Usain Bolt ran 100 meters in 9.58 seconds and 200 meters in 19.19 seconds for two world records.
What is Fitness?
Usain Bolt’s Olympic achievements inspire us in our quest for fitness.
Athletic performance defines fitness. Fitness is the combination of strength, speed and endurance. Performance also requires coordination, balance, and flexibility.
Most people agree the best-looking, physically-fit athletes in the Olympics are the sprinters in Track.
An Olympic sprinter does not do hundreds of different exercises. A sprinter runs intervals at different distances and speeds, and adds select strength exercises. The sprinter’s goal is to improve performance.
To be fit, we do not need to do hundreds of different exercises, or isolate individual muscles. We can do simple, fun, full-body exercises to increase our strength, speed, and endurance.
Row Tribe shows you how to train like a sprinter using an indoor rower. We focus on performance because that is the best way we can achieve fitness.
Why row for fitness?
For us mere mortals, rowing may be the best way to lose belly fat, get fit, look better, and live longer. Done correctly, rowing is a more complete exercise than all other equipment in a typical gym. You don’t need exercise machines with motors.
Weight coaches agree the best free-weight exercise is the dead lift. Rowing uses the same muscles as a dead lift. Add a overhead or bench press or body-weight push-ups to rowing for complete exercise.
Both rowing and free weights build strength. Rowing also builds speed and endurance. Rowing 500 meters on a Concept 2 is a similar effort to running 500 meters on a track.
With rowing, you don’t set weights. A Concept 2 rower automatically sets its resistance to equal your pull. You can’t overload. You don’t need a spotter. You get a maximum workout.
With weights, you must quit your interval when you can no longer lift the weight. With rowing, you can finish your interval as you tire because the rower resets its resistance on every stroke.
Rowing flattens your stomach and strengthens your back, torso, legs, shoulders, arms.
Do the calcs. If you row 4 500-meter intervals at 2 minutes per 500 meters, then you row 8 minutes. If you average 20 stokes per minute, then you have done 160 sit-ups and dead lifts.
Rowing is a weight-bearing exercise because you load your shoulders and push with your feet. Good for your bones. Rowing is low-impact and helps, not hurts, your joints.
The best time to begin your fitness life style is now.
Above are Concept 2 world-record times versus age for men rowing 2000 meters. The age curve is similar for women and for other distances. The two dots for each age are lightweight and heavyweight. The better the athlete, the shorter the rowing time.
These are the fittest rowers in the world, but they still lose strength with age, mostly after 60. If we don’t exercise, we lose our strength, speed and endurance much faster with age than these athletes.
Be fit for fun
Here’s a secret they don’t tell you in the big advertising.
The secret to losing belly fat and looking better is not about taking pills with exotic ingredients from far-away places. It’s not about trying to lose 30 pounds in 30 days.
The secret to fitness is to adopt a lifestyle that produces fitness. There is no instant gratification. Be patient.
Do quality exercise three times per week, consume less sugar and alcohol, eat good proteins, good fats, fewer carbohydrates, and, optionally, take good supplements. OK, you might have to eat a little less if you’ve been eating too much.
The secret to looking better is stronger muscles and less fat. Focus on fitness. Your looks will follow.
Don’t exercise to burn calories. Exercise to increase your strength, speed, and endurance. Then relax and recover. Your muscles will burn calories and fat 24-hours a day, even while you sleep.
In fitness, your foremost competitor is yourself. Row Tribe will teach you how to win the race for a better life.
Concept 2 Model D rower. You can buy a new one for about $1000 USD. My Concept 2 is in my living room.
If you can sit on the seat, put your feet in the straps, and grab the handle, you can row.
Why Row Tribe?
Row Tribe will help you get better fit using a Concept 2 rower.
Row Tribe is an online community, with instructional courses and group coaching. We show you how to row for fitness, health, and fun. Members encourage each other to do the best they can.
Row Tribe’s goal is to help you look better and feel better, with minimum time expended … no matter what your age. The key to fitness is consistency and variable interval distances, levels of effort, and rest days.
Row Tribe teaches beginners the fastest and safest rowing form, so you will strengthen your back and not hurt your back. We encourage beginners to start slow and only increase their rowing speed as they master their form. Note: I teach a different rowing form than Concept 2 teaches. My form is based on physics.
Row Tribe focuses on interval distances from 100 meters to 1000 meters. Short-distance intervals help your fitness more than long-distance intervals. 500 meters is the ultimate fitness challenge because it requires maximum strength, speed, and endurance.
Row Tribe recommends a sensible diet and optional, modern, safe supplements that we do not sell.
Why a Concept 2 rower?
The Concept 2 rower makes indoor rowing a sport. Sports are fun.
One of my fitness rules is, if your workout gets boring, quit for the day. Note I said “boring” not challenging. Then you will look forward to your next workout.
A track coach uses a stop watch to measure a runner’s performance. We use the Concept 2 Performance Monitor to measure our performance. We set the distance or time for each interval before we row, and then record our performance. Our performance data help us improve our fitness and health.
The Performance Monitor lets you participate in worldwide rowing competition, or to simply evaluate your rowing performance with others in your age group.
Whether or not you want to compete, the Concept 2 worldwide community makes rowing fun and challenging. Concept 2 has worldwide competitions in age and weight groups.
Without records of my workouts, I would not know I improved my performance between age 77 and 83. My records show what I did right. My experience helps me help you.
Concept 2 Performance Monitor PM5 set for a 2000 meter row. Other rows show instant speed, average speed, strokes per minute, and Heart Rate if connected.
Why me?
My goal is to help you improve your fitness and health so you can enjoy your life to the fullest.
I understand the physics of the human body and rowing. I have a BS in engineering from Caltech, an MS in physics from Dartmouth, and a PhD in Physics from U of Nevada.
I am a lifetime athlete as well as a physicist. I have done well in baseball, track, swimming, skiing, gymnastics, trampoline, weight lifting, karate, soaring, small boat sailing, biathlons, and triathlons.
My athletic performance as a grad student at the U of Nevada earned me a membership in the elite Sigma Delta Psi national athletic honorary.
I hold national and world championships in small-boat sailing. I placed in the top three in senior world track championships in 100, 200 and 400 meters.
In 2013, in my quest to stay in shape at age 77, I rediscovered the Concept 2 indoor rower.
In 2018, I hold Concept 2 world records for my age-group, lightweight, for 100 meters and one-minute. My 500-meter time is only 0.4 seconds from the world record. (The 2018 records are here. Click on Rankings to see other records.)
I remain active in my profession of atmospheric physics. If you are busy, like me, with little time for health and fitness, Row Tribe is for you.
I look forward to helping you in your quest for health and fitness.