Rowing
 Steve rowing on Guam in the 1970's
Rowing is about as close to a perfect exercise as you can get! Of course, I'm referring to rowing a boat that has a sliding seat --- which brings the powerful muscles of your legs and back into play. The competition shells used by colleges are the racing cars of rowing. However, there are different types of recreational rowing shells that are available too. I have owned a number of them.
Well, why is rowing such a perfect exercise? First of all, you can continue it for a long long time. Hours! So, it's a fantastic endurance exercise. If you're able to do your rowing on a lake or other body of water, you have the added benefit of wonderful scenery, fresh air, and, of course, no traffic. For many years I lived in the tropics and I enjoyed nothing more than a long row on the open ocean. Rowing is also an "almost" perfect strength exercise. If you look at the video that follows of me on an indoor rower and analyze the stroke, you will see why. The stroke begins with legs bent, arms straight in front of you, and lower back bent as well. Then you straighten your legs (rise from a squat position), pull with your arms (pulling), and straighten your lower back (rise from a bent over position). Then you recover and move back to the starting position. However, while you do this, you do the equivalent of a sit-up (On a number of occasions I have had my abdominal muscles completely knot up after a long row; that's how effective rowing is as an abdominal exercise!). The only one of the five strength movements that rowing doesn't involve is pushing with the arms. If you look at the physique of an oarsman, you might notice that, while he has a broad back, his shoulders slump forward. This is because the pulling muscles of his back are much more developed than the pushing muscles of his chest. So, I would give rowing a score of 9 according to my rating system for a "perfect" exercise. Not bad. You could make it a 10 by doing some push ups after your row is finished! Rowing
A problem with rowing, of course, is that it's a warm weather activity. In the colder months, the only alternative is to use an indoor rower. By far, the best indoor rower is the Concept 2 Model D. This is the rower used to train college athletes and Olympians. It's simple and reliable (K*I*S*S* philosophy!) and almost perfectly mimics the feel of rowing in a boat. It includes a simple computer that has pre-programmed routines stored in it that you can use or you can "just row." You can also save records from your workouts. I can't say anything bad about it! If you want to get the best possible exercise in the shortest amount of time, rowing is the way to go. Row for at least 20 minutes, do a few sets of push-ups, either standard or an easier version (See the K*I*S*S* Fitness Program), and you are finished for the day! Considering that you are getting such a high quality machine that will probably last longer than you will, a Concept 2 rower is an extremely good investment.
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