STUDIO ROWING: FITNESS TREND

Glorious but cold Chicago morning on the Lakefront Trail. taken by PKSenagore April 29, 2018.

CUTTING EDGE CLASSES TO ENERGIZE FITNESS TRAINING & SAVE LEGS FOR RUNNING OR OTHER MAIN ATHLETIC TRAINING .  Perhaps you have spent the entire winter season training indoors and taken full advantage of the classes offered at the gym.  Or you’ve spent the months outdoors just running, walking, or cycling, toughing it out, spending most days of each week enduring bleak weather conditions.

​You’re ready for a change-up in routine before summer arrives, but have the fitness blahs. It took so much effort to be active all winter, you want someone else to help with encouragement.
 
Indoor fitness classes can do that.  But what if you’ve already hit the Soul Cycle studio or powered through at-home Peleton sessions on a stationary bike? SHAPE magazine lists and briefly describes 5 new trends in studio fitness that may energize a spring ramp-up:
 
1. TREADMILL
2. 30 MINUTE HIIT
3. INDOOR ROWING
4. OBSTACLE COURSE TRAINING
5. HIP HOP YOGA
 
I was fired up to try #3, rowing! Like others may do, I sometimes climb on the gym’s machine and row about 10 minutes, often ‘do’ a homemade HIIT routine (30-20-10 sec easy-moderate-hard x 10). But am not sure whether it’s benefitting me as much as it might. Or that I used proper form.  
 
Upon learning that indoor classes were trending, and that there was a studio in a Chicago neighborhood near my hotel on a recent trip, I signed up for a Saturday morning slot. The Iron & Oar Signature class experience was totally positive and invigorating.  However, it wasn’t a beginner class intended to teach the basics. There were no ‘101’ level classes offered at a time I could attend.
 
The Signature class combined HIIT type rowing intervals (oar) with dumbbell weight exercises iron) that were performed on a mat in the space between rowing machines.  All exercises were familiar and basic, including reverse and forward lunges, squats, overhead press, push-ups, triceps dips, burpees, and mountain climbers.  There were a few crunches but I swapped them for dead bugs.
 
As a result of attending, I now have a potential workout planned in my mind that can be taken to the gym.  Unfortunately, there’s not much space between the rowing machines there, and it will be socially awkward with the way treadmills and ellipticals are aligned in that section.  If I can screw up enough courage, though, at least I can move through the session quickly and appear confident!
 
For those interested in studio rowing, a search of the internet showed that this is a huge trend (see “Resources for INDOOR ROWING” at the end of the post). Articles proclaim it’s the next Souls Cycle-type craze and attempt to lessen beginner’s fears with excellent explanations of why and how to perform the necessary moves.
 
YouTube provides demonstrations if DIY is a better option than a class.  Earned Runs reviewed a few; the links are listed below.  NOTES are given below from the SarahFit YouTube video, featuring Josh Crosby (see “INSTRUCTION”).   There are oodles of other videos, however, so continue searching as needed.  
 
If rowing doesn’t excite, check out the other 4 new types of classes. Unfortunately, If not as booming a trend as rowing, options to attend treadmill, obstacle course, and hip-hop yoga classes may be limited to studios in upscale big city neighborhoods. It seems that 30-minute HIIT (high Intensity interval training) studio sessions would be not too difficult to locate. 

"Power, patience, patience; 1, 2, 3."
 
RUN & MOVE HAPPY!

https://www.shape.com/featured/StriveCuttingEdgeGymClasses
  
RESORCES FOR INDOOR ROWING 

Additional studios: 2016 SELF article
https://www.self.com/story/best-indoor-rowing-workout-studios
 
Thrillist: explains how big this trend is becoming
https://www.thrillist.com/health/nation/indoor-rowing-workouts-group-fitness-trend
 
Jay Willis for GQ: demystifies rowing, explains it and offers a 30 minute workout!
https://www.gq.com/story/rowing-machine-demystified
 
DIY INSTRUCTION (VIDEO)
Training Tall Rowing: Lower back strength needs explanation; watch this first!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSQGoxB4bts
 
Good form instruction from SarahFit YouTube 6:12 minutes from Josh Crosby
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2THSG6LoAHI
 
Earned Runs video NOTES:
*Crosby’s “Order, Power, Timing Rule”
Order: back …legs, then core, then arms…forward arms, then core, finally legs.
Power: = 60% legs, 20% core, 10% arms “Rowing is a pushing sport; push with legs.” 
(other instructors advise 60%: 30%; 10%)
Timing: “Power, patience, patience; 1, 2, 3.”
Use count of 3: explode back, 1-count ‘out’, pushing with legs; recover ‘forward’ with 2-counts
 
*Workout HIIT: 2min warmup; then 30 second easy followed by 30 seconds hard; repeat x 5; check time, then repeat another 5-min trying to beat your first time.
 
*Workout Endurance; 2min warm-up; then 2-min easy, followed by 2-min moderate, then 1-min hard; repeat = 10 min. Rest (?2 min at warm up speed) Repeat as many times as you plan for an endurance workout. 4 x 12 min = 48 min; 5 x 12min = 1hour.
 
Other DIY Workouts
Joe Warner: 6 row machine workouts (metric system)  
http://www.coachmag.co.uk/fitness/5455/rowing-machine-workouts-for-fat-loss-plus-building-muscle-speed-and-endurance
 
Samantha Lefave for womenshealthmag.com
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/a19969970/rowing-workout/