i didn’t deviate i used the 5X5 in my off season. and i don’t advice him to deviate during season. sorry if i wasn’t clear.
I think the OP is worried is that he will lose his “mass” if he starts rowing. Which is right but if you are worried about losing “mass” then rowing is not really the sport to be looking at, try body building.
I’m fairly sure I know the original poster (Balle) and if it’s who I think it is, a couple of years on he’s still huge, and massively strong, but has lost a fair bit of muscle mass compared to when I played Rugby with him. He used to have absolutley huge quads, which have reduced to just enormous, but from the Boat Club records on the wall his Squat is still pretty damn big.
Some guys take to rowing training well, but others burn out pretty quickly, I think the initial Freshman squad here is about 40 but about half the folk I’ve known do it drop out within 6 weeks. But there are about 5 of our rowing Grads in Beijing this week. I’ve seen a few big ex-rugby players take up rowing and shrink as they work on endurance. I think a big factor is that so many of the prestige events are over 5km+, as opposed to the Olympic 2km distance.
I’ve had occasional arguments (usually drunk) with some mates of mine involved in rowing at a slightly lower level over the “waste” of potential which sometimes occurs when good athletes from other sports get sucked into the rowing culture here without ever reaching the Uni Squad.