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OK I just did a 3k, and the wattage was 101. But, a rower is different from a bike, a bike is the most effecient means known for a human to move across the landscape, rowing has never been called that. Remember there's a drag factor on these machines, to simulate the drag (loss) of the water.
We both need to get on stationary bikes and see how we do, or better yet, I bet there are some cyclists out there, a lot of them, from tourers on up, plotting how they do, wattage-wise, for X amount of distance. Remember not all serious bikies are racers, some are tourerers or "randonneurs" but they still get into tracking things like wattage, some of them.
100W for a nice cardiovascular workout sounds about right. The trouble is not to do it for 3k but for 300k. I don't think my bottom could handle that. Ouch...
Rowers are very efficient because they can make use of legs, arms and upper body in every motion. The rower's body is typically well proportioned and, IMHO, a lot more attractive than the biker's (all legs, no arms...). The competition is not fair, though, because rowing is typically a sprint discipline while professional cycling is about going the distance and I am sure the muscle physiology is very different in athletes of both disciplines.
It is interesting to note that a rower can black himself out by removing so much oxygen from the blood that the brain sets out. From what I have heard about professional rowing, the goal is to nearly black out on the last pull. One pull too early and the boat will be a bloody mess because tangled oars at that speed are enormously dangerous. I had a few "accidents" with other beginners on the water at low speeds and black thumbs is the least that can happen. The worst thing is that everyone lands in the water, but I guess if that happens to a professional, he or she probably doesn't have to show up for a few training cycles...
I don't doubt that humans can do amazing things physiologically, but it is absolutely clear that machines are by far more capable. I, for one, wouldn't want to compete seriously against my notebook battery and a brushless RC flight motor weighing two ounces or three. I might even win, but only barely. And by weight... let's not even go there!
Infinate - you just enumerated why I decided to bust over $800 to get my own ConceptII.
There's one up at the local gym, and for $300 a year, I could use their rather germy Model C, or for a depreciation of about $200 a year, have a nice new Model D here to trip over sometimes, like I did this morning, and other than that, hop on and row. Much cheaper than living on the water which is what it would take for me to get out on a scull daily.
For a 5'4" 45-year old female who's a good 30 lbs over "fighting weight", not bad. When I was a a decade younger and much more fit, I seem to remember putting out more wattage on a rower, it was probably a model B or early model C, I hung with some rowers, mostly or all heavyweights, who were told to row for X minutes, doing at least Y watts. They were impressed, I thougth it was a workout, hehe.
Rowing is a much more balanced exercise. For weight loss, Concept II recommend doing a 5K a day but of course that's just a very general rule - l lot of serious erg'ers do more, and they mix it up, power 10's and 20's and intervals etc.
I decided this is cheaper than running, even, since running shoes cost a bit. I still will probably go out and do runs too. Just to mix it up.
But a rower, pushups, situps, maybe some burpees and boxing type stuff, and you've got a pretty thorough workout. I'm falling into using pushups etc to warm up for the rower.
Yes, on the real boat - all kinds of "neat" things can happen! You get tons of blisters at first, you don't have to feather the oars on a rowing machine! And your hands collide, at best it's some blood and lost skin to your own nails. Then there's catching a crab, or does the crab catch you? You can end up right in the water if you do it "right" lol. Tons more skill needed to go fast in the boat, you can get strong as a horse on the erg and if you go out and learn it on the water, it's all pussyfooting around, you'll never use those muscles you built up. And that's if you grew up knowing which end of an oar is which, I'm a "natural" but I'm here to tell you, (bush voice) it's hard.
Yeah I'd rather see the Peak Oil Man in that movie warming up with some burpees then using a Concept II to power his little TV, hehe.
It's a fun machine... not as fun as being on real water, but much easier, indeed. I hate gyms. I rather work out on one simple, high quality machine at home than to be on some high tech robot equipment among other sweaty people. Either that or just ride my bike for fun (not for sweat).
I find that for weightloss a slow, steady rythm is much better. Of course, it gets boring rather fast, but if I am at 70-80% of my limit, I can go for a long time without hurting and I am more interested in doing 400-600kCal regularly than 1200kCal once and then lose all interest for a long time.
It seems that the general idea with cardiovascular workout is to push the heart rate higher for fitness but lower for simple calorie burning. The additional effect is that if I go faster than I can produce glucose from glycogen, I develop an enormous hunger afterwards, which usually completely swamps the energy expense and is totally counterproductive to the effort. But if I go nice and slow, I don't get hungry much at all. I did a few experiments on myself and found this to be a pretty good rule: keep the heartrate at 120-130 and don't try to be a hero... sweating starts after ten, fifteen minutes and if I keep myself hydrated, it is a very effective exercize to compensate for being a couch potato the rest of the day. I monitor my heart rate and not the power or cal/h or time display! And if I am too fast, I slow down and that is easier on the hands, anyway.
So that's what I am using my rower for... the professionals would laugh at my whimpy efforts, but then, I don't have to prove anything to anyone. I want to feel good, compensate for loss of back muscles due to sitting all day and that's pretty much it. I can live with the fact that I will never win the olympics... because none of you except for one, will either. :-)
I agree, most rowers push themselves to the limit on the machine. It is easier because it does not require nearly as much technique as being in a real boat. The downside is that it is easy to forget all about technique and row like a pig. I wouldn't want to be in a real boat without a refresher class after all these years. I would probably just capsize or crush my thumbs... which I did often enough.
Actually, I thought about making electricity with the rowing machine once. But then I calculated that it would take me ten hours of hard work for 15 cents of return... just didn't seem worth the effort.
:-)