Concept2 Forum

A note on wrist-worn fitness trackers: I find that I get my most reliable readings when I clean my wrist and the back of my tracker with a wet paper towel just before I exercise. I make sure I wear my watch a full two fingers above my wrist bone.

FWIW: The two metrics that the Concept2 actually measures are time and distance, Everything else, - watts, calories, pace -- is calculated by formulas and assumptions. Rounding errors can mount up. An extra meter or a second less elapsed time can propagate to a bigger change in one of the derived me...

I'm a casual rower. I mix row-erging with exercise biking and treadmill to achieve a level of cardio exercise to maintain, but not necessarily improve, my health. (I'm 77 and can feel the capability changes that age brings.) I don't periodize because I don't take part in scheduled competitions. I hi...

If you decide to bump up your stroke rate, be careful of your form. It's really easy to end up shortening your stroke (failing to extend at the catch or short changing your finish) and losing a lot of whatever your increased activity should have netted.

Woke up this morning and my Fitbit told me my Readiness was 18 - low. Rowed anyway. Got a 30-minute PB. (6430 meters; 128 Watts) 82nd percentile for my age (76). Gee, I wonder what I could have done if I was rested.

I'm a 76 year-old male who uses a C2 Model D with PM3 computer 2 or 3 times a week to stay in shape. I mix it in with a treadmill and a recumbent bike.

30 minutes
6252 Meters
117 Watts
346 "True" Calories
8.6 Mets
VO2 Uptake 30.1 ml/kg/min

Not a PB but I feel good about it.

I'm a 76 year-old male who uses a C2 Model D with PM3 computer 2 or 3 times a week to stay in shape. I mix it in with a treadmill and a recumbent bike.

30 minutes
6252 Meters
117 Watts
346 "True" Calories
8.6 Mets
VO2 Uptake 30.1 ml/kg/min

Not a PB but I feel good about it.

Using METS allows for comparisons between individuals without respect to weight differences. Calories per Minute for the same exercise between people of different weights would be different. METS would not because weight is part of the calculation. The NASM formula I based my calculations on is: MET...

Calories per minute is a valid measure of intensity, for sure. I like the MET, though, because so much exercise research uses it as a kind of universal measure.

Total calories is a measure of the total energy expenditure of an exercise. It does not really tell you your intensity, though, I use Met-minutes because it has a component that tells me how much work I did but also the intensity with which I did it. The final result may be the same but the factors ...

The measure I use for intensity is METS. METS are calculated by dividing your VO2 uptake (ml/wt(kg)/sec) for a given exercise by your VO2 uptake at rest (usually assumed to be 3.5 ml/kg/sec. The formula I use is Calories/minute x 200 / weight (kg) / 3.5 = METS. I set weekly goals for Met - minutes (...

I wear a Fitbit. I keep track of zone minutes -- a combination of time and intensity (heart rate). My daily goal is to at least double the standard set in the HHS Physical Activity Guidelines. I can usually get that number just by 40 minutes of rowing but if the rower is not available, I can still m...

If your gym is like mine, hardly anyone uses the C2 and nobody uses the REROW function. Once you've rowed your interval once, it will be stored in memory. The next time you come in you can pick REROW from the SELECT WORKOUT menu. Move the pointer down to the entry that corresponds to the last time y...

I rowed two 40-minute steady state personal bests so far this week. It felt like I was kind of in the zone because my technique was cleaner. 1. I was rowing a tad slower -- 25 - 26 SPM 2. I was focused on a better catch -- bringing my hands up smoothly during recovery to the top of the chain wheel; ...

Built my own.