Any help or advice greatly received

[Feelbroken13]

Hi guys, i dont really know where to start so I'll just start from the beginning. I'm a 35yo f, about 4 years ago I had a bad turn and couldn't breath at work ( I'm a plasterer) long story short I ended up in hospital for 3 weeks n was pumped full of steroids for 17 days. When I went in my body was in the best shape ever but I put 4 stone on over the following 6months due to recurrent steroids and antibiotics but mainly steroids. My diet was non existent and my lack of motivation to do anything just sat with me. I've also been suffering with anxiety and depression and it horrible. Anyway I recently bought myself a cheap (£200) rowing machine but I'm so disheartened with myself. I can barely do 5min on no2 resistance. I spent years working out n going to the gym, it was my happy place. Now I can't even do simple things like row for half HR.im 16 stone so I'm out 6 stone on n it depressing. It doesn't help that I've got the mentality stuck that if I don't eat I won't gain any weight so I don't eat regular. I had half a pack of cheddars yesterday morning n it's now close to 7pm. It usual for me to do this. I just need some serious help/advice/motivation. I seem to be stuck in a never-ending circle. Sorry for the life story

[JaapvanE]

You already did the most important thing: you realized you had a problem and you made the first step to adressing that. The road ahead won't be free of bumps, but if you persevere, you'll get there.

Excercising should be fun, so if rowing is your thing (we all realize it is an aquired taste), welcome to the club! Keep it fun: feeling dead after each and every session is bad for morale and counterproductive. Don't beat yourself up on a desired time or distance, with practice that will come by itself. Enjoy what you do, and you'll get better at it.

Regarding food: bad habits are difficult to break. Eating well on a regular basis seems to be a more effective approach to losing weight: irregular meals tend to force your body into storing additional reserves.

[Ombrax]

I just need some serious help/advice/motivation.

Welcome to the forum. : )

I'd suggest that you start easy, with small steps. Don't try to do too much. There's no rush and there are lots of reasons to start off slowly. But do keep a log, and push yourself to gradually improve. As you do, it will provide more motivation to continue, and after a while you be off and rowing.

I think the single most important thing is to keep at it, even you you don't do too much. Every bit helps, and you'll get satisfaction by knowing that even though on a given day you might not have been feeling 100%, you still did something instead of nothing.

Good Luck

[jamesg]

Anyway I recently bought myself a cheap (£200) rowing machine but I'm so disheartened with myself. I can barely do 5min on no2 resistance

Same as me 20 years ago, save the machine itself, a C2.

Never give up. What seems impossible now will be just a warmup in a few months time.

Warm-up is critical as you'll know; but does not need to be done hard. It takes around five minutes, then things start to flow.

Walk too. When possible, twice as long as you row, and if you see a hill, climb it. If exercise is good for us, walking is essential. Same warm-up applies; our sole miracle drug is our own endorphines.

[Dangerscouse]

I can totally understand why it's demoralising and you feel lost, but you sound like you've got a very good base of muscle memory to build on, so progress could be rapid if you keep focused and motivated.

This is easier said than done, as you do have previous fitness experience so your ego will be an issue, but you have to fully accept that you're a beginner. Keep a close eye on the smallest items of progress, even if this is only one minute or 100m more. It all counts.

I do have some questions though:

- Are you fully recovered from your illness?
- Have you watched any technique videos? Make sure you're not leaking power through bad habits.
- Are you rowing slowly enough? It's a common mistake to try and far too much far too soon.

Best of luck

[Feelbroken13]

Thank you for your reply. Yes I do find it very demoralising and my ego does come into it. I don't normally suffer from a big ego but I do where this is concerned. Just feel like I've failed rather than succeeded. I'll be honest I sort of gave up again after the measly 5min n didn't do anything g yesterday apart from cey about it. The same this morning. Then I came back on here and some very good points have been made. I'm not the same as I was and I probably never will be. I need to get over the mental block I seem to have placed on myself. Just keep reminding myself I can instead of keep saying I can't...

To answer your questions
1, I'm not fully recovered, if anything this time of year is worse for me, but I need to do something coz this wallowing in self pity shit isn't me and it's driving me slowly insane.

2, I've got my technique down to a T, I think will watch a few today 2 make sure.lol.

3, No I'm not, again that ego thing come into play here. Too fast, constantly putting on more resistance, muscles can manage to an extent but I know I'm pushing too fast too quick.

Some very good points have been made. I'll just keep going and keep a record of what I've managed on a day to day basis n see where I'm at in a week. Fingers crossed I'll be capable of more than 5min.

[gvcormac]

For me, being able to measure progress is essential. So a rower with no erg would not do it for me. For the first dozen years I used a non-Concept2 (more than 30 years ago AirRow by a now defunct company called Inside Fitness) but when I wore out the clutch on that one I got a Concept2. That was the first year of Model D production. So I have a log since the beginning of time. The erg calibrations aren't exactly the same, but I can translate. That said, it is great to be able to compare actual Concept 2 numbers with percentiles for my age group on the Concept 2 log.

While I'm waxing nostalgic, here's the patent for my original rower: https://patents.google.com/patent/US4880224A/

Note the resemblance to the mechanism in the Whipr (which appears to be a very lightweight knockoff; my Air Row was solid).

One thing I really liked about it was it used airplane cable and a window-blind windup mechanism rather than the clunky chain of the Concept 2. (But I'd still rather have the clunky chain than the belt/strap that others use.)

They also had a bike trainer. That's 30+ years ago! But I didn't have the money at the time. But I did try it and loved it, so I bought the Bike Erg when it came out.

[Dangerscouse]

Thank you for your reply. Yes I do find it very demoralising and my ego does come into it. I don't normally suffer from a big ego but I do where this is concerned. Just feel like I've failed rather than succeeded. I'll be honest I sort of gave up again after the measly 5min n didn't do anything g yesterday apart from cey about it. The same this morning. Then I came back on here and some very good points have been made. I'm not the same as I was and I probably never will be. I need to get over the mental block I seem to have placed on myself. Just keep reminding myself I can instead of keep saying I can't...

To answer your questions
1, I'm not fully recovered, if anything this time of year is worse for me, but I need to do something coz this wallowing in self pity shit isn't me and it's driving me slowly insane.

2, I've got my technique down to a T, I think will watch a few today 2 make sure.lol.

3, No I'm not, again that ego thing come into play here. Too fast, constantly putting on more resistance, muscles can manage to an extent but I know I'm pushing too fast too quick.

Some very good points have been made. I'll just keep going and keep a record of what I've managed on a day to day basis n see where I'm at in a week. Fingers crossed I'll be capable of more than 5min.

Good to hear. Going from an expert (in sports / gym context) to an absolute beginner is very humbling and hard for anyone to handle, unless you fully accept that you're starting again. I did suspect that your previous strength background would be messing with your thoughts and expectations: you can wrongly assume that if all else fails you can muscle your way through it.

Take a step back to take two steps forward. Going slower in the early stages will reap rewards for you in the future, as your base fitness and confidence will develop, otherwise you'll just get frustrated and think that there's no chance that you can make any difference.

Always keep the long term plan in your head, sort of like aiming for a summer beach body by starting now . If you're making slower progress due to circumstances then I assume (hope) that when the seasons change you'll be able to go faster due to the work you put in now.

I'd also recommend using a HR monitor, but it's not essential. This can be a good way of knowing what is too fast, as you row to a specific HR cap. You can monitor your progression over time with a faster pace at a similar HR, albeit HR can be fickle so it's not 100 reliable, but it is useful imo.

FWIW, I got Covid in early March and I'm still not fully recovered. This is difficult to accept, and it's never a linear path ie good days & bad days, but when you recalibrate your expectations you can see improvements from a different perspective, that won't be what they used to be, but they are what they are.

You have to become a 2.0 version of you, as your mental health will improve dramatically when you start changing what you can do from now on. Don't think that five minutes is "measly". Think of it as your starting point, and with some tweaks I bet you'll get past five minutes fairly easily soon enough. Also consider doing some intervals e.g. 3 x 3 mins with three minutes rest. This will break it up into bite sized chunks.

Keep coming back to the forum, and remember that comparison is the thief of joy. Some of us have been doing this for years, and have worked very hard to get to where we've got to, so it's not easy to progress, but nothing worth ever is.

[Feelbroken13]

[Yes exactly I'm too in my own head sometimes just just let things flow. I have however took advice about YouTube and what I thought was the perfect technique turn out to be absolute

I have however in the last few hours learnt quite a lot. Spent about a couple of hours on YouTube looking at do's and don'ts and techniques and breathing etc. It'll take about of getting used to the legs,body,arms,arms,body,leg thing (must have looked like a proper Muppet in the gym before lol)

I've also managed to follow 20min on a beginner's video too, totally not doing it again wearing a hoody n tracky bottoms but I managed it n quite proud of myself. Not guna lie I nearly gave up a few times but I need to remember the end goal. If I can only manage to do that for next couple of months I'll be a happy gal.

I've also been on Amazon and bought a log book to keep track of everything weight/gym related and another for food intake.

It my birthday next week so might treat myself to a Fitbit to help keep track. I think it'll be a worthy investment.

Thank you again you've made me realise I'm not the same as I was but I can make this a better version of myself with a little hard work and effort

I just need to remember patience & persistence are

[jackarabit]

Fitness renovation will need stoking and that pack of crisps per deum won’t cut it, Sister. Get a dog, take a walk, buy an apple, give the dog half, make a friend. Stop looking at yesterday and share the crackers (life skills).

[Dangerscouse]

[Yes exactly I'm too in my own head sometimes just just let things flow. I have however took advice about YouTube and what I thought was the perfect technique turn out to be absolute

I have however in the last few hours learnt quite a lot. Spent about a couple of hours on YouTube looking at do's and don'ts and techniques and breathing etc. It'll take about of getting used to the legs,body,arms,arms,body,leg thing (must have looked like a proper Muppet in the gym before lol)

I've also managed to follow 20min on a beginner's video too, totally not doing it again wearing a hoody n tracky bottoms but I managed it n quite proud of myself. Not guna lie I nearly gave up a few times but I need to remember the end goal. If I can only manage to do that for next couple of months I'll be a happy gal.

I've also been on Amazon and bought a log book to keep track of everything weight/gym related and another for food intake.

It my birthday next week so might treat myself to a Fitbit to help keep track. I think it'll be a worthy investment.

Thank you again you've made me realise I'm not the same as I was but I can make this a better version of myself with a little hard work and effort

I just need to remember patience & persistence are

Overthinking is a constant issue for many of us, and your head can be your best friend or worst enemy.

For a seemingly simple exercise it is surprisingly technical.

20 minutes is a fantastic result, and I'm not surprised you almost gave up on a few occasions.

I don't know much about Fitbit but I'm not convinced that they are that worthwhile. I think / assume that a lot of the info it produces is probably a bit flaky. HR from a watch is notoriously unreliable, probably due to the rowing motion, and I've read a lot of people commenting that the sleep results aren't reliable, but obviously it's up to you.

I use a CooSpo HR monitor, which cost £32 on Amazon. If the rower has a PM5 monitor you can connect using ANT+ or Bluetooth, and use the free app, Polar Beat to monitor your HR throughout the entire session, especially useful if you can't connect to the monitor.

[JaapvanE]

[Yes exactly I'm too in my own head sometimes just just let things flow. I have however took advice about YouTube and what I thought was the perfect technique turn out to be absolute

Don't feel bad about it. Most people who started to row in a gym never had a decent explanation how to row.

It'll take about of getting used to the legs,body,arms,arms,body,leg thing (must have looked like a proper Muppet in the gym before lol)

That is the issue, everybody does it, so nobody actually notices. Now you will look like the person who takes it easy on the machine, but still gets better results than most of them.

I've also managed to follow 20min on a beginner's video too, totally not doing it again wearing a hoody n tracky bottoms but I managed it n quite proud of myself.

You have every reason to feel proud: you just quadrupled your rowing time!

I have two simple rules when rowing:

• Celebrate success
• I am the only one who decides what succes means at any given moment

You'll have good days but probably will have some off days too. Sometimes success means increasing your maximum rowing time, sometimes it is increasing the distance you covered in the same time, sometimes it is doing the same distance and time, but keeping your heartrate low and sometimes it is reaching the end without being all sweaty and out of breath. And sometimes success is still getting on the machine and doing a very easy row for 20 minutes. And trying something new and not reaching that goal in one go isn't failure, you had the guts to experiment and you learned something (where your current limit is). You are the boss and the only one who decides what success means that session, and halfway you can change your mind (so starting very very enthousiastic, but ending with the goal just to reach the end) and nobody will get angry or dissapointed.

Celebrate these successes. Sometimes they are small improvements, but they are improvements. Not every day will give you a personal best, but there is always something to be happy about. Focus on the things that did go well, not on the stuff that didn't go as planned.

Your ego will want to look back to better times or want to see bigger improvements on the short run. That is your biggest enemy. Small steps and having fun along the way is much more important in the long run.

Not guna lie I nearly gave up a few times but I need to remember the end goal. If I can only manage to do that for next couple of months I'll be a happy gal.

Yeah, rowing for decades, still have that feeling frequently

I used to have that feeling after 15 minutes. After some training and getting used to the machine and keeping in mind I do this for fun and that I won't make it to the Olympics regardless how hard I will train, I moved this point to around 30 minutes. So many of regular trainings are just below that point . Remember that part of defining your own success: no need to get frustrated every day. Small steps here: you can increase your rowing time by a minute when things become very doable.

In part I use this internal voice shouting "GET ME OFF THIS MACHINE" in a productive way by rowing fixed distances with times just above the 30 minutes: my ego won't let me off until I completed the distance, and knowing that when I row faster, that counter will hit 0 faster, is a real stimulus for me. Once a week I do push this limit by doing a row of about an hour, but I won't stress pace here, just enjoying the motion.

Make sure that it stays fun. Youtube has rowing sceneries, which could help you fight the boredome of a long row. Some people like row along video's. I like to add loud music to it.

[Feelbroken13]

Fitness renovation will need stoking and that pack of crisps per deum won’t cut it, Sister. Get a dog, take a walk, buy an apple, give the dog half, make a friend. Stop looking at yesterday and share the crackers (life skills).

I was sat in the pub when I read this, needless to say I must have looked like a right loon.lol. it totally made my day.

Unfortunately though

1,I'm NOT getting a dog, the 3 teens I've got keep me plenty entertained.
2, I only like granny smith apples
3, who eats crisps?
4, the only crackers I eat are the ones that taste like cardboard

[Feelbroken13]

I did celebrate my success with 8 pints really wished I hadn't this morning but was worth it.lol.

Mr Amazon is bringing me the HR monitor today too and my log books so I'll be able to keep better track.

I agree that even if I haven't managed today what I did yesterday it's not failure it's still progress as I've managed it. If I'm not well then I'll just try use my resistance bands so I'm atleast doing something without pushing myself. Probably not the best idea I've had but it's going to be a lot a trail and error during the next few months but hopefully I'll be able to get my BMI back down n my muscles back

I woke up this morning and muscles are aching the I didn't even know existed, I guess that means whatever I did yesterday was the right way. How I've missed the burn.

The sceneries on YouTube are a definite game changer but I'm going to wait until I can row without thinking before I anything other than music. I'm just going to stick with the row alongs for now until I'm more confident in what I'm doing and knowing I'm doing it right.

I'm actually really excited now, feels like a challenge n I can never back down from 1 of them. It's not in my DNA lol

[Dangerscouse]

I'm actually really excited now, feels like a challenge n I can never back down from 1 of them. It's not in my DNA lol

Don't forget that feeling. That's what keeps you going when many people quit, and you're not a quitter from the sounds of things.