Controlling heart rate

[bobwhite]

I’ve been rowing for about a year and a half now and I love the workout, but I’m really elevating my heart rate too much (pushing 160 bpm today).
I’ve been doing 5000M in 24-25 minutes and I strive for this pace but I feel I need to take it easier on my heart so should I row slower (that’s gonna be hard) or decrease the resistance from 4 to 3?

[Citroen]

The answer is neither. What we need to know is some stats for you; height, weight, age.

You may want to push the damper lever up a bit. Use the PM5 to determine the drag factor - which should be between 110 and 130.

Stop letting HR put a spike in your training.

[MPx]

Why you worried about HR getting high? Its supposed to - its how it works. Push mine close to max a couple of times each week - proves I still can!

[bobwhite]

I’m 62 yo female 5’5” 120 lb. Drag factor of todays row was 110.

[JaapvanE]

Several people, me included (with no medical background, use polarised training as it provides similar results (or better) than several all-out sessions a week, without the fatigue. And some medical professionals consider too many high intensity trainings a week bad for your health (see https://youtu.be/Y6U728AZnV0 ).

I try to hover around the end of HR Zone 2 during most of my workouts. When I hit that limit, my watch alerts me and pace goes down a bit. Slowly, the average pace is improving, so something is going right.

[bobwhite]

Maybe I’m stroking to fast. I’m averaging 37 strokes per minute and trying to maintain at least drive length of at least 100 m

[johnlvs2run]

My heart rate gets up to 160 rather easily, around 180 when pushing the pace, and roughly 200 at max effort.
I rarely check my heart rate though, as my preference is rowing by feel, and making adjustments on a day by day basis.

[Ombrax]

Maybe I’m stroking to fast. I’m averaging 37 strokes per minute and trying to maintain at least drive length of at least 100 m

I agree with your statement.

Everyone's different, physically and in what feels normal / comfortable for them, but in all likelihood 37 spm is too high (some might say much too high). Instead of putting in a smaller amount of work often (i.e. high stroke rate) over the long run you'll do better with your training to put in more work less often (more effort with each stroke, but at a lower stroke rate).

Over time (multiple workouts over several weeks, if not longer) see if you can maintain the same pace (time / 500m) while gradually lowering your stroke rate. Ideally, for "normal" workouts (i.e. not races or PB attempts or end-of-workout sprints to the finish line) you'd be down around 20 spm or so. This promotes a stronger stroke, and allows you to increase the rate when you really want to work hard. And you aren't like the Energizer bunny, wasting energy zipping up and down the slide.

Good Luck

Edit w/ caveat: Much of what I said above is based on discussions on the forum and applicable to guys, who tend to be bigger and taller than the OP. I realize that "62 yo female 5’5” 120 lb" is on the smaller side of the average rower, but just the same, I don't think it would hurt to try to bring the stroke rate down a bit. Others here who are more familiar with the best way for folks closer to the OP's stats to train will hopefully chime in.

[Dangerscouse]

37spm is probably too high as that's a lot of energy being used, just going backwards and forwards, but there will be a sweet spot where you're most efficient. That could be r37, r20, or anywhere in between, as Ombrax says we are all different.

How do you monitor your HR, and why is going slower such an issue for you? I know slowing down isn't something that we really want to do, but don't let your ego dictate your thoughts.

In all probability, going slower in the short term will make you faster in the long term.

[jamesg]

Rate 37, 5000M in 24-25' - 62 yo female 5’5” 120 lb.

Well done, you're on the front page of the Rankings 60-65 FLW.

To keep HR down while working hard, pull short intervals at low rates. This lets you concentrate on the stroke itself so can be very effective.

Todays WOD is 8 x 2' with 1' rest.

[p_b82]

I was just going to add that some people have a HR for a perceived banding too - In my case I can operate with my HR at nearly 90% max for over an hour and I'm not "stressed" - I'm working hard but it's all under control.

As a result I use this as my threshold for effort unless it is an all out/TT attempt - but I'm only rowing up to 3 times a week, and so I am not suffering from any overload based symptoms when I exercise.

As others have said you may find that lowering your rate but keeping the same pace is more efficient for you, and so the HR would drop a bit - I found I could have a lower hr at 28spm than I could for 22spm for the same pace during a HM attempt - but if I was trying to go faster over a shorter distance, it wasn't the case.

[bobwhite]

Thanks to everyone for the great advice. Last year I had reached an all time low of 23:12.2 5000m and I wanted to keep improving so I guess I just spread up the spm and blew up my form as well as unnecessarily stressing my heart. I’m going to slow down and get my stroke back where it should be and work on efficiently and hopefully effectively picking up the pace.

[johnlvs2run]

I'm 5' 8" tall, and my fastest 5k on the model B - some 20+ years ago - was at 33 spm.
I wasn't 62 yet but was close, and there's no way that I would have done that at 20 spm ha ha ha.

Many tall people on this forum are obsessed with low rates because (1) they are tall, and (2) they are lazy.
But not everyone is tall, and not everyone is lazy, so each person should decide for themselves what rating to use.

The lightweight (male, over 6' tall) Danes row at 43 spm both at 2k indoor competitions and when racing in 4x's on the water.

[JaapvanE]

I'm 5' 8" tall, and my fastest 5k on the model B - some 20+ years ago - was at 33 spm.
I wasn't 62 yet but was close, and there's no way that I would have done that at 20 spm ha ha ha.

Many tall people on this forum are obsessed with low rates because (1) they are tall, and (2) they are lazy.
But not everyone is tall, and not everyone is lazy, so each person should decide for themselves what rating to use.

The lightweight (male, over 6' tall) Danes row at 43 spm both at 2k indoor competitions and when racing in 4x's on the water.

I think they key differecnce here is training versus competition.

I'm not that tall (1 meter 83), and my natural tendency is to have a high stroke rate (28+). My best rows were are 20 SPM. As they say in rowing on the water: let the boat run. A slower stroke rate typically is heavier (as the flywheel/boat slows down a bit more), but you can take it a lot easier in the recovery and have a much better catch. Rushing the recovery is a great way to waste a lot of energy.

I'd agree that lightweights tends to have a higher stroke rate, but 35+ is something you typically see in races, but typically not often in training.

[Dangerscouse]

I'm 5' 8" tall, and my fastest 5k on the model B - some 20+ years ago - was at 33 spm.
I wasn't 62 yet but was close, and there's no way that I would have done that at 20 spm ha ha ha.

Many tall people on this forum are obsessed with low rates because (1) they are tall, and (2) they are lazy.
But not everyone is tall, and not everyone is lazy, so each person should decide for themselves what rating to use.

The lightweight (male, over 6' tall) Danes row at 43 spm both at 2k indoor competitions and when racing in 4x's on the water.

I'm 6' 4" and a HWT. My HM PB was done at r29, and I'm not sure what to interprete from your 'lazy' comment? Rowing at lower rates isn't lazier, as anyone can row with a lazy stroke at any stroke rate, and my recent 10k r18 had my HR at circa 95% near the end, which is very high for me. I do use low rates for steady state training, as it's a valuable resource to be comfortable with a wider range of stroke rates.

For a 2k erg race or OTW race, it's not unusual to see HWTs as well row at 40+, but I assume we're not talking about racing in this instance? This sounds like a standard training session to me, but I might be wrong.

I also think the general principle we're all working towards is finding what is most efficient, and not what is 'accepted practice', regardless of subjective factors, which entirely sums up my response. It has nothing to do with height or laziness.