A Weekend of Rowing

Even though I’ve been on winter break since the end of December I feel like it’s been go-go-go even without school. I was working a lot until the end of December and since January I’ve been back and forth to my parent’s house a handful of times (mainly to visit the boy) and y’know took a nice vacation to Mexico while I was at it. I think my body just completely crapped out on me by the end of vacation because I had been going full force on very little sleep for too long. But now I’m finally starting to feel well rested and not as sick for the last week of winter break, woohoo!!

It’s been a pretty chill weekend of catching up with some friends, hanging with the parents and getting in some workouts.

The “theme” for my workouts this weekend ended up being ROWING since I incorporated some rowing into my workout yesterday and visited a new studio City Row this morning. I find this kind of hilarious considering I usually don’t love doing the rowers during a typical HIIT class or CrossFit, but now I’m thinking they might be my new favorite piece of equipment.

Yesterday I was moving slow and not feeling all that motivated to workout. I finally got my act together and headed over to the NYU gym with a plan.I’m sure I’ve mentioned this here before but I’m THE WORST when it comes to working out alone at a gym so I always try to write down a workout before hand.

I decided to do circuits that used 1 piece of equipment per circuit so I didn’t have to worry about hoarding all the equipment if the gym was crowded. I’m sure many of you are experiencing some post-New Years gym crowding at the moment, so I highly recommend sticking to one piece of equipment per circuit to minimize aggravation 🙂

1 Workout, 4 Parts

Part One: foam rolling + dynamic warm up. I like to do a few plank walk outs and stepping forward into a low lunge to get the blood flowing then walk on the treadmill for about 5 minutes.

Part Two: Kettlebell circuit
— 45 sec kettle bell swings
— 45 sec sumo squat + high pull
— 45 sec bicep curl into an overhead press into a trice extension (hold the KB upside down)
— 45 sec squats holding the KB
3 x’s, with a 25 second rest at the end of each round.

Part Three: Tabata Rowing
20 seconds on going full out, 10 seconds off, 8 times.

Part Four: Dumbbell + med ball circuit
— 45 second single leg deadlift with a row- RIGHT SIDE
— 45 sec Repeat LEFT SIDE
— 45 sec Curtsey Lunge + around the world (<—great example there)
— 45 sec Plank while rolling a dumbbell or med ball back and forth (or just plank!)
3 x’s with a 25 second rest at the end of each round.

I used Seconds Pro on my iPhone and manually entered in each circuit before heading to the gym. It sounds like a lot of work to program in the circuits before hand, but I find it super helpful so I don’t have to fumble with my iPhone timer in the middle of a circuit. It made those 10 or so minutes I was doing each circuit INTENSE– I forgot how much a few simple kettle bell and dumbbell moves + a round of tabata could make me sweat!

Part two of row-a-palooza happened this morning at City Row, a brand spanking new studio not too far away from me in Union Square. People have been saying that they predict rowing will become the next “it” fitness class in NYC… and after today I’m thinking this might be true. City Row delivered a great, low impact workout

The studio has water rowers which provided a far smoother experience than the usual rower with chains. It also made a nice “whoosh” noise every time you rowed which was a fun little bonus.

The class consisted of alternating sections of rowing and strength training with dumbbells each lasting roughly 8 minutes. I was worried about how repetitive a full class of rowing would feel but it ended up moving quickly since every 8 minutes you were either getting on or off the rower. The rowing sections included varying levels of intensity and gripping the rower in different ways (I’ve never rowed under hand so that was cool). The strength sections mainly focused on legs and core with some lunges, squats, and planks etc. The final strength section focused on arms and shoulders. I personally wish there would have been a bit more arms involved during the lower body sections, but that’s just me. Overall it was a great total body workout and a class I would definitely take again.

 

 

Tonight I’m heading to Westchester with my parents because I’m getting my wisdom teeth out… again. I already had the bottoms ones taken out when I was in high school, but now it’s time to say bye-bye to the top ones. I’m not too concerned about the soft foods diet since last time I ended up eating chicken tenders the next day (which I don’t recommend doing….) but I decided to stock up on some chew-free foods just to be safe

I’m thinking lots of spinach smoothies, protein shakes, mashed sweet potatoes and apple sauce to keep me going. My biggest concern isn’t the lack of chewing that will be going on but my doctors orders to not exercise. When he told me that during the consultation I just kind of stared at him for a while confused. I’m hoping that by Wednesday or Thursday I’ll be feeling good and itching to hop on a treadmill so I can walk at the very least… but I’m going to play it by ear and see how I’m feeling after the surgery.

Hope you all have a lovely rest of your Sunday! I’m grabbing an early dinner with some friends (my last solid meal for awhile :() and then seeing a show with the parents before they drive me to Westchester!

Rowers- love em or hate em? 

Any recommendation for food I can eat after getting my wisdom teeth out?