Two years ago when I created Roworx in Long Beach it was my dream to offer a complete low impact high-calorie burn workout for everyone to enjoy no matter what experience an individual had in athletics. Recently I have had many new calls and emails regarding how ‘easy’ or ‘hard’ certain Roworx Classes were and what kinds of classes I thought would be best for people just starting out their new workout routine. Throughout my 20 years of experience as an athlete and rower I have found that nearly half of the general public I come in contact with and talk about my sport think that rowing is relatively ‘easy’ and discuss the perception that rowing is a total upper body workout. However, in reality, the power behind the rowing stroke is driven through your legs (about %80) and then the rest throughout the entire body. Rowing is actually one of the hardest, if not the hardest cardiovascular demanding sport that you can do on the planet. For instance, the standard Olympic distance for a rowing race is 2,000 meters (just over a mile). The standard U.S. Men’s Heavyweight Olympic Team time for rowing a 2,000 meter piece on the Concept 2 rowing machine is around 5 min :55 seconds (1:28 500 split avg or around 500 watts)! Out of all the Roworx Classes we have to offer such as Rowing, Bootcamp, Zumba, Evo Indoor Cycling,TRX Suspension Training,Pilates Arc Ab Exercises and the Ski Erg Training along with any other activity that you choose to do is as hard as you want to make it. es,Since you are the one that is participating in the activity it is also up to yourself to push as hard as you want. I always tell everyone in class at Roworx that if you can hold your body-weight in watts on the Concept 2 monitor then that is a great goal. Once you have hit your body-weight in watts you can then try and double your body-weight and so on.
Three-time Olympic rower, Miroslav Vrastil of the Czech Republic has taken his love of competing to a new level. Vrastil, 58, plans to break a world record by completing 22 Ironman triathlons in one year and the father of five has already begun. Vrastil started rowing when he was 12 years old in Olomouc, Czechoslovakia. For 18 years he competed in rowing while representing his country up to the age of 35. After competing at three Olympic Games (1972, 1976 and 1980), Vrastil was diagnosed with a cancerous tumour in his leg.“I was not sure if the doctor was telling me or somebody else,” says Vrastil. “I could not believe it and my hands started shaking. I was only 30. Their final diagnosis was a necessary amputation of my right leg. I made my decision of not having my leg amputated even if that meant living for three months only or less.”Vrastil received no cancer treatment, opting just for surgery to remove the tumour. He estimates he stepped back from training for just six months.” I was not doing sport actively during this six-month period – my knee was out of function and I was trying hard to make it move with the help of my father no matter how painful it was. It went very slowly but it went. The tumour was still growing but it stopped after three months from the operation. I started to train again slowly in a rowing swimming pool with the help of my colleague Pavel Konvicka in the spring of 1982.” That year Vrastil rowed at the world championships finishing fourth in the men’s four. After retiring from competitive rowing, Vrastil remained involved in the sport as a professional coach. He continued this for five years but with the political change and his country becoming the Czech Republic, Vrastil stopped coaching to become a school teacher. Even when two of his children started to row, Vrastil did not come back to the sport. Then triathlon entered Vrastil’s life. After a 10-year period of doing very little physically, Vrastil was persuaded to try triathlon. His first race, a duathlon, is memorable in his finish.”The result was horrible for me, in fact I was nearly the last out of 130 competitors of all age groups. It was there (in 1988) that I decided to change it and go for it with all that it takes,” says Vrastil.”My rowing experience and sports experience in general have helped me in life. To strive, to compete, and not to give up, and that reflects in triathlons too,”says Vastil.Then along came the idea to beat the world record of doing 20 Ironman races in a year. Vrastil has set a target of 22 races and his list includes races around the globe. An Ironman consists of a 3.8km swim, 180km cycle and a 42.2km run and to reach the target of 22 Vrastil will be doing two, sometimes three, in a month.
Two years ago when I created Roworx in Long Beach it was my dream to offer a complete low impact high-calorie burn workout for everyone to enjoy no matter what experience an individual had in athletics. Recently I have had many new calls and emails regarding how ‘easy’ or ‘hard’ certain Roworx Classes were and what kinds of classes I thought would be best for people just starting out their new workout routine. Throughout my 20 years of experience as an athlete and rower I have found that nearly half of the general public I come in contact with and talk about my sport think that rowing is relatively ‘easy’ and discuss the perception that rowing is a total upper body workout. However, in reality, the power behind the rowing stroke is driven through your legs (about %80) and then the rest throughout the entire body. Rowing is actually one of the hardest, if not the hardest cardiovascular demanding sport that you can do on the planet. For instance, the standard Olympic distance for a rowing race is 2,000 meters (just over a mile). The standard U.S. Men’s Heavyweight Olympic Team time for rowing a 2,000 meter piece on the Concept 2 rowing machine is around 5 min :55 seconds (1:28 500 split avg or around 500 watts)! Out of all the Roworx Classes we have to offer such as Rowing, Bootcamp, Zumba, Evo Indoor Cycling, TRX Suspension Training, Pilates Arc Ab Exercises and the Ski Erg Training along with any other activity that you choose to do is as hard as you want to make it. es,Since you are the one that is participating in the activity it is also up to yourself to push as hard as you want. I always tell everyone in class at Roworx that if you can hold your body-weight in watts on the Concept 2 monitor then that is a great goal. Once you have hit your body-weight in watts you can then try and double your body-weight and so on. 
