For a group of Ashland seniors, this low-impact exercise holds the key to fitness, with monthly outings on the water a welcome addition to their regular workouts on rowing machines indoors

ASHLAND — With the early morning spray and waves in their faces, it’s not quite as tame as taking a turn on the rowing machine at the fitness spa. But the elderly rowing crew gamely goes at it, crossing Emigrant Lake and back several times.

The monthly workout with the women’s crew team of Southern Oregon University is a treat available to the older rowers because Andy Baxter, their fitness director at Mountain Meadows senior community, wants them to experience the real thing.

If you listen to Baxter preach the gospel of crew, you’ll hear that seniors have finally found the perfect exercise.

It works both upper and lower body without impact, boosts cardiovascular strength and guards against the ravages of osteoporosis.

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At Mountain Meadows, older folks work out on stationary rowing machines several times a week, making their way toward the holy grail of rowing, a 1 million meter certificate and, as a team, the 5 million meter mark.

"On the rowing machines, you’ve got zero impact, you’ve got the most aerobic exercise possible, what with your legs pushing the moving seat as your arms row, and you recruit the greatest possible muscle mass, so you get by far the most bang for your buck," said Baxter, 36, a crew coach at Southern Oregon University and gold and bronze medalist with the Ashland Rowing Club.

"It’s a lot more fun on the water," said Gideon Wizansky, 71, who works out on the rowing machine four times a week and has racked up 760,000 meters so far. "It’s excellent to calm anxiety, focus me and bring my heart rate down. I row now at about 105 beats a minute."

Sharon Nelson, 69, has rowed almost 100,000 meters. "I feel good after I do it," she said. "I have arthritis so I do it daily to support my joints. Sometimes it hurts a little, but it’s the easiest exercise and really works well on the upper body."

Baxter’s college rowers come because the sport is "addictive and attracts strong-willed people who just haven’t found what they’ve wanted in other sports," the coach said.

For older rowers, the lure is "completely different and more profound.

"They build functional strength and physical independence that offers a higher quality of life and in some cases, life itself." He recalled one elderly woman who suffered a series of mini-strokes that caused brain damage affecting digestion. She kept at rowing until she was able to get back to proper body weight and remove a feeding tube.

"I believe rowing pulled her through," Baxter said. "It stimulates metabolism and creates a caloric need. The body wants to feed the muscles."

Rowing requires a certain amount of flexibility, which may have to be cultivated gradually in seniors, as new neuromuscular (brain-body) pathways are adapted to the challenge, he said. Making the brain and nerves perform different activities is an important strategy in older years and leads to quicker reactions and less susceptibility to falls.

"It’s great exercise," said Sam Mitchell, 73, who has rowed 450,000 meters. "I like it a lot, because it’s very cardiovascular. I don’t have any health problems and doing this will probably keep it that way."

John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.