Recently, Lisa Hudson and I (Steve Smith) participated in the Indianapolis Indoor Rowing Championships held in the gymnasium of the Indianapolis International School Saturday, Jan 30th, 2010.   I competed in the Men’s Masters division, 30 to 50 year olds.  I find that events like this keep my training consistent and focused.

There were 10 rowing machines lined up next to each other.  Using the Concept 2 indoor rowing ergometer, our computer generated boats were projected up on a large screen so we could see how we were doing against each other.

Lisa  has been getting great rowing experience in the FBD Bootcamp and showed up to test her stuff.  She did that and more by placing fourth in her heat and pulling her best ever at 8:23.1 for the 2000 meters. I was pumped after Lisa’s effort and hoped to pull a sub 6:50 myself.

Like any other competitive event I’ve done I had butterflies in my stomach up until I pulled my first 100 meters.  Then it was about not selling out too soon.   Settling into a steady pace was like trying to tame a wild stallion, but I did.  I was afraid to look at the screen out of fear that I would “bonk” trying to keep up with the faster rowers.  As we approached the finish the crowd began to cheer.  I wanted to go faster, but my body was already in the red zone.  I finished with a personal best, 6:52.8 for the 2000 meter event. Though I didn’t quite accomplish my stretch, there’s always next year.

Here’s some video of Lisa and I in action:

You know how much we like indoor rowing at FBD.

Our very own personal trainer Steve Smith and chin up queen Lisa Hudson will be competing in the Indianapolis Indoor Rowing Championships this Saturday. The event is being held at the International School on Michigan Rd.

Last November, 17 people from FBD rowed over 1 million meters as part of the Concept2 Holiday Rowing Challenge. Steve Smith rowed 250,000 of those meters himself.

Steve on why he likes rowing so much:

“Rowing provides a total body workout. The rower engages my upper and lower body muscles. And I don’t have to find snow or water. I also find the back and forth rhythm of the movement to be relaxing. Training for something like the rowing championship keeps me motivated.”

If you’re free, come cheer for our 2 rowers. Hopefully, we’ll have video of them to post next week.

More Info:

www.regattacentral.com

http://indyrowing.org/

Indy Star article on rowing championship.

You’re invited to participate in the 2010 Rowing Challenge with Fitness By Design. The challenge is to complete 50,000 meters by Dec. 25, starting on Thanksgiving Day. It’s a great way to work off the holiday calories. Contact us to sign-up or to learn about the indoor rowing class.

My newest favorite exercise is rowing. The rowing machine provides a great all around workout.

We use the Concept 2 Indoor Rowers quite a bit in our fitness boot camp classes and our trainers are using it more and more with their personal training clients.

Here are the benefits the manufacturer describes on their website:

• Low-impact (easy on the knees and ankles)
• High calorie burner (because it uses so many muscle groups)
• Great for joint health (joints move through a wide range of motion)
• Upper body (completes the stroke)
• Lower body (the legs initiate the drive)
• Works the back and abs too!
• Superb aerobic fitness (great for cardiovascular fitness)
• Relieves Stress (for overall health and well-being)

Good technique is important to avoid injury and get the most out of the exercise.

I take pride in the quality of training we offer at Fitness By Design. If we are going to offer a new kind training to our clients we take the time to learn how to do it correctly. Yesterday we had a training clinic for our personal trainers with rowing experts Eric and Deborah Stoll of Fitness Concepts. They have years of experience coaching and training rowers. Eric was director of the Indianapolis Rowing Center.

Rowing Class at Fitness By Design

As someone who’s done his fair share of spinning classes, and who loves to ride, I think rowing is a better total body workout, all the major muscle groups are involved. The “kick ass” factor is definitely present.