The Dumb Default Things We Do When We Start Something New
What a rowing machine taught me about every other hard thing
My second kiddo just arrived.
Sleep is fractured. Family needs are sporadic. Training windows are whatever I can steal between diaper changes, calls, and boys adventures with my two year old.
I needed something I could do in 10-30 minutes, right in my garage, without needing to be anywhere.
I emailed my coach Justin Daerr and asked: treadmill or rower?
He said he had a rower sitting unused. He’d just bring it over.
A few days later Justin showed up, helped me carry it into the garage, and spent thirty minutes walking me through everything.
Then he watched me row and coached me up in real time.
What followed reminded me of every beginner mistake I watch new endurance athletes make. (And the ones I made myself too).
Turns out I was making all of them. Again.
The Damper Was at 10
Before Justin showed up, I’d been using the rower at my gym.
Damper (the 1-10 dial on the side) cranked to 10. Maximum resistance. Because lower felt like admitting weakness.
I lasted five minutes every time, gutted to 10 minutes a few times, and couldn’t picture ever going longer.
Justin told me to drop it to 6. Here’s what changed immediately:
I couldn’t grit my way through it anymore
Going easier revealed all the sloppiness in my form
I started feeling where I lost the rhythm and where I defaulted to muscling through
The lower setting didn’t make it easier. It made it more honest.
The damper is not a difficulty badge. It’s a tool to control resistance.
I Was Pulling Like I Was Starting a Lawnmower
Justin gave me two corrections that changed everything.
#1: Don’t bend your arms until your legs are fully extended.
I’d been pulling everything together at once - turning what’s supposed to be a lower body dominant movement into an upper body grind.
#2: Slow the stroke rate to 22-24.
I was defaulting to 30 s/m because faster felt harder. It wasn’t. It was just sloppier.
My form still isn’t dialed. Some sessions I feel the sequence.
Legs, hips, arms → Recover in Reverse → arms, hips legs
It’s smooth.
Other sessions my upper body creeps back in and I have to find my legs again.
That’s what being a beginner feels like.
Touching flow for a second, then exploring the intricacies of the movement to get it back.
The Minute of Rest Was the Whole Thing
After a week of rowing at my gym, I had a new personal best:
21 minutes, 5,000 meters, continuous effort. And it required all kinds of mental tricks to keep going past 3k.
Then I tried intervals. 500 meters on, one minute off, repeat.
I went 12 rounds. 36 minutes. 7,000 meters. A smashing new personal record.
The rest wasn’t just recovery. It was re-patterning.
Every minute off I reset my posture, found my breathing, and went back in with my form intact. The break let me find it again before fatigue made wrong feel normal.
The session after that: 8,000 meters straight.
I see this with new runners constantly.
The goal becomes don’t walk — as if walking is failure. So they slog through miles with deteriorating form, wondering why it never clicks.
They don’t need more grit. They need permission to pause and reset.
The Defaults Don’t Care How Experienced You Are
I have six Ironmans under my belt and have been coaching endurance athletes for years.
I still cranked the damper to 10. I still defaulted to 30 s/m. I still couldn’t row for more than 10 minutes.
Experience doesn’t protect you from default settings. It just helps you spot them faster in new domains.
I see the same pattern in the early-stage brand builders I coach.
They chase ads, followers, more reach. It feels like working hard. It looks like progress. But it’s the same thing as rowing at 30 s/m.
High effort.
Low efficiency.
A mask for the slower, more intentional work of maximizing what's already there.
The guys who are ready to grow aren’t the ones with the biggest audiences. They’re the ones deepening what they already have.
The repeat buyer. The subscriber already in a real conversation with you. The customer who just needs to be asked.
Slow the stroke rate down. Feel what’s actually happening. Get more out of every rep before you add more reps.
That’s not beginner advice. That’s the whole game.
Insightful! Have been there and done that. Just didn’t realize it!
Congratulations on the second kiddo! Many blessings, enjoy the ride because soon enough they are off to college and adults!