly crept up into the 150s, then even into the 160s at the end!
2. My ass got really sore!!! (This point CANNOT be understated.)
After 30 minutes I had to stop partly to get my heart rate down, but mostly to stand up and give my butt some much needed relief. I then got back on and finished with 15 minutes of easier rowing, although towards the end of this section I was back down in the 2:00/500m pace range. My average heart rate for the entire workout was 142bpm, which is great and proves that one can definitely get an aerobic workout on a rowing machine. The first 30 minutes the average heart rate was 143bpm with a max of 161bpm and I managed 1:59.0/500m pace (total distance was 7600m). The last 15 minutes my average heart rate was 140bpm with a max of 142bpm and I managed 2:08/500m pace (3500m total distance).
The other metric that one can keep their eye on while rowing is strokes/minute. Mine seem to hover between 29s/m and 30s/m.
Now, in the interests of full disclosure, with all of this I feel like Jerry Seinfeld when he was training his rooster "Little Jerry" for a cock fight and told a disinterested George how, "Little Jerry just ran to the end of the hallway and back in under 30 seconds!!!" To this George asked the obvious question, "Is that good?" and Jerry, with a perplexed look on his face, responded, "I don't know."
But my ass sure is sore!
Although I have been having great upper body workouts recently in the weight room I really needed to do something to work out the old heart muscle as well. Biking to and from work every day just doesn't cut it, and now that my Achilles is hurt I can't really push that very much anyway. This means the indoor bike is also ruled out. Elliptical? Tried that a long time ago and my feet went numb. Pool running? Tried that too, and it was good, but right now there's an access to a pool issue.
So, rowing machine it was. I had no idea what to expect as far and "getting a workout" goes, but at least I figured I could use this thing and not stress the Achilles injury very much (not to mention the lower abs and right groin thing that continues to linger like an uninvited mooch at a community BBQ). I realize you have to push with the legs and I knew it would likely be an adjustment as long as I didn't do too much from the toes. Rather, I went into it trying to push more from the heels.
Anyway, Tuesday was my first attempt at this torture contraption and it was tough! Immediately upon starting in on this thing I noticed that there are a lot of metrics on the display for the stats-obsessed. The main one in rowing seems to be pace per 500m. Low and behold as I started rowing I was pretty damned close to 2:00/500m pace! A nice round number for which to aim. You can guess what happened next...
My goal was to row for the 45 minutes I usually spend at the gym and get a decent aerobic workout, but nothing too stressful. It was also to test what this type of exercise would do to my heart rate. For this I wore my Garmin and checked on it now and again. As I plowed on keeping my pace under 2:00/500m I was pleasantly surprised to see that my heart rate was in the right aerobic zone (140bpm, give or take a few). However, as I tried to maintain this pace two things happened:
1. My heart rate slowly crept up into the 150s, then even into the 160s at the end!
2. My ass got really sore!!! (This point CANNOT be understated.)
After 30 minutes I had to stop partly to get my heart rate down, but mostly to stand up and give my butt some much needed relief. I then got back on and finished with 15 minutes of easier rowing, although towards the end of this section I was back down in the 2:00/500m pace range. My average heart rate for the entire workout was 142bpm, which is great and proves that one can definitely get an aerobic workout on a rowing machine. The first 30 minutes the average heart rate was 143bpm with a max of 161bpm and I managed 1:59.0/500m pace (total distance was 7600m). The last 15 minutes my average heart rate was 140bpm with a max of 142bpm and I managed 2:08/500m pace (3500m total distance).
Yesterday I went back to the rowing machine despite what my ass was saying, which was, "Don't you dare sit me down on that demented sliding piece of concrete again!" I got an extra towel to placate the glutes and went to work.
This time things went better. I did start to feel the pain in the butt towards the end, but the towel definitely helped and I will use this cushioning again. I rowed for the whole 45 minutes non-stop and tried to shake things up a bit with this routine:
- 10 minutes warm up (maintained a bit under 2:10/500m pace, heart rate snuck up into the low 130s)
- 30 minutes alternating 1 min under 2:00/500m, 1 minute under 2:10/500m (heart rate got into the 150s during the hard portions, back into the 140s during the easier portions)
- 5 minutes cool down (just easy where I managed 2:15/500m and got the heart rate down to 140bpm)
The other metric that one can keep their eye on while rowing is strokes/minute. Mine seem to hover between 29s/m and 30s/m.
Now, in the interests of full disclosure, with all of this I feel like Jerry Seinfeld when he was training his rooster "Little Jerry" for a cock fight and told a disinterested George how, "Little Jerry just ran to the end of the hallway and back in under 30 seconds!!!" To this George asked the obvious question, "Is that good?" and Jerry, with a perplexed look on his face, responded, "I don't know."
Well, about all of the rowing stats above you could ask me, "Is that good?" My only answer would have to be, "I don't know."
But my ass sure is sore!
posted by Vava at
9:54 AM
1 Comments:
I have an old C-2 on my back patio (covered in a tarp). Haven't used it much lately as I prefer running and walking but I do get on it from time to time... In the beginning my butt also hurt like hell, but you soon get used to it. Great aerobic exercise - go to the website and join a group, see how you compare against others. I used the C-2 (and a regular bike) extensively when I had achilles problems a couple of years ago.
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