So my local pool will close after today for 6 months of renovations. Since it will be during the winter months here in Western Oz, that’s a good time to do this. I live fairly close to the Indian Ocean and can get 1-2 OWS’s per week. However, work and life constraints may make swimming more than that next to impossible. Can anyone point me to a study or share their experiences on whether or not a rowing machine could maintain the same aerobic and strength benefits as swimming does? There is a gym at work with decent rowing machines. I have not used them. I strength train for upper body 1-2X per week. I will need to keep my swimming prowess up as I have 2 HIM’s scheduled for September and October while on home leave in the US. Any tips or other points to consider would be much appreciated.
I was a collegiate rower, and before that, a club high school swimmer. Up until August of last year, I was training “pre-elite” post-grad for rowing, and did ~50-55km on the erg(ometer, the rowing machine)/week.
edit: This 50-55k was in addition to actual rowing on the water, which probably/certainly exceeded that.
Once I stopped rowing, I started swimming a couple months later, in anticipation of starting triathlon, and was surprised at how quickly I was able to pick swimming back up again; I had done maybe a dozen lap swims in 5+ years. First couple weeks sucked, but soon enough I was doing solid sets again. I know they’re completely different physiologically (ie swimming is mostly upper body, rowing lower body if you’re doing it right), but it seemed to work pretty well for me.
DISCLAIMER: N=1 experience, of course.
search - we’ve had a thread about this.
damn that was usefull…
search - we’ve had a thread about this.
to the OP, not really the same thing at all but i too was in the first replies camp, pre-elite/junior/U23 elite level, 40-50k a week on the erg plus 10 or so water practices a week. swimming after the first few weeks came very very fast to me.
No idea if the rowing helped at all though. it has/did do some great things to my cycling though.
Swimmers tend to make good rowers, but I suspect it’s more the willingness to be absurdly repetitive - staring at black line gets replaced by staring at erg screen or another guys back - and the general aerobic crossover.
If you are a good swimmer, it’s probably a reasonable substitute. As reasonable as XC skiing is, for example. But hardly specific.
It’s especially important to note that rowing is about 80-90% leg powered. It’s not arms/lats powered (like most swimming is).
Especially if you have not used a rowing machine, you will likely not get much out of it. Rowing - even the machines - requires quite a bit of knowledge of rowing technique.
It is useful. I told him there’s information he can look for.
(ie swimming is mostly upper body, rowing lower body if you’re doing it right)
Got a good resource for how to “do it right?” I’m a newb on the erg, haven’t been able to get into it so it’s been on and off past few years. I think that may be because I’m having trouble figuring out how to get my legs to do more work. I feel like I’m going anaerobic once I dip below about a 2:05/500m pace, yet my cycling threshold is in the 4+w/kg range even after long layoffs from the bike. Erg tells me I’m doing about 2.5ish w/kg at same perceived effort of 4w/kg on bike. Clearly I’m doing something wrong, right?
5’10" 155lbs.
(ie swimming is mostly upper body, rowing lower body if you’re doing it right)
Got a good resource for how to “do it right?” I’m a newb on the erg, haven’t been able to get into it so it’s been on and off past few years. I think that may be because I’m having trouble figuring out how to get my legs to do more work. I feel like I’m going anaerobic once I dip below about a 2:05/500m pace, yet my cycling threshold is in the 4+w/kg range even after long layoffs from the bike. Erg tells me I’m doing about 2.5ish w/kg at same perceived effort of 4w/kg on bike. Clearly I’m doing something wrong, right?
5’10" 155lbs.
If you feel like making the drive to TO, I’ll give you a lesson. If not, just order one of Concept II’s videos.
or search on youtube, there are some good ones there too.
and yes, you are doing something wrong.
i have 14 year old high school girls that are holding 1:55ish for 2k
Don’t kill those 14-year olds… too much erging that young mentally burns by the time they turn 18. You know what you’re doing, I have no doubt, but a lot of over-ambitious junior coaches I know kill their kids their novice, definitely not a way to turn people onto the sport.
This is a good video for erg form.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhGfdYlXqBI
Legs down, then back opens, then arms. On the way back up, arms first, then back, then legs. Take some practice strokes, and slow drills to get the form right. It’ll feel choppy and mechanical at first, but once you get a feel for the distinct parts of the stroke, it’ll feel right.
Don’t kill those 14-year olds… too much erging that young mentally burns by the time they turn 18. You know what you’re doing, I have no doubt, but a lot of over-ambitious junior coaches I know kill their kids their novice, definitely not a way to turn people onto the sport.
I’m not, we actually don’t erg all that much and my team does less overall volume on the water than a lot of others, but the past 3 i have coached have been consistently improving, staying injury free (never had a kid get hurt under me), and enjoying their time.
Don’t kill those 14-year olds… too much erging that young mentally burns by the time they turn 18. You know what you’re doing, I have no doubt, but a lot of over-ambitious junior coaches I know kill their kids their novice, definitely not a way to turn people onto the sport.
I’m not, we actually don’t erg all that much and my team does less overall volume on the water than a lot of others, but the past 3 i have coached have been consistently improving, staying injury free (never had a kid get hurt under me), and enjoying their time.That’s awesome. Its such a great sport, but I know way too many coaches (especially in the junior ranks, where recent college grads, like a lot of my rowing peers, end up) who have a hard time intro-ing novice rowers to the sport, and are too competitive right off the bat. I was just afraid you were sapping your novies if they’re pulling 7:40’s at 14 
nope, just smart coaching and teaching them they can in fact push a lot harder than they think (i have not had one of my A boats place out of the top 3 in 3 years now).
I am blown away by how little most rowing coaches know about training (including a lot of the upper college coaches).
Can anyone point me to a study or share their experiences on whether or not a rowing machine could maintain the same aerobic and strength benefits as swimming does? There is a gym at work with decent rowing machines. I have not used them. I strength train for upper body 1-2X per week.
Here is some information from the Concept2 website.
http://www.concept2.com/us/indoorrowers/benefits.asp
http://www.concept2.com/us/training/muscles_used.asp
Both upper and lower body are involved as well as the core. It’s certainly not a specific crossover for swimming, but it does involve some of the same muscle groups. Keep in mind that swimming is primarily upper body and rowing uses your lower body much more.
As far as personal experience, I do the C2 rower 2-3 X/week for general CV fitness as well as strength-endurance. I will do a brick-like workout, where I’ll run on the treadmill immediately after the rowing session.
Thanks for all of the responses. I was under the assumption that rowing was a lot of upper body and core and not as much legs. That got blown out of the water, no pun intended. When I do my UB strength training, I use the lat rower, so I made the link that maybe rowing would be a good substitute if I couldn’t get to the pool as often. I’ll give rowing a try but also attempt to get to another pool and the ocean as much as possible.
it does work the upper body and lats a lot, jsut the legs even more.