What is a Power 10?

[glass5mt]

Hi,

I'm very new to rowing. Although very fit though. Used to be a boxer...until I had an accident and my ACL joint screwed up.

Was looking at beginner workout routines at C's website:

Workout 3: Row easily for 5 minutes, then do 5 minutes of walking or stretching. (This will become your standard warm-up.) Complete 5 minutes of easy rowing, doing one Power 10 (a 10 stroke burst at higher intensity) per minute.

What is 1 power 10 per minute? Is it higher force or faster speed?

[edward.jamer]

Force. You aren't just rowing quicker; rather, you are trying to really maximize the watts for each pull in 10 strokes.

In this case, you'd want to count down 10 really powerful strokes at some point during each minute, filling out the rest of the minute at your normal pace/intensity to get a bit of rest before doing the next set of 10 powerful strokes.
(At least, that's my understanding. I'm also pretty much new to erging though.)

[Dangerscouse]

I've always understood a power 10 as being 10 strokes as fast and as hard as you can, so it's both force and pace.

[jamesg]

Power ten is what's done in races if dropping back; usually involves increasing the rating only, since the crew is already pulling as hard as possible.

Sunday next there's the Boat Race in London. With any luck we might see how it's done. Some strokemen have been known to sprint 4-5 times before even getting to Hammersmith Bridge.

Easy rowing but ten hard every minute might be manageable, if rowing ever was easy. Since all we can do when rowing is pull good strokes, to train we pull plenty of them and all good, but at low ratings. The limit is non-injury.

[edward.jamer]

Moral of the story: listen to people who actually row, and know what they're talking about. (ie: Not me!)
Thankfully, there are lots of knowledgeable people around.


But this brings up a questions about training:

... Since all we can do when rowing is pull good strokes, to train we pull plenty of them and all good, but at low ratings. The limit is non-injury.

So I should always pull as hard as possible, and just reduce stroke speed to increase recovery period as necessary when erging? For short distances this makes sense, but it seems increasingly difficult for longer (say, 5k or more) rows. Is there any benefit to reducing power while maintaining rate over longer distances? I would've thought that alternating between different rowing intensities/distances would be beneficial.

(I know so little that any guidance is welcome.)

[jamesg]

So I should always pull as hard as possible, and just reduce stroke speed to increase recovery period as necessary when erging? For short distances this makes sense, but it seems increasingly difficult for longer (say, 5k or more) rows.

Yes. In practice the maximum force we can apply is linked to the speed of the contraction. A pull takes about 0.6-0.7s, so the force is limited not only by strength but also by Power, which is literally Force x Speed.

On the erg we adjust the drag to a level that gives that pull time with the force we can reasonably apply. This lets us train at say 20 spm with a recovery/pull ratio say 4:1, and race at 34 with ratio 2:1, using the same stroke.

Training for rowing is done by adjusting the rating. If we plan to race, it's all based on 2000m, which needs about 200 strokes.

When starting we pull short times and low ratings, to learn how it's done.
As we get fitter we pull longer times, still at low rating, to gain technique, endurance and boat speed.
When that's done, we increase the rating, and shorten the pieces.
Race training is completed with short pieces, 1 to 3 minutes, at ratings higher than race rate.

This is the type of training I did at school 60 years ago, and much later found described in training programs printed in the Concept2 training manual. These programs were written by Terry O'Neill, an Olympic rowing coach. They last 13 to 26 weeks: one season.

The maximum distance I ever rowed was about 30 minutes, not least because we ran out of river and had to come back before night, albeit with the tide. Races were either 5 to 7 minutes (side by side) or 20 (Head of the River).

Today on erg much longer distances are used. But as you say, it becomes increasingly difficult to pull a good stroke for the duration; and I'd suggest there's little point if races are no longer than 20 minutes.

However, erging is for all, and if a Marathon runner wants to row a Marathon, or a sprinter 100 to 500m, both can do it and train as they wish. A good stroke will make it easy and will avoid injury.

[Dangerscouse]

So I should always pull as hard as possible, and just reduce stroke speed to increase recovery period as necessary when erging? For short distances this makes sense, but it seems increasingly difficult for longer (say, 5k or more) rows. Is there any benefit to reducing power while maintaining rate over longer distances? I would've thought that alternating between different rowing intensities/distances would be beneficial.

(I know so little that any guidance is welcome.)

You need to tailor all of the variables to what you want to achieve from a specific session.

For a long steady state session, powerful strokes are detrimental as it will inevitably limit the amount of time and/or distance that you will achieve. For example, if I tried to a HM at r20 as powerfully as I could do it at r28-30, I'd HD at 30 mins at the very most.

There needs to be a very defined balance between hard and easy sessions, with some medium / medium-hard sessions also thrown in. If you look at the Pete Plan this will highlight this perfectly.

I'm not a fan of reducing power when doing anything over r25 as I find that these stroke rates are made for more effort & speed, and anything slower teaches bad habits. I also find r24, and lower, can be beneficial for using different paces, but I'd only lower the pace to a really easy pace if it's because you've either had, or will have a hard session. Ideally you need to find a pace that suitably challenges but doesn't destroy you. After all, you reap what you row.

[Tsnor]

For our boats a power 10 is a doing 10 stronger strokes without changing the stroke rate.

Coxswain calls an increased stroke rate separately (like "in 2 goto 28"), and that is managed between stroke and cox'n - rest of boat follows stroke even if they didn't hear and mess up. There are also some startup calls example "high 10 then settle" that tell the stoke roughly what to do - rest of boat follows stroke.

For "power 10" if you were rowing at a 2:00 split and a 26 stroke rate then you would pull the next 10 strokes at something stronger say a 1:50 and keep the 26 stroke rate.

Typically a power 10 is called during a race/piece. You typically don't hit a power 10 with everything you've got, you hit it hard but you need to return to the prior split. In the example above starting at 2:00 at 26, "power 10" might give you 10 strokes of 1:50 at 26, but you better be prepared to continue after the power 10 at say 1:58 at 26, not 2:30 at 26. Power 10 is controlled aggression, not full hammer. That's different from the final sprint where you hammer it until the race/piece ends knowing you can paddle down afterwards.

Aside, Power 20 is 20 stronger strokes, Power 7 is 7 strokes, etc. Power means row harder, the number is the number of strokes.