Guidance for cyclist who's new to rowing/erg?

[blutow]

First post here, looking forward to being part of the community.

My wife and I recently completed a beginner sculling course, so we're just at the start of the learning curve on the water (humbling for sure).

We were introduced to the erg's at the club (all c2's) and decided to get an erg for the house. I am currently travelling/camped in Arkansas for a bike race next weekend and lucked out finding a basically new C2 RowErg on facebook nearby. So yeah, I got some interesting looks while doing a little rowing at the campground.

Anyways, I'm an avid cyclist with a good aerobic engine (mostly focused on 5+hour races). 55yr old, 6' tall, ~75kg. I'm hoping that rowing/erg can be good cross training (particularly in the off season) and help provide some core and upper body fitness. I'm a classic cyclist, all legs/butt with weak t-rex arms and upper body. I am also a numbers/wattage nerd, so naturally my first inclination is to see what I can do on the RowErg and try to hit some decent numbers. But I also don't want to hurt myself or get into bad habits, so hoping for a little guidance from folks who might have followed a similar path.

I got the erg today and spent enough time to get some feel for it. Set the drag at ~115 and and rowed for about 15 minutes. As expected, my arms/shoulders/back were feeling it pretty quick, but I could keep that in check by reducing the arm pull effort at the end of the stroke and basically just bringing the handle to my chest (pace didn't drop when I did this, so probably compensating more with legs). So, is that good practice for now or should I be focused on working my weaker arms and back to failure? Also, my current plan is to just go easy pace and up the volume for a month or so to work on form before starting to push things. Or would some harder intervals or mixing it up make sense? Any other tips/guidance is greatly appreciated, thanks.

[MPx]

Also, my current plan is to just go easy pace and up the volume for a month or so to work on form before starting to push things. Or would some harder intervals or mixing it up make sense?

Hi and welcome - great choice getting a C2 Erg ...

I'm no cyclist so others will be along soon closer to your path. But what you say here is very much the best plan for the early stages. Its so important to get the stroke mostly right before stressing your body too much which will tempt you to do something wrong to make the numbers look better quicker. With your background, your leg strength and engine will give a huge advantage. But as they are so developed, you will naturally overpower your core and arms and while they only add a fraction to the overall stroke power you need to give yourself time to get them on side and not set yourself up for injury. You need a strong core to transmit the leg force to the handle. Think in terms of a leg push rather than an arm pull.

You're obvs used to very long workouts so it shouldn't be a problem, but some (like me!) find grinding away for ages a bit boring so no harm and some benefits in mixing it up a bit with intervals of various sorts. None of them have to be done at 10/10ths at this stage. Enjoy the journey.

[Dangerscouse]

Also, my current plan is to just go easy pace and up the volume for a month or so to work on form before starting to push things. Or would some harder intervals or mixing it up make sense? Any other tips/guidance is greatly appreciated, thanks.

Welcome to the forum. I'd be careful in going too hard too soon for two reasons. Your ligaments & tendons, a bit more than your muscles will need to adjust and adapt to the strain and you could easily strain one of them without the initial preparation phase.

I'd also be careful of your ego dictating your decisions. Going from an expert to a novice in a different sport can seem easy enough but it can become a mental wrestling match as you feel like you should be better a lot sooner than is to be reasonably expected.

What i would also recommend is doing pilates or at least pilates style exercises. Plank variations will be ideal to start with, as there are quite a few options and they'll really work your core for a simple bodyweight exercise

[putridp]

Concept2's WOD (workout of the day), which can be easily programmed into the PM5 via the ergdata app are a nice way in for some varied shortish sessions, and you can decide what intensity you want to perform them at. Don't go crazy to start out, but rowing is generally an easy activity to recover from, even easier than cycling I would say, so long as form is good.

Always work on form, each and every time you ever row, on and off the water. Personally I find form most important during the long less intense rows, when a slight relaxation from strict form can fatigue my back excessively over the longer duration. For me there's some inevitable breakdown in form during high intensity short duration rows or interval sessions, but the shorter duration means it doesn't impact me much. Dark Horse rowing and Training Tall on YouTube are good resources, and Aram Training has some more advanced tips. Travis Gardner has some interesting videos about advanced rowing training strategies, including how it can vary from cycling.

Warm-up exercises are useful to train proper sequencing, such as arms only, then arms + body, then arms + body + half slide, then arms body full slide. And take care not to over-reach with too much leg compression and/or with the thoracic spine and shoulders. A DF of 115 sounds good to me. Your arms should quickly adapt and you shouldn't feel it there after a few sessions on the erg, try to use a loose hook grip, no death grip. The force curve can be useful to see how effective your form is.

Be wary of falling into the trap of comparing yourself with others. Even comparing yourself with your own prior achievements can be a pitfall. Height and lean weight play a huge role in performance potential, it's no coincidence that olympic rowers are well over 6' and around 100kg lean BW. Having said that, if you're a lean 75kg you may be lucky enough to be optimised to compete as a lightweight, and regardless, every veteran is envious of the 'newbie gains' that new-starters enjoy!