ROWING
ROWING THE ATLANTIC Two innovative concepts from both sides of the Atlantic are on a mission to make indoor rowing accessible, inspiring and fun for members in New York and London HELAINE KNAPP
The introduction of HIIT to rowing classes has increased the enjoyment
CityRow, founder How did CityRow come about? When I was in my 20s, living in New York and working for a tech start-up, I fell in love with group fitness: spinning, bootcamps and the whole culture around it. As a social life it suited me much more to have a sweaty workout brunch, or dinner, rather than burgers and beers. Then I got injured and was diagnosed with three herniated discs in my lower back. I needed surgery and the doctor ordered me to give up high impact workouts. I was gutted: exercise was my social life and stress relief. At the time, the only low impact workouts on offer were mat Pilates and that doesn’t work for me, because I like to really sweat and get totally gassed. During my research, rowing kept coming up as a high intensity, low impact exercise, which torches calories. Initially it didn’t appeal – I’d never been a crew rower and assumed rowing was only something that Crossfit dudes did. However, since it kept coming into my world I decided to look into it, and then discovered there was a complete lack of opportunities for indoor rowing. I couldn’t understand why, if it was such a good form of exercise – working 84 per cent of muscles – there were no boutique rowing clubs. Rowing needed a makeover and I decided I was the one to do it, bringing it into the mainstream and making it accessible and fun. How did you go about making your vision a reality? To start with, I had to find the right equipment. I thought rowers were ugly, metal machines, but fell in love with the Water Rower, which is beautiful. Made out of wood, it uses water for resistance. 58
Next up, I needed to create a programme. Most people find rowing for an hour boring, so I wanted to build a HIIT workout, where they are on and off the machine doing strength and mobility exercises as well. I enlisted the help of an old friend and well known group fitness trainer, Annie Mulgrew, to build the programme. It’s a smart, effective workout, which is results driven, but doesn’t take its toll on the body. The goal was results today – body for life.
From ideation to launch, in January 2014, took about 18 months and I didn’t quit my job until the day we opened. The best advice I received was to keep making decisions to move the business forward, so there wasn’t just one day when I decided to make a go of it. To start with I looked at the numbers, then I set up a website to assess demand, then the press caught on and I started talking to investors. All the time I was looking for locations – real estate was
I couldn’t understand why, if it was such a good form of exercise – working 84 per cent of muscles – there were no boutique rowing clubs. Rowing needed a makeover and I decided I was the one to do it, bringing it into the mainstream and making it accessible and fun
healthclubmanagement.co.uk April 2019 ©Cybertrek 2019