Rowing

I've thoroughly enjoyed reading David Gemmel's Troy trilogy. My imagination was able to paint a very vivid picture of ancient Greeks.

One thing I noticed while in ancient Greece was that there were very few men of wide girth. Now, it may just be my Hollywood fueled imagination, but they all seemed to have six packs like I want to develop.

It got me thinking about their daily lives. The books mention that they all took turns at the oars. Sails were not as in vogue then and all the boats even the massive ones had to be propelled by sheer muscle power alone.

Thinking further about it I gathered the following points:

1. Its one of the few exercises that exercises all the major muscle groups
   
2. its a great core exercise and very good for cardiovascular endurance (i.e. its good for the heart)
3. Its specially effective for the stomach and back muscles (which is great for me cause I don't like to do crunches)
   
4. its a strengthening exercise and greatly improves muscle strength
   
5. it increases BMR and therefore accelerates weight loss in the long term
6. As you ave to regulate consciously your breathing in order to do rowing for any significant amount of time its a great torso expansion exercise too entirely as a fringe benefit.
   

I therefore nowadays start my day with a 20 minute session of rowing and have already started to feel my shoulders and chest expand.