Light-weight rowers

Triathlon Forum
1

I am 18 and have been doing triathlon for a few years. My ultimate goal is ironman, but I don’t want to do one till I am around 23-24. So I was thinking of trying rowing as my main sport until I am ready to train specifically for ironman, incase i burn out (which I am on the verge of doing after taking junior racing very seriously and getting some good results). Weighing 60 kg I would be a light-weight. Having looked at some videos on youtube, light-weights are very skinny and if anything I need to bulk up a little bit. So my questions are:

Is rowing a suitable substitute for a few years?

If I did rowing would I get a little bigger and stronger? (currently quite weak but that doesnt seem to hinder my swimming at all)

Would rowing and a small amount of triathlon training be too much whilst at uni?

Thanks

2

Lightweight rowing was my main sport for a number of years growing up. It is a great sport which you can really enjoy! It can also be a great sport to beef up for tri as it’ll work your cycling muscles really well. It translates into a pretty good full-body workout and will really work your muscular endurance and your ability to withstand PAIN, so you can extend your fitness you’ll gain from it. Go for it!

Have fun on the erg :slight_smile:

3

as a former rower, i actually lost weight rowing and was lighter than i am in triathlon. if you row seriously you will not bulk up much but rather get stronger.

Have you rowed before (sorry if you already said it). you wont be putting down serious wrokouts for a few weeks until you really learn what you are doing, its not like running where you can ju,p right into it. that being said, its an amazing workout and translates very well into traithlon.

4

I can’t say much about rowing team but I bought a rowing machine about 3 months ago and you can get a very tough workout on that thing if you have a high tolerance to boredom.

5

Rowing will teach you about pain. Not how to “handle” it, but how to *embrace *it. You will yearn for the pain. You will seek it out and rejoice when you find it.

As for how it translates to triathlon, I’m pretty sure that The Sergio used to be a rower…

6

if you are doing it right and doing a hard workout boredom does not enter into the picture. all you really “think” about is how you would rather get hit by a bus. it hurts, a lot. more than i have ever been able to hurt in triathlon so far.
a nice 2k or 30min test is death.

7

any machine is controlled boredom for me. rowing across a lake would be a hoot.

8

its kind of like erging, with water in your eyes and a blur that should be the world around you.

haha, that being said, its a blast and i loved it while i was rowing. its a very good sport for poeple that like to work hard and see it pay off.

9

My wife was a rower in University and crossed over to triathlon quite well, as did a couple of her team mates. Also, being a young pup you may not know of him, but google Derek Porter. Amazing rower who transitioned into a not-too-shabby triathlete. I think rowing and xc skiing would be my top choices as the best sports for triathlon training other than swim, bike and run.

Greg.

10

newbz, no, I haven’t rowed before. I filled in once as a cox about five years ago at a camp but that is the only experience I have had with rowing. I know Mahe Drysdale only started rowing when he was at uni and he became world champion so I am assuming I will be able to get the hang of it and get a decent level of fitness over a few years.

11

yep you will deff be able to learn if you take the time to do it right. its not wildly hard to learn, just not a natural movement at first.

and he is an AMAZING athlete to watch row.

12

At the rowing clubs I’ve been involved in, the novices typically don’t do any weights training in their first year while they are learning the technique and getting all round fitness through rowing, erging and body circuits. So a lot of them do lose weight initially. After that, every training programme I’ve seen incorporates a fair bit of weight training over the winter to build power and strength, even the lightweights will try and bulk up a bit in the winter.

At 60kg and with a good fitness background already, I’d recommend the OP talk to the rowing coach about incorporating weights into his training straight away. Moving a boat quickly requires a lot more power than swimming or biking quickly.

13

How tall are you? Most elite ltws are over 6’ and weight 75kg +/- in the off season, then cut weight for the races. If you are shorter than 5’8 and weigh 60kg at 18, you are better off sticking to running or cycling, if you are looking to become elite.
Rowing IS a suitable substitute: bunch of good triathletes in the rowing ranks (Eskild Ebbesen comes to mind, Danish superman). My BF and I rowed for 10+years, had an easy transition to tri.
You might get bigger and stronger from rowing, but of course it depends on your training. Doing lots of sculling will not make you bigger. Rowing at a US college for example, where weights are a big part of the program, you might bulk up.
Rowing training includes a fair bit of cross training: running, cycling, swimming can all be done in off season and then fazed out during racing season.

14

I’ll chime in as I just got back from coaching my college crew program. :slight_smile:

First of all, realize that as a novice you won’t be able to get a workout that is equivalent to what you can do now for ~4-6 months, depending on how good the coach is. It takes about 3-4 weeks to learn the basics of rowing, but it takes months or years to learn to do it well. If you go into it looking for a workout only you’re going to wonder what the heck you’re doing early on. Don’t sweat being too small or too big. You’ve probably got a great engine and that’s the first thing. The rest will fall into place IF you like it.

There is no better college sport to be a part of. Period, done. The teamwork required, the athleticism, the reality of it (getting off campus and being OUT, as opposed to working out in gyms/etc), and the challenge and the fun will enrich your university experience tremendously. The most important thing is to figure out if you’re enjoying the group of people you’re with-- if you are, do it, it’ll be fantastic. Don’t worry about how it translates to tri-- if you like it you won’t care, and if you don’t enjoy the rowing or the group, don’t do it-- the workout alone isn’t worth it.

Remember that crew is 100% a team deal at colleges. It’s not about you, it’s about your team first, then your boat, and only them maybe a little bit about you.

I’m guessing your in England? The teams there vary widely; there’s schools that are very, very serious and those which are really drinking clubs. . . you’ll figure that out soon enough!

Have fun. It rocks. I’ve got 11 years in the sport and tried to quit once to be a bike racer-- no go, couldn’t get away. Now I coach instead of row but life wouldn’t be complete without the time on the river.

Enjoy!
Sam

15

i was a collegiate rower and we went to nationals, defended the gold, etc.

what i can tell you is that by virture of rowing, you will gain some muscle, as rowing is a powerful motion. so i would let the rowing change your body how it’s going to change it. once you are in training your coach might give you some weight training to do specific to rowing, but let your coach decide that.

rowing is a fantastic sport, the best one i did (outside of cheerleading during high school). being on the water and rowing with a crew is the most enjoyable thing, i just cannot describe it. at this pint i’m going on 10 years since my rowing days and i still crave the water, my crew and the power of our boat.

we were incredible, and there will never be anything like it again.

seriously, if i could slide into your body and trade places to row again, i would gladly do it. if i could just have back one day in my boat.

if i could see my women sit in front of me with their backs so strong, and the puddles of water soaring by, where every pull i try to get the puddles to be that much farther apart.
if i could sit in the boat that we split so perfectly that our bow could see the cox with every stroke.
if i could hear our coach scream from the shore “GODDAMMIT PULL THE BOAT! YOU’RE GOING TO WIN!”
if i could here the “ssssssssss” of the seat slide up to the catch, and here the slight clunk of the oars feathering in their locks.
if i could run the stadium steps to try to catch my team-mate Kelly Salchow who went on to become a 2-time olypian.
if i could have lost 10 pounds and trained just a little bit harder i would have gone on to the national camp for lightweight women’s rowing. i would trade you today to repeat that chance.
if i could just feel how amazingly painful it was to pull the erg and achieve a record breaking time, and have both the men and women pick me up off the floor and carry me all around high in the air as i was ready to puke my guts up. that is like no pain i’ve ever felt, and unless it’s for rowing, i’m not willing to go there again.
if i could once again race on The Hootch and just obliverate every crew there with my hands, legs and back screaming for mercy every pull of the oar.
if i could sit at the start, and at the gun hear our cox command, “Three Quarter, Half, Half, Three Quarter, Full!” and blow all the other boats off the line.

i yearn to be that crazed animal that foamed at the mouth in seat 5.

but i digress…

do it today while you have the opportunity; you will cherish it.

16

DO IT! Rowing is absolutely amazing. Everything that former rowers posted above is true and then some. I rowed for Tulane in New Orleans and all I can say is WOW. Taught me a lot.

I think my favorite line was “Rowers accomplish more before 8:00am than most people do all day.” I couldn’t agree more.

At 5’4" and 115 lbs, I rowed lightweight most often but typically got wrangled into coxing quite a bit by default. I’ll admit (now) that coxing taught me how to be a better rower. So if you have the opportunity, take advantage of it.

Good Luck!

17

How tall are you? Most elite ltws are over 6’ and weight 75kg +/- in the off season, then cut weight for the races. If you are shorter than 5’8 and weigh 60kg at 18, you are better off sticking to running or cycling, if you are looking to become elite.
Rowing IS a suitable substitute: bunch of good triathletes in the rowing ranks (Eskild Ebbesen comes to mind, Danish superman). My BF and I rowed for 10+years, had an easy transition to tri.
You might get bigger and stronger from rowing, but of course it depends on your training. Doing lots of sculling will not make you bigger. Rowing at a US college for example, where weights are a big part of the program, you might bulk up.
Rowing training includes a fair bit of cross training: running, cycling, swimming can all be done in off season and then fazed out during racing season.

wow, this is something. i am only 5’5, and because of my height disadvantage that really motivated me to be fast. i relished sitting at the line and knowing that the woman next to me in seat 5 was over 6ft. it was my personal mission to obliverate every woman taller; this mentality made me an absolute monster.

so i just want to say–height has nothing to do with it. sometimes those who are crazy in the head, and physically very strong and willing to hurt, can make very good rowers.

i was often the shortest person at the races; outside of coxs. it did feel strange, but my ability earned me respect very quickly. nobody in my boat ever thought twice about my height; i earned the engine and that was that.

with all of that said, my goal was to never be elite, as i was living for those days only. so i just want to be the voice that says, “if you’re short who cares, go for it”

18

I am 18 and have been doing triathlon for a few years. My ultimate goal is ironman, but I don’t want to do one till I am around 23-24. So I was thinking of trying rowing as my main sport until I am ready to train specifically for ironman, incase i burn out (which I am on the verge of doing after taking junior racing very seriously and getting some good results). Weighing 60 kg I would be a light-weight. Having looked at some videos on youtube, light-weights are very skinny and if anything I need to bulk up a little bit. So my questions are:

Is rowing a suitable substitute for a few years?

If I did rowing would I get a little bigger and stronger? (currently quite weak but that doesnt seem to hinder my swimming at all)

Would rowing and a small amount of triathlon training be too much whilst at uni?

Thanks
I rowed Lightweight crew in college (Naval Academy) and it is an excellent preparation for triathlon in later life. I always had trouble finding pants that would fit my waist and thighs at the same time - at least our uniforms were tailored.

Just cause you are light doesn’t mean you won’t have to work to make weight as you will probably bulk up a bit as you get older and put on muscle mass as you start training. In lightweight crew the boat has to average a certain weight. The smaller guys will still be pressed to get their weight down so they can put more big guys in the boat. I was 6’2" and always raced at 159.5 or so. They guys in the bow had to balance me (and a couple of other lard butts - I wasn’t the tallest guy on the team - in the middle of the boat) weight wise.

19

A cool side-effect of rowing is training to produce power with a very closed hip angle (at the catch). This translates into achieving a lower position on the bike while maintaining power. Rowers tend to be able to tolerate tight hip angles for longer periods of time. It could be the trained hip angle, or it could be the trained pain tolerance :slight_smile:

I agree with newbz: I still have yet to experience the level of pain at the end of a 2k in triathlon.

20

How tall are you? Most elite ltws are over 6’ and weight 75kg +/- in the off season, then cut weight for the races. If you are shorter than 5’8 and weigh 60kg at 18, you are better off sticking to running or cycling, if you are looking to become elite.
Rowing IS a suitable substitute: bunch of good triathletes in the rowing ranks (Eskild Ebbesen comes to mind, Danish superman). My BF and I rowed for 10+years, had an easy transition to tri.
You might get bigger and stronger from rowing, but of course it depends on your training. Doing lots of sculling will not make you bigger. Rowing at a US college for example, where weights are a big part of the program, you might bulk up.
Rowing training includes a fair bit of cross training: running, cycling, swimming can all be done in off season and then fazed out during racing season.

wow, this is something. i am only 5’5, and because of my height disadvantage that really motivated me to be fast. i relished sitting at the line and knowing that the woman next to me in seat 5 was over 6ft. it was my personal mission to obliverate every woman taller; this mentality made me an absolute monster.

so i just want to say–height has nothing to do with it. sometimes those who are crazy in the head, and physically very strong and willing to hurt, can make very good rowers.

i was often the shortest person at the races; outside of coxs. it did feel strange, but my ability earned me respect very quickly. nobody in my boat ever thought twice about my height; i earned the engine and that was that.

with all of that said, my goal was to never be elite, as i was living for those days only. so i just want to be the voice that says, “if you’re short who cares, go for it”
How being tall helps a rower is in balancing the boat. Rowing fast is mostly about teamwork, everybody doing exactly the same thing at exactly the same time. Most people who go out for crew tend to be taller (probably because that is who the coach is out “recruiting”, that is how I ended up there. I was tall and strong and the crew coach was at the pull-up bar when were were being physically tested plebe year.) It is a lot easier to get a boat of 8 people to row together if they are all the same height than if they range in height from 6’3" to 5’3". But, it is difficult to get identical people to sign up all at the same time for this niche sport. So, the coach is left trying to mix and match people of differing skills, abilities, and physiques and turn them into a team. It is a great sport and the best feeling in the world is sometime in the spring the first time the boat “puts it all together” and it picks itself out of the water and, seemingly, flies.