Unless you had someone to do it for you, it would be sort of cumbersome. What would be the purpose of it? The gears on a bicycle and the damper settings on an indoor rower are not really that comparable. Some people vary the stroke rate and try to keep a constant intensity - as measured by power output in watts, or, more commonly, as measured by the so-called "pace" in minutes and seconds per 500m. As far as pyramids are concerned, you could try pace pyramids at constant stroke rate, although I am not sure what would be the value of it other than breaking the monotony.Hansink wrote:I have heard of rating pyramids but is there such a thing as drag pyramids?
A little background to my question: I have done many workouts on the indoor bicycle trainer and have recently converted to indoor rowing. One of the workouts that I used to do on the bike was to change gears every five minutes while trying to maintain the same speed. And so I was wondering if by changing the damper setting every so often on, say, a 30 minute row, would be a good idea.
But as a newbie I had the notion that there may be some value in playing with drag during one session or interval. At least, changing the drag has been helpful for me to "feel" the different drags while searching for my optimal drag factor. Maybe changing the stroke rate accomplishes the same thing. 
It was already verboten as early as 1994. Also, with the old model B's with the open cage, it was standard practice for the ergatta director to go around and use the toe of his shoe to bring each wheel to a complete stop. That cannot be done with the closed cages of the later models, but with the technology used now, I suppose that any wheel with significant momentum is detected and the start is automatically delayed until they are all slowed down enough to eliminate any advantage. The PM4 seems to be particularly sensitive to wheel movement. Mine seems to take a much longer time than my old PM3 before I am able to shut it down without having it coming back on again.NavigationHazard wrote: The World Indoor Champs (Crash-Bs) still explicitly state that you can change the drag before your event but not during the race itself (you're disqualified if you do). It's because a then rower, now legendary coach named Charlie Butt figured out that he could get better splits on a Model B with a first-generation monitor by changing the damper setting for his final sprint. He apparently actually did it in the 1997 race (before my time).....
Hansink wrote:
BTW, changing the drag is fairly easy when I do it with the handle.
Tony Watts: "When ever I set the Damper to give a Drag Factor much over 150 I struggle badly, get instant Lactic build up and my training times drop off sharply. Should I train above this on some sessions and try to adapt to it or just train at whatever Drag Factor gives the best times?"
Terry O'Neill :As far as the drag factor is concerned, what you have to realise is that rowing is a question of power. Speed is a component of power, so if you can pull a full length stroke in 0.7 seconds at a drag factor of 150, this represents a certain power output. If you increase the drag factor and maintain the speed then you are generating more power, but if you increase the drag and it takes you 0.9 seconds to pull a stroke, then you could be developing less power. Every person has what is known as muscle threshold. This is the speed at which the muscle can contract. To achieve your best performance you would need to row at your muscle threshold and the only way to find this is by trial and error with the damper setting. [NOTE: To display the Drag Factor, to display the drag factor press READY and REST together and then row a few strokes [on a PM2]. For more information about how the damper setting works, checkout the Indoor Rower FAQ on http://www.concept2.co.uk/rower]
As to the benefits of training at different damper level settings, there is a rationale here. By increasing the drag factor you could improve your basic strength, which you could then convert to more power. A relatively small improvement in strength could produce a significant improvement in power, but don't forget that speed also has to fit into the equation. Therefore, you could incorporate into your programme sessions where you increase the drag above your optimum for strength gains, then drop it below optimum for speed gains, then place at the optimum for specific power training. You could try this twice a week with short interval training, moving the damper between intervals. Try 9 x 1 minute pieces at (level 10, level 1, level 5) x 3 and see how it goes.
1. You can't assume that their damper lever position bears any relationship to yours. Height above mean sea level and amount of dust and cruft in the fan can affect that.Hansink wrote:Citroen, I noticed that your link recommended a drag of 140 for heavyweight men performance athletes but, although I am a newbie, I suspect that a higher drag is used by most who row a 2k in under 6:40. When I watch youtube videos of competitions I try to notice the damper settings and they seem to be around 7 or 8 (as far as I am able to see for heavyweight men). Am I right about this?
Hi Citroen. I said I was seeing dampers set at 7-8 but your point #1 basically says that I should not infer anything by what I'm seeing on youtube videos because of dust and altitude. Point taken but question not answered yet. Then you say that elite rowers use 4+. I can appreciate that OTW rowers would want to use the erg to support their OTW performance but I am exclusively an indoor rower and am training for my first 2k competition. Your last sentence seemed a little snarkyCitroen wrote:1. You can't assume that their damper lever position bears any relationship to yours. Height above mean sea level and amount of dust and cruft in the fan can affect that.
2. Most elite rowers are using the ergo to emulate a 4+ boat, they're going to set the drag to make the ergo feel like their boat.
The optimal drag for indoor (only) rowers is the value that gets them the best results. There are no drag factor police.
, no doubt because my question is so common, but I am looking to do 6:30 in the near future as a newbie and I am looking for "fast track" advice. I do appreciate your helpfulness and have taken a gander at your blog, which I hope to read more carefully later to glean some of your wisdom. Er no. The last sentence means you will have to experiment starting at a prescribed level and working in jumps of say 5 to 10 until you find the drag that a) feels right and b) gets your best results. You could simply leave it where it is.Hansink wrote: Your last sentence seemed a little snarky
