Rowing for cardio

[rivermetimbers]

Today I decided to try out the rowing machine for the second time in my life. I usually run 3 times a week, about 2 miles, as my cardio that goes along with my lifting. Anyway, I decided to do 1000 meters at a high resistance (8/10) and then after a little break did 700 meters at medium resistance (5/10). Anyway, i felt like it provided me with a good cardio workout and just wanted to know if it actually would be pretty beneficial to add it to my workout, maybe 2 times per week. If so, at what resistance should I be doing and what distance in order to actual benefit from it? Thanks

[SmileyEH]

Your resistance should depend on your weight. Goggle C2 damper settings or whatever to figure it out.

[shemp]

My understanding is that the key figure is actually the "drag factor" and that the damper setting is going to vary substantially from machine to machine. Damper at 3 on one machine could have same drag factor as a damper setting of 7 on another machine. And further, depending on your weight or preferences or skill or whatever, you want the drag factor somewhere between 100 and 150.


Anyway. Here's a link to the C2 site.

http://www.concept2.co.uk/guide/guid...e=damper_lever

edit: I see it looks like the range is actually 130-140 in order to simulate rowing on the water. The point is that more/harder isn't better.

[cbloom]

The speed and power that you generate in the movement is more important than the damper setting or how far you go. You can judge pretty well by how fast the C2 display says you would be going in the water.