4 ms·

I have a Concept2 that I’ve owned for three years now. I love rowing but I also love running and running gets you better kcal/min if you’re trying to optimize f

I have a Concept2 that I’ve owned for three years now. I love rowing but I also love running and running gets you better kcal/min if you’re trying to optimize for weight loss. If my goals were just general cardio though, I’d 100% recommend rowing. Just make sure you really work on your form in order to get the most out of it. You should be using you’re core most, if not the entire time.

nradov 5y ago
Running is great, but it's higher impact. So some people can't keep it up as long or tend to get injured. For long term health it's probably best to rotate between multiple different cardio exercises and thus hit different muscles.
- halfmatthalfcat 5y ago
  I agree, it is. Rowing is definitely more sustaining over the long term than running.
  - dumbfoundded 5y ago
    The biggest injuries I saw in rowing were grip related. I had a friend who probably could've made it to the olympics (D1 rower & 6'8 & lanky). He injured his wrists repeatedly to the point where we had to stop pretty much altogether.
inasio 5y ago
In my experience (both indoor and outdoor rowing), you can get much more cardio out of rowing than running. Rather than core the main muscle you use is your legs, if you see professional rowers they're not very bulky above the waist, but they typically have massive legs.
- notesinthefield 5y ago
  My brain is having hard time processing this - im curious what your running history has been compared to rowing. This is an...interesting assertion.
  - inasio 5y ago
    I could have been a bit more precise, I guess you could always exercise with 100 meter (running) sprints and then get a 10-20 second workout that leaves you pretty drained too... That said there are some crazy youtube videos too for 100 meter rowing [0]. For me the key difference is feeling more thoroughly drained, legs mostly, core, arms, back. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVl0Zt-kZys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVl0Zt-kZys
    - halfmatthalfcat 5y ago
      If we're talking steady state cardio, when comparing the two running objectively burns more calories than rowing. Of course, there's different intensities that you can do of both that would increase or decrease how many calories you ultimately end up burning.
dumbfoundded 5y ago
Rowing actually made me worse at running. I rowed in college and during the summers, I'd erg much less and run/lift a lot more. Every fall when I switched back, my 5k pace fell off a cliff even though overall I was in much better shape.
- Someone 5y ago
  I think the two main factors contributing to that are movement speed and muscle mass. To run fast, you need to do about 180 steps/minute (each leg moves back and forth 90 times/minute (https://blog.squadeasy.com/en/blog2020/running-pace-why-work-on-it https://blog.squadeasy.com/en/blog2020/running-pace-why-work...). Also, 5k runners tend to be not that muscular. When rowing, you train your leg muscles at, at best (and only in sprint), half that frequency, and you get more muscles than you need for doing 5k well, so when running you have to carry extra weight. You should look at your 5k times on the beach, running up sand dunes, or on a sandy horse trail :-)
  - dumbfoundded 5y ago
    That's a solid point. For me, it felt more like the balance of muscles. My hams were way to strong compared to my quads and my running felt more like bouncing up than pushing forward. I never tried measuring specific inclines or on sand though.

nradov 5y ago

Running is great, but it's higher impact. So some people can't keep it up as long or tend to get injured. For long term health it's probably best to rotate between multiple different cardio exercises and thus hit different muscles.

halfmatthalfcat 5y ago
I agree, it is. Rowing is definitely more sustaining over the long term than running.
- dumbfoundded 5y ago
  The biggest injuries I saw in rowing were grip related. I had a friend who probably could've made it to the olympics (D1 rower & 6'8 & lanky). He injured his wrists repeatedly to the point where we had to stop pretty much altogether.

inasio 5y ago

In my experience (both indoor and outdoor rowing), you can get much more cardio out of rowing than running. Rather than core the main muscle you use is your legs, if you see professional rowers they're not very bulky above the waist, but they typically have massive legs.

notesinthefield 5y ago
My brain is having hard time processing this - im curious what your running history has been compared to rowing. This is an...interesting assertion.
- inasio 5y ago
  I could have been a bit more precise, I guess you could always exercise with 100 meter (running) sprints and then get a 10-20 second workout that leaves you pretty drained too... That said there are some crazy youtube videos too for 100 meter rowing [0]. For me the key difference is feeling more thoroughly drained, legs mostly, core, arms, back. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVl0Zt-kZys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVl0Zt-kZys
  - halfmatthalfcat 5y ago
    If we're talking steady state cardio, when comparing the two running objectively burns more calories than rowing. Of course, there's different intensities that you can do of both that would increase or decrease how many calories you ultimately end up burning.

dumbfoundded 5y ago

Rowing actually made me worse at running. I rowed in college and during the summers, I'd erg much less and run/lift a lot more. Every fall when I switched back, my 5k pace fell off a cliff even though overall I was in much better shape.

Someone 5y ago
I think the two main factors contributing to that are movement speed and muscle mass. To run fast, you need to do about 180 steps/minute (each leg moves back and forth 90 times/minute (https://blog.squadeasy.com/en/blog2020/running-pace-why-work-on-it https://blog.squadeasy.com/en/blog2020/running-pace-why-work...). Also, 5k runners tend to be not that muscular. When rowing, you train your leg muscles at, at best (and only in sprint), half that frequency, and you get more muscles than you need for doing 5k well, so when running you have to carry extra weight. You should look at your 5k times on the beach, running up sand dunes, or on a sandy horse trail :-)
- dumbfoundded 5y ago
  That's a solid point. For me, it felt more like the balance of muscles. My hams were way to strong compared to my quads and my running felt more like bouncing up than pushing forward. I never tried measuring specific inclines or on sand though.