Row Daily, Breathe Deeper, Live Better: A Guide to Moderate Exercise

I think exercise is important, but I don't like it. When I was in my 20s and 30s I went to a gym religiously and was in pretty good shape, but I hated every minute of it. It also doesn't take much for my body to develop an overuse (or misuse?) injury. Every so many years I fall for some push up challenge and it invariably ends in pain. I did some running and it led to hairline fractures on two different occasions. The second time the radiologist look at my ankle X-ray, and said: "Let me guess, you're in week 5 of a start to run program". I was.I bought a decent indoor rower in my 40s and that worked. I listened to audio books and cranked out the miles. Then I got into another push up challenge and ruining my shoulders.Cut to my 50s. I bought this book, curious about its premise. I never finished it, it sounded too weird, and for an injury prone person it sounded like a recipe for disaster.Then, in January of 2019 I read the book on a plane. When I got home I got on my indoor rower and I have rowed every day for 45 minutes since then. No injuries. I don't care about speed and calories and distance. I motivate myself by allowing myself to watch any crap on TV that I usually wouldn't allow myself to enjoy. And it has worked. I work up a sweat. I have kept a decent fitness level throughout the COVID lockdowns. In total I have missed maybe 30 workouts since January 2019, always for a good reason. The book is SO simple and so is the principle it sells. I am a sample of 1, so that is just an anecdote, but I have not had a single injury from all this rowing. And on the few occasions I didn't get around to it, I felt the deterioration after a couple of days - reason enough to get back on the machine. I had a few days or weeks with painful muscles after a workout, but I used the advice of the book, kept rowing, and used the discomfort as intuitive feedback about technique. I thought this would be another experiment that would end in pain and failure, but so far that has not been the case.

I think all exercise books should give you a couple of programs to try and there just are none in this book. I think it's interesting that there's been a renewed interest in rowing driven by Crossfit but so little written about how to use (os as I like to say program) rowing as part of your training. For me I'm coupling the rower to Kettlebell swings for overall total fitness. I'm a 40 year old former Juniort College Baseball player so I want strength and conditioning. This book is kind of like getting advice from an M.D. about exercise. They recommend it, they say it'll make you feel better (which it will) but nothing on how to say be efficient or how many times a week to hit what body parts with what exercises and why. If you only have 15 minutes to workout what exercises will provide the best bang for you buck? Now some this will be all about what your goals are, if you want to squat 500lbs all the rowing in the world won't help with that. If you want to complete a marathon a 5x5 squat programs won't get you there. I think exercising consistently is great for you. So to answer my own question what would I do if I only had 15 minutes to workout? 4 rounds of a 500m row and 25KB swings with a heavy KB (for me that's 32kg soon to be 36). 2000m of rowing and 100 swings. It won't increase your squat or increase you split time in a 10k much but it'll help you old on to both if that's all the time you have. So my overall point is that in a book like this I don't see why there aren't some example workouts and resources to showcase how flexible and awesome this piece of workout equipment is for imporving both anaerobic and aerobic conditioning. The advice here is to just get on the rower and row. I think there's plenty of room to recommend resources and give some sample workouts/programs and progressions (adding resistance or distance interval testing) that's not here. Maybe I'll write that book

I am writing this review with thanks to the author and with the hope that it will add to the chorus of positive reviews to influence others to read this great book. I bought RDBDLB about 3 years ago. I already had a habit of daily exercise but Mr. Ordway's words reinforced my intentions and motivated me to strengthen this habit. My daily training then was not on the indoor rower. My "take away" from the book then was to continue daily exercise and I added indoor rowing to my other activities as something I would do on some of the days.A little over a year ago, I picked up RDBDLB again. It then inspired me to erg daily.When I got the "please review" invitation from Amazaon in 2012, I did not act on it. I am doing so now because yesterday, 04.17.15. was the one-year anniversary of my own personal "A Row A Day For A Year" (which I believe is the title of Mr. Ordway's forthcoming book.)Over the past year, daily indoor rowing became a foundation activity. I continued my other activities but daily erging became the cornerstone. There were a handful of days when I simply was unable to erg (e.g., travel, etc.,) and I created my own "rules" about "making up the meters" so that I was maintaining the consistency. Nevertheless, I pretty much erged every day.The main benefit I've realized is the cementing of a habit of daily vital effort that I hope to maintain for the rest of my life.I am looking forward to reading Mr. Ordway's new book. Obviously, I am grateful that he has shared his wisdom in RDBDLB and I hope many people discover this first book of his and his subsequent book(s).

As a former club rower and coach getting back on the gym Concept 2 machines with a certain amount of seriousness after a considerable break of many years, I bought this out of curiosity to see if it offered any new ideas.Most of the first part of the book is fluff and repetitive filler about the benefits rowing will bring. The mantra about rowing every day gets a little tiresome after a while. Sometimes the advice seems dubious - Mr Ordway will concede to someone missing a day or two if he has knee pain, without any suggestion of actually diagnosing the reasons for the pain and correcting it. Similarly he advises continuing rowing normally when having a cold for example.The relatively short section on technique is reasonably good with some decent advice, but there are things I would take issue with. I would not get a beginner to start rowing at a rating in the mid twenties, more like 18-20, nor would I coach a technique where the body swing begins right at the beginning of the drive exactly simultaneously with the legs. Ordway does not mention anything about the foot height setting (an absolutely basic and crucial point, and a very common mis-setting you see when people use rowing machines in the gym) until later on in a "troubleshooting" section.Much of the latter part of the book is filler about on water rowing. If you want to read about that, get a specialist book on that subject.I haven't seen it, but on indoor rowing there is a possible alternative in  The Complete Guide to Indoor Rowing . On technique, although it's really about on water rowing, much of it applies equally to indoor rowing and it's the best compact statement on technique I have seen, there is the pamphlet  Rowing Technique: A Manual for Rowers and Coaches .I'm glad I bought the inexpensive Kindle edition rather than the more costly print version. The Complete Guide to Indoor RowingRowing Technique: A Manual for Rowers and Coaches

A good rowing book for the beginner, which inspires you to have a go and not worry about achieving ridiculously high targets. I am reasonably experienced at indoor rowing, but the author still inspired me to keep doing what I am doing already and helped me to see that I am on the right track. If you are not fantastically competitive and are not always trying to go one better, then this is a good book to read. He does tell you how to go on if you get the bug and want to reach goals, but it's mainly about how good rowing is as an exercise and why you should do it and keep at it.

The basic thesis of this book is that daily use of the ergometer or rowing machine is an excellent way to achieve and maintain good physical condition. As a long-time enthusiast, I did not need to be convinced but found the advice on technique very useful. If you have or are prepared to get an erg for your home, this is a handy book.

I ordered Row Daily,Breathe Deeper,Live Better: A Guide to Moderate Exercise along with my new Concept 2 indoor rowing machine to offer an alternative to my daily joint exercise routine that I recently created a DVD for (kensjointeffort.com).I had recently read another book advocating strenuous daily exercise (Younger Next Year by Crowley and Lodge).I will be eighty-three in three weeks so I thought it was about time to order a Concept 2 and the guide to daily moderate exercise.submitted by Ken Fiddes, Maple Ridge, B.C. Canada

A good book for motivating you to get off your keister and getting into a consistent fitness routine. A bit repetitive, but good for those discovering the "joy" of rowing!