{"id":1894,"date":"2015-04-29T09:12:22","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T09:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.livehard.co.uk\/?p=1894"},"modified":"2015-04-29T13:02:03","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T13:02:03","slug":"rowing-workouts-that-dont-suck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.livehard.co.uk\/rowing-workouts-that-dont-suck\/","title":{"rendered":"Rowing workouts that (don’t) suck"},"content":{"rendered":"

I probably spend too much time thinking about rowing.<\/p>\n

Last year I set my gym-sights on (and barely managed) a 7-minute 2k row, which is\u00a0considered the minimum acceptable standard among the fine men and women of Gym Jones. This year I’ve been hitting different distances, and managed a borderline-acceptable 10k time (39:46), and an actually-pretty-decent-for-my-weight 500m PB (1:28.6). I’m currently signed up to Concept 2’s Million-Metre Club<\/a>, and I’m about twenty percent of the way through. I also talk to my wife, half of the trainers at my gym, a few of the people at work, and a bunch of people on Twitter, about stroke rates and damper settings and pacing strategies and split times, basically all the time.<\/p>\n

Like I say, I think about it a lot.<\/p>\n

The plus side of this is that I also acquire a lot of rowing workouts: whenever someone sends me a new one, I feel honour-bound to try it out, but trying a slightly new ‘thing’ is more fun than doing a 2k\/5k\/10k every time you crank up the flywheel. With a decent selection of different distances and times to improve on, there’s always something to beat.<\/p>\n

So: here’s a selection. The good thing about rowing, as opposed to running, is that there’s basically no adaptation period needed: you aren’t going to get shinsplints or impact injuries by doing too much, too soon. That said, the pacing strategies suggested here are mostly on the ‘hard’ side of things, so if you’re new to rowing\/the gym\/exercise, downscale them to something that lets you get a decent amount of metres in without blowing yourself out of the water in the first 60 seconds.\u00a0Real unpleasantness takes time.<\/p>\n

#1 Dean Martin<\/strong><\/p>\n

I feel sorry for people who don’t drink<\/em>.’ Dean Martin once said. ‘When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.”\u00a0<\/em>Well, Deano, I drink: and I like doing this workout first thing in the morning, because \u2013 unless you get fired or hit by a car or something \u2013 it is definitely the worst thing that will happen to you all day. Thanks to the guys of Gym Jones for this: the stupid name is all me, though.<\/p>\n