If you don’t know where you are how are you going to get where your going? Having a bench mark of some type is a super useful way to

1: Gauge your current fitness level

2: Assess your current training program effectiveness

3: Set some time frames around pushing on to a new level on or off the water.

There are many ways to measure Rowing fitness.

From the standard 2k, 5k, 10k, through step testing to sub or maximal levels and plotting your power curve over timed efforts from 10sec to an hour.

Pretty involved stuff. Adding heart rate measuring, blood Lactate sampling, gas analysis.

The list is long and can get expensive.

Bottom line. Track your progress and don’t be hesitant to crack out a test every couple of months. It’s like a Race 😁

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Always an interesting one. As Rowing either land or water based is a weight supported sport, as in your seated, it is important to understand that to get a true ‘Fat burning’ type workout the intensity will need to go up and the intervals duration come down. This should be part of your overall long term program.

Hitting the high notes with short HIIT/TABATA Protocols is a very effective means to our end goal. With this type of workout it is really important to do a progressive warmup and dial the intensity up. then for the intervals work at an intensity that is sustainable but super challenging. I cover this in Power efficiency setting your zones. As we always say ABBS are built in the kitchen so you cant out row a bad diet. Tidy that one up also and your are on a win win.

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On the Erg you can get away with a lot when it comes to the stroke sequence. Over time you will generally go faster once you are consistent and working towards something.

Once the handle moves from the cage end to the end of the slide the fan will turn driving the PM (Performance Monitor) /Clock

Adding body parts to the handle makes it go faster and the sequence of when we apply force is another big one. Bearing in mind arguably about 60% of the effective power is derived from the legs. A further around 30% from the trunk and the remaining 10%ish ‘arms’.

Having all these actively connecting the footplate to the handle through the drive phase is what will deliver power.

Optimizing the output is then a matter of what moves first and sequence.

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It used to be a 10k road race was the pinnacle for most weekend warriors and rowers found this a super fun addition to the training schedule. I’ll never forget my first ‘Plassey 10k’ we heard about it the night before in the pub after a Skin full and thought that’s a great idea, why hadn’t someone thought of it sooner. Of course they had 🤪 this was back in the early 90’s mind. I was hooked you could actually socialize with your ‘competition’ which was very new to us as we generally didn’t get to hang with the Oppo. Then we moved to marathons adventure racing and Triathlon in the off-season. In an effort to push the boundaries further somewhere along the road FOG mentioned Ironman. Hell ya let’s do it. Then multi day Ultra Marathon des Sables. Is there no end to it.

We had often taking the trip to Germany for the Rhine marathon a special feat of endurance both on and off the water. When we moved to New Zealand I came across the Waikato100 100km river race oh baby it just gets better.

Then one afternoon while attending our Oz conference I spotted an Erg clock during our charity partner portion.

The R4CH Row 4 Children’s Health Erg marathon was now a thing. A whole new challenge was born.

A little while later the Crossfit games featured an Erg marathon as one of their WOD’s.

My ergs are generally short and focused so moving that to the sort of training I would do for an endurance event was an interesting experience.

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Well my sanity is always a discussion point just talk to my wife 😁🕺🏻Who by the way is one of the worlds foremost exercise physiologists and sports scientists working in believe it or not rowing 🚣🏽‍♀️👍

If you are working any program there will be a variety of sessions from long easy to moderate, to top shelf hitting high notes gut busting intervals or tests. Using an appropriate warmup/primer the day of and in your training, is a fantastic way to ensure your body and the various systems and energy systems. This is a big focus area for me as a 50+ rower who has been at it for 30+ years. The body needs a bit more to get going these days. Introducing a protocol that will get you purring along will ease that transition out of the blocks and the 1:20-1:40 lung burst 👍

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There’s a whole host of online generic training programs out there for all sports these days. Whether you want to go couch to 5k or beyond getting a program is a good idea. Getting a focused program geared towards your end goal is super beneficial as we can spend a lot of time in the ‘Grey’ area I mentioned in an earlier post. If you use your Erg for recovery, general fitness, weight loss it’s all good. Having a metric to measure improvement is extremely motivating. Also with all training modalities working in some recovery around your key ‘ Work efforts’ is a way to further extend your enjoyment and maximize results over time.

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Well your not going anywhere in a hurry so why not take a little time to assess your technique and stroke sequence. Which is a fancy term for how you row. Using a reflective surface or mirror is very useful once you have an idea what it should look and feel like. With smartphones and instant messaging distance coaching is always an awesome opportunity to get advice from someone who has been in the game a lot longer than you or the person who showed you the ropes.

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One of the many awesome features of the indoor rower is the fact that pretty much anyone can use one. There is a massive height and weight range. Heel height is one of the main things to adjust along with the effective resistance (Drag) I covered in an earlier post. The foot height adjustment can work for a few other things apart from shoe size.

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Ergs are such a simple tool. Like all simple tools they have an application. When measuring the relative speed/watts/cals/distance the bit that counts is mostly the drive phase. This is the bit between the handle being close to the wheel and far away from the wheel. This is the propulsion phase. The other bit is the recovery phase. This is where we can converse vital energy by switching off as many active muscles as possible. With a little sequencing work and some Q’s we can again achieve better results with less overall effort.

Less is very often more.

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