Skillrow vs Concept II

[chrisl]

The gym I'm in has a number of different sites. One of the sites had 6x C2 Model E's. When I went in there a few weeks ago 2 of them had been replaced with 2x Technogym Skillrows. My suspicion is that their Technogym account manager convinced the site to just try a couple, since the vast majority of the rest of their kit is Technogym.

If I was taking part in a C2 challenge, eg Dog Days of Summer, and I got to the site and the Skillrows were the only machines available, would I be able to count my rowing on them towards the C2 challenge? Obviously I's have to manually enter the details in my logbook and I wouldn't be able to rank anything.

If so, my only concern is that when I tried the Skillrow I was trivially able to get and hold a pace of 1:32, so it claimed. There's no way I could hold that on the C2, so I expect it wasn't calibrated. However if I entered a decent rankable session from it into my logbook, it would be flagging it up as an unranked personal best, which would be annoying. I guess the fix for that would be to only ever do non-rankable pieces on it, eg 10005m.

The rowing felt odd and then the display crashed with an error code, so as soon as a C2 was free I moved over!

[Two Pudding Kid]

Lucky the personal trainers at our gym put their oar in when it was kitted out with Technogym equipment last week - still 6 Concept2s although very tightly packed now. For me I want to race Concept2, (er - when I have had a hip replacement as currently my style and power is rather poor), so want to train on something comparable. I might give Skillrow a go, but it would have to be in addition to Concept2 rather than instead of it.

[Stefanp]

Hi. Sorry to bump this old(ish) thread. This is my first post First off, to caveat my post, I am not an experienced rower, indoors or out, but occasionally use it for cardio. I'm 45 and keep fit and active, but rowing is very much occasional - and I mean occasional; I wen through a phase of rowing 3 indoors times a week for about 2 months a couple of years ago, and since then do the odd 2k or 6x500m, maybe 3 or 4 times a month. But I want to step it up again, hence coming on here.

Now, my gym moved from Concept 2, to a water rower, and now to the skillrow. The last time I did 2k on a concept 2 was ages ago and I did a 7:24. without properly training (infact I was stupid, I just kept doing 2ks about 3 times a week for 4 weeks LOL). So was pretty pleased with that. When we moved to a water row I managed a sub 7 (just... a 6:58). But the feeling I got was that it was 4-5 secs faster per 500m than the concept2, hence my improvement.

We now have skillrows. I am struggling with them! Mainly because on a concept 2, I know what 'level' to set my row at. It had a number! With the skillrow you have a dial (strength v row!) and have to turn it to where you feel it should be. That's the first annoying thing. (I set mine in the 'rowing' side, in the middle of the table/stairs sign) Now, I definitely feel this is around 4-5 secs SLOWER than a Concept 2. I see another poster suggested the same, but wanted to check if that was the agreed consensus? As I say, I don't row regularly enough at all, but I could easily chuck out a 7:50 ish as a warm down after weight training, but now I am struggling with 8:10s. Yes, I am older, but it just feels harder. I did attempt a 2k recently, my first for a while, to see where I was at, so started at 1:52 pace, but before long I was at 1:58 and then 2:00!!!
I know I probably underestimated how tough 2ks are, and haven't rowed enough lately, but I have never ever had to do 2:00 pace unless warming up/down.

Any thoughts and helpful comments welcome!

[Luc1f3r]

This wouldn't happen to be Nuffield Health would it?

They are in the process of changing the gym over to the Skillrow rowing machine in Gloucester

I've expressed my irritation and anger and queried why they are changing from the defacto industry gold standard, but met with a blank expression.

I'm now considering cancelling my membership.

[Parky]

I'm with DW Fitness and they've just switched over to the Skillrow and have 3 of them facing a large screen where you can race your mates on water. (A bloody long , straight river with cgi buildings on the bank). You can't save your workouts to memory, change the view on the monitor, set intervals, set a 1/2 or full marathon distance as it only does 50 metre increments and you need a degree to work out how to use it.

I haven't figured out how to set it so you can see your workout splits or Wattage, though I believe it can be done.

It does seem to give slower ratings than the Concept for more effort.

The Skillrow and Technogym apps won't install on my mobile which has all been updated and cookies enabled. Having read some reports on these apps, most appear to think it is basically crapnollergy

They've kept 2 C2's with PM5 monitors and I far prefer the old technology.

The only thing I like about the Skillrow is the handle which is lightly knurled and is a lot easier on my geriatric hands. (Concept, Please note)

I'll stick with Concept.

[Parky]

The Skillrow and Technogym apps won't install on my mobile

I'll amend that. The Technogym app has been successfully installed.

[davebray]

My local gym changed to Skillrows 6 months ago, which I have used until last week, when I finished the BPP.
I tried another gym with Concept 2s as I wanted to be on the "accepted standard" to continue.

The Concept seat is much more comfortable than the Skillrow's, no more painful butt. The drag factors don't
compare, a Skillrow set at 115 is much easier than a Concept at 115. I'm not sure whether one is slower per 500m
than the other as others have said, because the drag factor settings are not like for like.
The Skillrow's display and information is very limited compared to the Concept's.

I shan't be going back to the Skillrows.