Indoor Rowing: Perfection In Exercise Paperback – July 27, 2010

I think it would make a difference in reading this book review for you to know that I am 61 years old. In the past I have done my share of 10Ks, triathlons, and a 1,280 mile crossing of the US from Lake Erie to the Gulf on a bicycle. Nithus in right when he says that indoor rowing is "Perfection in Exercise." He has a lot of excellent information in this book for people that want to be healthier but want to minimize the risk of injury in one way or another. He thoroughly discusses the various options for exercise and presents sound, solid reasons why you should try indoor rowing. I having enjoyed indoor rowing for several years now. He has even included some different kinds of workout schedules from beginning to advanced. Yes, this in an excellent book for a complete novice since he discusses what type of equipment is best to purchase to beginning rowing indoors. So whether you are at the beginning, somewhere in the middle or looking for advanced technique this is an excellent book for you to get started rowing.

I bought Mr. Nithus's book since it had a higher review score than some of the other books on indoor rowing techniques. While I agree that the author is very passionate about indoor rowing and I especially enjoyed his opening chapter on how he came to rowing in college, after a while I could not get past all of the typos and grammatical errors. To me, it appears that this book may have been self published and that Mr. Nithus did not use a copy editor to proof or edit his manuscript. His chapter on the costs of rowing compared to other sports is a little contrived; I think he tried too hard to make other sports like running and basketball more expensive.The content is good; it just needs a bit of polishing. I hope Mr. Nithus would take the time to proof his work and publish a second edition.

Ugh, if you need persuading as to why indoor rowing is a great sport or why one would do this if one doesn't row on water, this book is for you. If you want one guy's best thinking on prepping for competition, this book is for you.Not helpful on technique, form, power, or speed. Not helpful on getting from being a newbie to considering competition.Annoying typos throughout.Other than for vanity publishing, I don't know who to recommend this book to.

An enthusiastic writer who clearly loves erging. I really enjoyed the read, got some good information and a renewed interest of my own. I really recommend the book. Wish it was in kindle, so I can carry it around; my copy is getting a little worn from rereads at the gym.

Save your money! Extremely poorly edited and virtually no evidence of any comprehensive grammar or spelling check. The incorrect use of many words ("myself" instead of "me"; "your" when the author means "you're") throughout the book and an absolutely irritating use of hyphens in sentence after sentence (As an example, "Humans are difficult, -well, very difficult at times.") makes the books almost unreadable. Also, as one other reviewer comments, the cost comparisons of indoor rowing with running and basketball are a bit silly and would have better been left out. In addition, rather than simply stating the benefits of rowing, Chapter 3, "Avoiding Common Injuries", spends several pages that make cycling look like it will lead to almost certain death for any rider or impotence for any man who cycles on a regular basis.This is clearly a self-published book that suffers badly from the lack of even a cursory review of grammar and spelling, as well as any editorial review. My fault for not understanding that Amazon sells such self-published material. I'll be sure to Google book titles for reviews from other than the Amazon website to help avoid such purchases in the future.A far better book and value is, "Row Daily, Breathe Deeper, Live Better: A Guide to Moderate Exercise" by Dustin Ordway.

The clunky and sophomoric writing style, with numerous typos and grammatical errors, makes for hard going much of the time. Apparently this fellow actually attended a good college somewhere, which doesn't speak well for our higher-learning system. The author's enthusiasm for indoor rowing and his own hard-won expertise almost make up for the book's many shortcomings, but there's at least one other pretty darn good indoor rowing book, "Row Daily" by Dustin Ordway, that's an infinitely better read and a much better buy. Ordway positively refuses to give any sort of scientific rationale for his suggested regimen, relying instead on his own experiences and observations; said refusal is one of his book's many strengths. This book offers some very useful training suggestions and takes a stab at explaining the development of endurance strength as the reason for rowing's effectiveness. Better sources on endurance strength, though they're promoting a dated and even more eccentric exercise modality, are any of the "Heavyhands" books, used copies of which are easily found. I'm not sorry I bought this book. It's useful in its own way. I wish it had been edited.

I read Mr. Nithus' book over a couple of evenings. His enthusiasm for the sport - or means to an end, depending on your approach - is quite infectious, and his diatribe on 'the cost of exercise' is valid and to the point.The biggest gripe I have with this book is that it contains numerous typos as well as factual inaccuracies. For example, the length of the Concept2 machine is given as 12' which in itself might put some people off buying one unless they discover that the dimension is actually closer to 9'. The most annoying error, however, - and it's repeated throughout the book - is the use of 'ascetic' where 'aesthetic' is clearly the word intended. I suppose that's jocks for you though, but a good proof reader would be able to polish this text to great advantage for its second edition.