Weight Loss Case Studies
Rhodri Phillips
Thirty-eight year old Rhodri Phillips is no stranger to the world of rowing or the Concept 2 Indoor Rower. He was a schoolboy rower at Forest School in Snaresbrook, London and rowed in the Anglo-French Cup in 1983.
But after more than 20 years of rowing Rhodri has the Concept2 Indoor Rower to thank for him being able to shed four stone in only 22 weeks.
Rhodri, from Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire, began rowing in 1979 at school. He mainly rowed in coxed fours and pairs but supplemented his rowing by training on the original Model A Concept 2 Indoor Rower.
After competing in a few national championships and winning the Anglo-French Cup, Rhodri enrolled at medical school at Cardiff University and his studying began to overtake the training.
"During University and for a number of years afterwards I didn't get time to even look at an Indoor Rower. But then in 1995 I moved to a job which gave me a little more free time and thought it was the ideal opportunity to buy my own Concept2 and start training again." Rhodri explained.
"I'd always wanted one because it's a great machine but getting married and having three children meant having my own machine wasn't an option before. I wanted to get fitter and rowing had always been a passion of mine so it seemed the ideal solution."
At the beginning of 2004 Rhodri logged onto the Concept2 website and bought a training manual. He found a 22-week training programme for moderately fit people to train three times a week and thought he'd give it a go.
Rhodri continued: "I started to follow the programme initially just to get my fitness levels back up again but straight away I could really feel a difference. I started to feel so much fitter and after I bought a heart rate monitor I noticed my heart rate was recovering much quicker than before. I decided to change my diet too and joined a slimming club to aid my transformation.
"The weight started coming off and I was feeling much fitter, it was really working. When I started rowing I was doing 2,000m in 7 minutes 40 seconds. Slowly I started knocking seconds off my time and before I knew it I had done 2k in 7 minutes 12 seconds. I'd also lost more than four stone in weight."
Once Rhodri noticed what a difference the Concept 2 was making he entered the AXA PPP healthcare British Indoor Rowing Championship to really test himself. Using the event as a goal Rhodri kept up his training after the initial training programme and racing in the 35-39 heavyweight category he finished in 7 minutes 4.1 seconds.
"I couldn't enter the Grand Prix series this season due to work commitments," said Rhodri. "I've now started working part time and should hopefully have time to compete in the next series and in the British Championship again.
"I'm hooked on the Concept 2 and want to keep using it as a form of fitness and I've even thought about buying a boat to get back out on the water."