FROM AUSTRALIA: IT'S a well-kept secret, but rowing is one of the ultimate fat-burning workouts, reveals Damien Kelly.

The million dollar health and fitness question has always been: what's the best way to lose fat?

Is it pounding the pavement on your morning run; freestyling it up and down the pool or perhaps riding home on your bike?

The truth is that any of these will work just fine - if you work hard enough and sweat for long enough. But that still doesn't answer the question.

Believe it or not the winner may not be amongst these three favourites.

Some argue, the best all-round fatburner is cross-country skiing - when put to the test those Scandinavian skiers come out the fittest.

Unfortunately it's a little difficult for us Aussies to take up cross-country skiing in our climate. Luckily, second place in the fatburning stakes is an exercise much closer to home: rowing.

So why is rowing such a fab fatburner? The reason is simple: for the best fat burning you need a cardio exercise that uses multiple muscles. Running uses predominantly legs, as does cycling, and swimming uses predominantly arms. Rowing uses the whole body.

This usage principle also applies to toning: if you use a muscle against resistance often enough, the muscle will adapt and look better. Rowing creates resistance for the legs, arms and torso, creating a taut, beautiful body faster.

So it's true - that dusty indoor rower you've always avoided in the gym is in fact one of the most useful pieces of equipment there. And with a rowing machine in the gym there's no danger of getting wet - other than working up a good sweat.

Perfect technique

Peter Dreissigacker, 55, the founder of the world's most popular indoor rower, Concept2, says the rowing motion can be divided into three parts.

"It begins with 'the catch'. In a boat, this would be the moment when the oar catches the water. Your legs are compressed so that your shins are vertical. Your arms are extended and you have a comfortable grip on the handle. Your upper body is leaning slightly forward from the hips. The work is done on 'the drive', which starts with the powerful muscles of the quads. The back joins in the effort next, swinging through the vertical position. Finally, the arms engage to pull the handle into your abdomen. Legs, back and arms should all be smoothly connected into one powerful drive.

'The recovery' prepares you for the next stroke. Start by pushing your hands away from your body, then let your back swing forward past your hip and finally let your knees bend to bring you back to 'the catch' position," explains Dreissigacker.

Dr Andrew Randell, 44, the NSW Institute of Sport rowing technical coordinator, says the key to rowing correctly is flowing through this simple sequence of movements.

"The drive or moving backward phase of rowing needs to start with the legs. Once the legs have straightened the torso can swing into action, followed lastly by the pull of the arms," says Randell.

So, push with the legs, swing with the torso and then draw the arms - sounds easy enough, right?

Randell says the catch phase or recovery phase is where most technical hitches occur.

"With the recovery phase it is important to first reach forward with the hands, then to swing the body and finally to raise the knees," says Randell.

A common mistake made by novice rowers in the catch phase is to raise the knees before reaching forward with the hands. Get this right and you'll be prepared for the next drive phase and well on your way to rowing perfection.

Getting to the core

Phil Bourguignon, 34, head coach at Sydney University Boat Club and one of Australia's national rowing coaches, says that the importance of good core stability can't be underestimated in rowing.

"You tend to find with all athletes, if they have a strong core area, their spine and back are a non-issue," says Bourguignon.

Core stability is just as important for the rest of us.

Bourguignon says that "good core stability can be developed by maintaining a good posture at all times when rowing. Posture comes from controlling the movement through your bellybutton."

A basic abdominal strengthening routine twice a week in addition would complement rowing perfectly.

Rhythm and flow

To get the rowing movement smooth and thus fast, you need to learn to accelerate the movement without jerking on the cable.

"It's like starting a lawnmower," says Randell. "You first need to take the load and then you can accelerate through the movement, which allows you to work as hard as you want."

Mind body connection

Rebecca Joyce, 36, former world champion and Olympic bronze medallist believes that rowing is a an empowering and wonderful experience.

"Being out on the water is so peaceful and empowering. The rhythmic movements remind me of a religious chant. There's a silence you just don't get from other sports," explains Joyce. The effect on your body isn't half bad either.

"Rowers have the most wonderful physiques," says Joyce, "and the best part is there's no impact, so no aggravation to your joints."

Rowing drill

1 Row with arms only (10 reps)

2 Body still, legs still

3 Then add body (10 reps)

Still no legs

4 Finally add the legs (10 reps)

This teaches you the correct pattern and improves your sequence of movement.

Getting started on the rower

Your very first row

Resist the temptation to row for 30 minutes the first time on the machine. Instead start with no more than 3 to 5 minutes at a time. Then take a break to stretch and walk around. If you feel good, do up to four of these short intervals of rowing.

Your second row

Begin experimenting with stroke rate and power. Stroke rate is your rhythm in strokes per minute (spm). Power is how hard you are pulling. It is displayed in a choice of units in the central display area: watts, calories, or pace. Try some 3-minute intervals of rowing, varying stroke rate and pace, as described below.

Workout

3 min at 20 spm, comfortable effort; 1 min rest

3 min at 22 spm, harder effort; 1 min rest

3 min at 24 spm comfortable; 1 min rest

3 min at 24 spm, harder, 3 min rest

End with 10 minutes of steady state rowing at whatever spm and power are comfortable.

Be sure to note the power and spm you settle on - you will use it next workout.

The third row

Introduce longer rowing with stroke rate variation.

Workout

Do four 5-minute pieces, varying the stroke rate as follows

20 spm for first 2 minutes

22 spm for next 2 minutes

24 spm for last minute. Then rest by rowing very easily for 2 minutes, before starting the next 5 minute piece.

Your work pace should be faster than your 10-minute pace from last workout.


The fourth row

Longer steady rowing.


Workout

Two 10-minute pieces with 3 minutes rest in-between.

Try to go a little faster than you did for the 10-minute piece in the second workout. Stroke rate: 20 to 24 spm.


The fifth row

Short intervals for variety and for a chance to see how fast a pace you can achieve.

Workout

Row 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy for a total of 20 minutes.

Watch the central display for your pace. Stroke rate 20 to 24.

Benchmark piece

30 minutes, non-stop.

Record your total metres rowed for this piece. You should repeat this workout periodically, every few weeks, to see how you are progressing.

Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.

The article below tells the story of a man who has a $0 power bill. I need to have him connect a rowing machine to the grid.

EAST AMWELL, N.J. - Mike Strizki lives in the nation's first solar-hydrogen house. The technology this civil engineer has been able to string together – solar panels, a hydrogen fuel cell, storage tanks, and a piece of equipment called an electrolyzer – provides electricity to his home year-round, even on the cloudiest of winter days.

Mr. Strizki's monthly utility bill is zero – he's off the power grid – and his system creates no carbon-dioxide emissions. Neither does the fuel-cell car parked in his garage, which runs off the hydrogen his system creates.

It sounds promising, even utopian: homemade, storable energy that doesn't contribute to global warming. But does Strizki's method – converting electricity generated from renewable sources into hydrogen – make sense for widespread adoption?

According to some renewable-energy experts, the answer is "no," at least not anytime soon. The system is too expensive, they say, and the process of creating hydrogen from clean sources is itself laced with inefficiency – the numbers just don't add up.

Strizki's response: "Nothing is as wildly expensive as destroying the whole planet."

Life free from the power grid
Strizki lives with his wife in a rural section of Central New Jersey. His 12-acre property is surrounded by trees and his gravel driveway leads to a winding country road. His 3,500-square-foot house has all the amenities, including a hot tub and a big-screen TV.

It was here, four years ago, that Strizki set out to do something that's never been done in this country – power his home completely through a combination of solar and hydrogen. "My motivation was, I saw what fossil fuels were doing to the environment," he says.

Strizki works for a company that installs solar panels. In previous jobs, he's helped integrate hydrogen fuel cells into cars, a boat, a fire truck, and an airplane. His latest project, the one involving his house, is an extension of that expertise.

The solar-hydrogen house took longer to complete than Strizki expected – a strict local zoning officer and the state permitting process caused delays, he says – but in October 2006, the system finally went online. The total cost, $500,000, was paid for in part with a $250,000 grant from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.

This is how it works
On sunny days, solar panels on the roof of Strizki's detached garage generate more than enough electricity to power his home. The excess electricity powers a device inside the garage called an electrolyzer, which transforms a tank of water into its base elements – oxygen and hydrogen.

The oxygen is released into the atmosphere, while the hydrogen is stored in 10 1,000-gallon propane tanks on Strizki's property. In the winter, when the solar panels collect less energy than the home needs, that hydrogen is piped to an air-conditioner-size fuel cell, located just outside the garage, which generates electricity.

The final piece of the equation is "The New Jersey Genesis," a hydrogen fuel-cell car Strizki helped design and now maintains for the New Jersey Department of Transportation. He can fill up the Genesis with hydrogen from his electrolyzer and drive it pollution free.

Strizki understands that few people can afford to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for clean energy. Now that he's demonstrated his idea works, his goal is to make the system better and less expensive. (For example, the 10 propane tanks could be replaced by one high-pressure hydrogen tank buried underground.) With mass production, he believes he could get the price of the system, not including the solar panels, down to about $50,000. (A new solar panel system can cost as much as $80,000, Strizki says, but some states, including New Jersey, have offered rebates that cover up to 70 percent of the cost.) Strizki is seeking government grants and private donors for funding, and he's started a company, Renewable Energy International, which he hopes will one day market his product. He says he's already heard from potential customers: "We've been called by some A-list Hollywood types interested in powering their islands."

Hydrogen hurdles
Strizki's project proves that carbon-free living is possible right now, but renewable-energy experts are skeptical that hydrogen houses with hydrogen-run cars in the driveway will catch on anytime soon.

"There's no way your average person is going to want to buy five expensive pieces of hardware," says Joseph Romm, a former Department of Energy official who analyzed clean-energy technologies during the Clinton administration.

In addition to the high cost of the equipment, there's another huge hurdle that must be overcome if hydrogen is to become a viable clean energy: Although hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, it doesn't exist alone in nature; you can't just bottle it up.

To get at hydrogen, it must be processed from another source, such as natural gas, oil, coal, or water. According to the National Hydrogen Association, 95 percent of the hydrogen produced in the United States is made through steam reforming natural gas – a process that releases greenhouse gases into the air.

Strizki's method for making hydrogen is totally clean, but suffers from a different problem: Electrolyzers are only 50 percent efficient. By the time the electricity from his solar panels is converted into hydrogen, and the hydrogen converted back into electricity in the fuel cell, half of the clean energy he started with is used up.

Mr. Romm thinks it's a waste. That electricity would do more good toward reducing pollution if it was sent into the main power grid to displace other energy, he says. "[Strizki's system] doesn't get you that much environmentally," he says.

Romm is an advocate for clean-energy use – in recent books and articles he advocates a sharp cut in greenhouse-gas emissions within 10 years – but he's characterized hydrogen as an overhyped distraction that isn't ready yet to help toward that goal. He supports continued hydrogen research, but other technologies that are more developed could help the Earth much more and much sooner, he says.

Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.

Military Personnel get their workout sponsored by Iron Oarsman

Hello All!

Please assist me to help former and current military personnel.

I read an article in Newsweek about war veterans. I felt saddened and I absolutely need to do something about it. I want to make their situation BETTER!

My idea is to open the IRON OARSMAN every Friday from 4pm-7pm for people who serve and have served in the armed forces. The workouts are sponsored by me as long as I have an indoor rowing studio.

As you know rowing is good for all ages with or without disabilities.

I need your help to get this information out.

Call me please.

XENO
949-400-7630

Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.

News Update from the Iron Oarsman

Hello All

Here is some information on what is happening at the Iron Oarsman.

First, we have a great new monthly rate for unlimited rowing: $130 for the individuals and $170 for 2 family members.

Second, you might want to use a dry erase board at home. Since January we are using a dry erase board which has a three columns. First column is the name of the rower. Second column is current daily total. Third clolumn is the monthly goal. Pretty much everyone who has their name on the board at the Iron Oarsman has found additional motivation to row farther than they set out to do at the beginning of the month. The board is up thank to Val's great idea.

Third, famous moto cross star Travis Pastrana is an avid rower! Let's challenge him!

For now, the latest news: WE WILL REPRESENT IRON OARSMAN at the Crew Classic at the end of the month. This is the first time that Iron Oarsman is going to have a booth at a regatta. We will feature the Rowperfect rowing machine and a bunch of really cool shirts from the Iron Oarsman shop at www.cafepress.com/gorow

Over and out,
XENO
Olympic Gold and Silver medalist

Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.

IRON SNOWMAN By IRON OARSMAN

THE WINTER SEASON IS ON AT FULL BLAST HERE IN BIG BEAR LAKE, CA

Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.