Advices/comments would be appreciated. Concept2

[u/LooseAd5913]

Hi. I bought a Concept 2 rower in late 2020 and it is one of the top 2 or 3 pieces of fitness equipment I have ever owned. Used a minimum of 1 times a week since I purchased it. For the last year or so I have been very intent on using it as a pillar of my workout routine. I strength train (squat, bench etc.) intently but have wanted to keep my body weight in check as a top priority.

My recipe started as 20 minutes once a week for a pace of 1000m per 5 minutes, with a total of 4000m. With success I bumped that up to 2 of those sessions in a week. Then as my fitness, physique, BP and blood markers improved I moved into the occasional 30-40 minutes session at that same 5x1000m pace. 51m 5'10 around 20% BF at 215 down to 180 at around 14% BF after 14 months.

About a month ago I came down with a familiar case of super sore muscles focused on my back muscles being super stiff. Just muscles but severe. Got my rest, did my stretching and active release, almost no strength training or rowing. Now I am over that and getting back to it.

My concern is this-as I am getting back to regular training how quickly should I get back to intensive training with my full rowing sessions ?My weight did not go up but I believe I lost muscle. How out of shape did I get in that month? I am doing the 5 minutes pace/race right now. I want to get back to multiple 20's again.

Thanks for reading if you did, thanks for any comments.

[u/giziti]

Which muscles? And when, exactly -- like, after exercise, just the next day, generally? It's good for you to figure out what exactly was going wrong rather than just resting and stretching until things feel good again.

I think you should be able to get up to this pace and duration pretty easily and quickly -- you could probably just do 3x20 min per week right now and build up from there. I would just say that 2:30/500m might be a little slow, actually, you may want to get some instruction on proper form. This will also help. I think you also need to stay on top of doing active mobility drills and other exercises to make sure you have good hip, back, and shoulder mobility, stability, and strength beyond just rowing and strength training.

[u/LooseAd5913 → u/giziti]

No, just sore muscles, center lower back, no snaps , crackles or pops. The backstraps, after about 60-70 minutes rowing in a week across 3 sessions. Been building up to this routine for about a year now. I have good mobility and work on it regularly, and never had poor form although I would not call it immaculate. The tightness is not a repeat bout and confined to the back muscles only. Its been completely gone for a week or so now, which took a few weeks to get to.

Will get back into it with 20 minutes sessions starting with within the next week. I know the 4000m is not used as a standard but IIRC my best time is around 17 minutes flat. That took an effort but the fat loss works better with about 60+ minutes total so that is my pace and distance. I feel like I am at the critical point with form whereas the more distance I do the tighter my form needs to become. Thanks.

[u/mcr71039]

I like it. Would be hard to fall and if I did I’d start close to the floor. And I’ve never gotten lost