With swimming out of the picture for at least another 6 months, I wanted to know if indoor rowing could have some benefits to develop upper body endurance. I’m in Paraguay and the government decided public pools would remain closed until early 2021 and a friend of mine offered to lend me his water rower at no cost.
Do you think I should incorporate it on my training on my swimming days?
Any pointers or insights will be highly appreciated.
I did it for 4 months due to Covid19 pool shutdown and it took my 10 days to get back into a routine of 15-20km swimming per week. I added lat pulldowns for some of the “above shoulder” activation. Several weeks later I am not up to my pointy end fitness, but in the context of triathlon, I would have been sub 30 seconds delta on my half IM swim within the first 2 weeks.
While rowing is certainly a great aerobic exercise it’s mostly a lower body workout. 70% legs.
The concept 2 skierg is a much better substitute for not being able to swim. That said, if you get to use the rower for no cost it will certainly keep you fit, just not swimming fit.
While rowing is certainly a great aerobic exercise it’s mostly a lower body workout. 70% legs.
Sort of. The power you actually generate on the machine likely comes from more than 70% legs. However, your upper body still gets, or certainly can get, a workout that makes them just as tired as your legs if that makes sense.
Getting better at pull ups would be more effective for the swim.
While rowing is certainly a great aerobic exercise it’s mostly a lower body workout. 70% legs.
Sort of. The power you actually generate on the machine likely comes from more than 70% legs. However, your upper body still gets, or certainly can get, a workout that makes them just as tired as your legs if that makes sense.
I’ve been using the erg since the early 90s. I’ve never experienced any upper body fatigue even remotely close to what the legs get. But yes, the back and arms to get a workout just nothing like the skierg or swimming.
swim-specific band exercises would be really good for regularly activating the muscles in the right way and keeping the neuro-muscular pathway firing. Also good for some strength conditioning there.
Erging (indoor rowing) while as pointed out is a huge leg workout, it is also a very good lat/back workout. It’ll impact your running and biking for sure because your legs will be tired… It works your lats and back a bit differently than swimming though.
I agree that the xc skiing motion and the pull-up motion are more similar to swimming.
While rowing is certainly a great aerobic exercise it’s mostly a lower body workout. 70% legs.
Sort of. The power you actually generate on the machine likely comes from more than 70% legs. However, your upper body still gets, or certainly can get, a workout that makes them just as tired as your legs if that makes sense.
I’ve been using the erg since the early 90s. I’ve never experienced any upper body fatigue even remotely close to what the legs get. But yes, the back and arms to get a workout just nothing like the skierg or swimming.
Then you are probably rowing correctly. But again, if you want to use your upper body more, you can severely fatigue it (lower back, lats, biceps) if you pull harder especially on the back half of the stroke which is what erg-only “rowers†tend to do to keep the wheel spinning and increase their power on the machine in a way that wouldn’t likely translate into additional boat speed.
While rowing is certainly a great aerobic exercise it’s mostly a lower body workout. 70% legs.
Sort of. The power you actually generate on the machine likely comes from more than 70% legs. However, your upper body still gets, or certainly can get, a workout that makes them just as tired as your legs if that makes sense.
I’ve been using the erg since the early 90s. I’ve never experienced any upper body fatigue even remotely close to what the legs get. But yes, the back and arms to get a workout just nothing like the skierg or swimming.
Then you are probably rowing correctly. But again, if you want to use your upper body more, you can severely fatigue it (lower back, lats, biceps) if you pull harder especially on the back half of the stroke which is what erg-only “rowers†t**end to do to keep the wheel spinning and increase their power on the machine **in a way that wouldn’t likely translate into additional boat speed.
No one on the erg (at least when going for max power) can increase the power through the use of the upper body. The power peaks at the end of the leg drive and tapers off through the finish of the upper body portion. Look at the force curve. Steep (should be) to its peak then the shallow roll off after the legs are done contributing.
swim-specific band exercises would be really good for regularly activating the muscles in the right way and keeping the neuro-muscular pathway firing. Also good for some strength conditioning there.
Erging (indoor rowing) while as pointed out is a huge leg workout, it is also a very good lat/back workout. It’ll impact your running and biking for sure because your legs will be tired… It works your lats and back a bit differently than swimming though.
I agree that the xc skiing motion and the pull-up motion are more similar to swimming.
The assumption everyone is making is that swimming is all upper body…but fly and breast stroke have a huge core and leg component…agreed that for triathlon, that’s not the case (especially wetsuit swim)… its upper body in free. But I think if you can’t swim, you can get on the erg, dial back bike volume, still stay at the same bike fitness and also accrue some conditioning to get back to swim very quickly. Even if we say erg is 20% upper body, there is enough upper body conditioning to get back to tri swim fitness. Given how bad most of us triathletes swim, its literally in the noise. if we were talking sub 5 min 400m swimmers, and you’re worrying about going 4;59 vs 5:01, OK that’s a different animal. But for more triathletes worrying about going 32 to 40 min in a half IM swim, the 32 min guy will probably end up going 32.40…the 40.00 guy, will probably end up at 40.02!!!
I had a really good experiment in the first 4 months of Covid19 and can say it was really awesome for overall tri fitness taking into account both swim+bike. Its also actually decent for running. In the last 2.5 weeks I have hardly done any time on the erg for the first time this year. I am several days per week 2x per day in the pool now.
I would like to thank all of you who intro’d me to the erg. its been really good. I need to get back on it, but the weather has been too nice to spend indoors. In a month, it will quickly start to suck again anway.
While rowing is certainly a great aerobic exercise it’s mostly a lower body workout. 70% legs.
Sort of. The power you actually generate on the machine likely comes from more than 70% legs. However, your upper body still gets, or certainly can get, a workout that makes them just as tired as your legs if that makes sense.
I’ve been using the erg since the early 90s. I’ve never experienced any upper body fatigue even remotely close to what the legs get. But yes, the back and arms to get a workout just nothing like the skierg or swimming.
Actually, the entire posterior chain: glutes and back In addition to legs.
While rowing is certainly a great aerobic exercise it’s mostly a lower body workout. 70% legs.
Sort of. The power you actually generate on the machine likely comes from more than 70% legs. However, your upper body still gets, or certainly can get, a workout that makes them just as tired as your legs if that makes sense.
I’ve been using the erg since the early 90s. I’ve never experienced any upper body fatigue even remotely close to what the legs get. But yes, the back and arms to get a workout just nothing like the skierg or swimming.
Then you are probably rowing correctly. But again, if you want to use your upper body more, you can severely fatigue it (lower back, lats, biceps) if you pull harder especially on the back half of the stroke which is what erg-only “rowers†t**end to do to keep the wheel spinning and increase their power on the machine **in a way that wouldn’t likely translate into additional boat speed.
No one on the erg (at least when going for max power) can increase the power through the use of the upper body. The power peaks at the end of the leg drive and tapers off through the finish of the upper body portion. Look at the force curve. Steep (should be) to its peak then the shallow roll off after the legs are done contributing.
You misunderstood me. I am talking about overall average power/speed. Of course, your power will peak with the leg drive. But if you pull harder with your arms, it will keep the wheel spinning and increase your overall average power and thus speed (as opposed to a finishing with little arm pull that is really more of a follow through).
Enough about poor erg technique…as to Dev’s comment, yes, I think the erg can help with more than just upper body.
While rowing is certainly a great aerobic exercise it’s mostly a lower body workout. 70% legs.
Sort of. The power you actually generate on the machine likely comes from more than 70% legs. However, your upper body still gets, or certainly can get, a workout that makes them just as tired as your legs if that makes sense.
I’ve been using the erg since the early 90s. I’ve never experienced any upper body fatigue even remotely close to what the legs get. But yes, the back and arms to get a workout just nothing like the skierg or swimming.
Then you are probably rowing correctly. But again, if you want to use your upper body more, you can severely fatigue it (lower back, lats, biceps) if you pull harder especially on the back half of the stroke which is what erg-only “rowers†t**end to do to keep the wheel spinning and increase their power on the machine **in a way that wouldn’t likely translate into additional boat speed.
No one on the erg (at least when going for max power) can increase the power through the use of the upper body. The power peaks at the end of the leg drive and tapers off through the finish of the upper body portion. Look at the force curve. Steep (should be) to its peak then the shallow roll off after the legs are done contributing.
You misunderstood me. I am talking about overall average power/speed. Of course, your power will peak with the leg drive. But if you pull harder with your arms, it will keep the wheel spinning and increase your overall average power and thus speed (as opposed to a finishing with little arm pull that is really more of a follow through).
10-4. Go it.
Rowing is really a much closer crossover to cycling. The primary method of force generation for each is knee extension + hip extension. At low intensity, rowing is maybe 10% arms and 20% back and lats. At higher intensities, I’d say that shifts to like 5% arms and 10% back. The harder you go, the more the focus shifts to the legs (which is a big part of why you need to increase stroke rate to increase power; you need to drive with your legs more often). Most rowers cycle extensively for cross training. Many elite rowers, by pure time, actually ride more than they row. Especially in off season. And because it’s easier to do “base” miles riding than rowing because technique focus is so important for rowing.
Rowing is, however, also great cross training for cycling, and it’s a great way to keep some upper body tone and also help offset the constant kyphosis of riding; engaging your back in extension is just really good for you, but it’s especially good if you’re a cyclist.
So if you’re looking for something to replace swimming, rowing ain’t it. However, I do think rowing is a great training tool for triathletes, and I don’t think your swim will suffer as a result of swimming. And, if you’re just looking to add something other than running or cycling, rowing is great. So is XC skiing. But both sports are heavily leg dominant with arms really for “finesse” and a bit of extra power (XC is more arm-heavy than rowing is, but also less accessible).
Roch Frey says the best substitute for swimming is paddling. Prone paddling is really good (it’s basically swimming on top of a board), but standup paddle, kayak, and canoe all probably have more benefit to swimming than rowing. But if you have access to those sports, you could probably just open water swim instead…
Someone send me a skierg please…I want one for swim cross training so badly. I enjoy it so much more than the VASA trainer.
I work FIFO with regular 4 week periods without access to a pool. I use a combination of indoor rowing and stretchy bands to maintain some swim fitness.
I’ve used the Concept2 two or three times a week for the past 5 or so years and find that my riding and particularly climbing is stronger than when I was doing 100% on the bike.
I don’t disagree with anything you said, I was more just focused on answering OP’s original question of can he use rowing have “some†benefit to develop upper body endurance. My opinion is “yes†and my 1998 lats will certainly agree!
I think what gets lost in the “rowing is all legs statements” when related to swimming, is that it is “more arms” than cycling and running.
So if we have to stop swimming, we can do all cycling and running and have zero pool fitness coming back, or do row-bike-run and in days dive back into the pool and get back to former volumes pretty safely and depending on your speed and background, you can get to your sustained “medium hard” paces quickly too.
I found after 4 months of no swim and row-bike-run, my body posture in water to get to chest down-hips up-legs high was not quite there for a bit. That literally took me a month for my core flexibility to sort itself out to get back to “swimmer body” design
Yeah “, that was sorta my point too. OP didn’t ask “what is the best non-swimming substitute for swimmingâ€? That is a different conversation. OP asked if rowing would help build upper body endurance. To that question, I have a hard time answering anything but “yes.â€