An Olympic workout

Xeno Muller, who won gold in 1996, teaches rowing in Costa Mesa without getting his feet wet.The running joke around Iron Oarsman fitness center is that the Roman warrior statue that stands outside the small Costa Mesa studio should be called “young Xeno.”

That’s Xeno as in three-time Olympian, personal trainer and studio owner Xeno Muller.

It isn’t a far-fetched name, given that Muller, at 33 years old, is still a fine physical specimen.

He admits that he isn’t in the kind of shape that helped him win a gold medal at the 1996 Olympics and the silver at the 2000 Olympics in single-scull rowing.

But Muller, who began his athletic career as a tennis player, still has the physical makeup of a rower. Strong upper body. Muscular legs. And ...

“My friends said my hands are big enough, I don’t need to have oars,” he said.

The Swiss-born Muller has made a career out of teaching rowing to the public. He no longer goes out on the water. His instruction comes indoors on stationary apparatus.

Inside his one-room workout studio, 15 rowing machines are lined up side by side. Above them hangs the shell that Muller rode to one of his Olympic medals.

On the walls are rowing T-shirts created by his wife. Motivational comments from those who work out at the studio fill much of the remaining wall space.

Muller runs students through 45-minute workouts multiple times per day -- beginning as early as 6 a.m. There are dozens of variations on the basic rowing motion, and Muller teaches many of them. He exercises along with everyone, demonstrating the one-armed and one-leg row.

“I’ve learned lots of techniques,” said Santiago Esparza, a 21-year-old rower on the Mexican national team who is training with Muller. “There’s lots of body conditioning. Xeno explains everything really simply. You get the whole idea from a few words.”

Muller admits that rowing is an obscure sport in the United States. He sees it as his job to play up the competitive aspect of the sport -- a hard sell given the workout’s stationary component.

All of the 160-plus members of the Iron Oarsman club are asked to record how many kilometers they row each session. At the end of April, rowing clubs across the country tally their totals and name a champion. Muller’s team is currently is third place with 60,000 kilometers, though he doubts the two teams ahead of him are keeping accurate totals.

It’s all part of Muller’s attempt to spice up stationary rowing.

“The idea is anyone can row as soon as you can sit down,” said Muller, a Costa Mesa resident. “There’s a lot more zest to this rowing than pushing around weights.”

Muller has clients as young as 13 and as old as 70. He said he is looking to get the word out to high school athletes who are looking to cross-train and those who are seeking college athletic scholarships.

Muller admits he isn’t a great salesman, and that the workout room is rarely filled with people. But he said once visitors come, his love of the sport shows through.

“I am competitive about getting people here, just like I was competitive about rowing,” he said.

Guests can try out one session for $20. Muller urges people to buy the larger packages, which are offered at discounted prices. For more information, call (949) 400-7630 or visit www.gorow.com.

* ELIA POWERS is the enterprise and general assignment reporter. He may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or by e-mail at elia.powers@latimes.com.

20051125iqftd7knDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Xeno Muller, left, a gold medalist at 1996 Olympics, teaches a rowing skills class at his Costa Mesa studio, the Iron Oarsman.