Concept2 Forum

Defining "flat out" as including a desperate sprint at the end of a piece: I do this only in erg races, not even in time trials. Time trials are like 99.5% efforts.
I feel that a maximal sprint at the end is more harmful than useful.

Tyler Durden wrote: ↑

April 10th, 2025, 5:12 am

When I wanted to slow down my stroke rate, I pulled hard, but always took a short break at the end of the stroke. Then I easily slid back forward, were I immediately started the next stroke. Yesterday I moved the break to the beginning of the stroke

Ideally it is a fluid motion with no breaks.

Let me add to the good advise already listed: sit firmly on your ass bones & NOT on your back pockets! This will place your pelvis with an anterior tilt & prevent excessive rounding of your lumbar spine. This is the most important piece of advice. It is similar to the back posture recommended for d...

To get a high stroke rate with high drag factor you have to shorten the recovery very much, i.e. rush forward very fast. This probably would not work in a boat and is not generally done on the ergo (probably since ergers do not want to develop habits that are detrimental for on the water rowing). Fo...

Given that I can only erg primarily on Mondays, his recommendation is to do a mix of 30-40’ of steady state, 10-15’ of Anaerobic threshold pieces, and 5-10’ of high intensity interval training pieces so that I can hit all three basic training zones during the workout. After a good warmup (30 minute...

Thank you.... what would be the optimal range for developing power and technique regarding stroke rate? 18-22? I have done this trying to maximize force and I get the arm ,/back burn so that's verification that it's working. I can only tell you what I do: 8 watt per stroke is relaxed but working, 9...

Being able to maintain such a high stroke rate is a very valuable asset. I can't even do that for 1K. To get the most out of your rowing it is best, to combine this with low rate, higher powered rowing also. I would confine the high rate rowing to TR and AN workouts and time trials, and drop down in...

At higher intensity 2 breaths per stroke: breathe out at catch and finish of stroke.

I would not do it. You can mess yourself up, even if only by getting diarrhea (but worse is possible). There is an old thread, where some medical experts weighed in. Coffee and beet root juice or beet root powder are safer alternatives. They do not help with lactate buffering but increase blood flow...

I've notice that the slower I go the less watts I use and the worse my stroke gets. A good exercise is low rated rowing with concentration on the rate and stepping up the rate, e.g Duration / strokes per minute 6 mins / 15 5 mins / 16 4 mins / 17 3 mins / 18 2 mins / 19 1 min / 20 where the pace ha...

If I put the PM5 on but cover it so I am not following anything just rowing I cant hold any steady pace at all. You can, if you row slowly enough. Actually it is a good idea to work on this. For me personally pace comes first, stroke rate a close second, heart rate is only there for entertainment a...

Double check that 3-5% difference number. It's not right. Interesting, thanks for the link. In my case, a year back, (doing more cycling than rowing because of back problems) the difference was less than 3% more power on the bike erg both on 2K (4K) and 6K (12K). At age 40, where I was doing much m...

old wobbler wrote: ↑

March 6th, 2025, 5:59 pm

Ave stroke 20
Ave power 98 watt
Drag 133

Is that poor?

No it is not poor, you are on for 30 minutes and stroke rate is right. I would even slow it down to 18 strokes per minute. But 20 spm is in the ball park.
You have already avoided some mistakes.

Ave stroke 20 Ave power 98 watt Drag 133 You got 98 / 20 = 5 watt per stroke. To see the watts on the PM5 monitor , press the UNITS button, until it displays watts (the alternatives are splits [= time per 500m, looks like 2:20] or time elapsed. Drag 133 is slightly high and you decrease this by mov...

I've only recently gotten an accurate measure of that, with a week in Norway and some very long climbs. I put out more power on hills than on the flat, but I'm working on the latter. I've only started doing threshold work in the last few months really, since starting a time trial race series here. ...