motion sickness

utsantana · Post by **utsantana** » November 26th, 2006, 5:29 pm

after being off the machine for a few weeks or longer, I suffer what I think is motion sickness the first several training sessions. I usually watch the display while I row, should I watch something else, maybe farther away? Anyone have a solution or suggestion?

Pete Marston · Post by **Pete Marston** » November 26th, 2006, 6:13 pm

Well the simple answer would be - don't stop training on the rowing machine for a few weeks at a time.

Do you have any eye sight problems? Do you normally wear glasses or contacts, and do you have any trouble focussing on the monitor at any point during the stroke?

Motion sickness is generally caused by a mismatch between what the eyes see as motion, and what the body (I believe the "inner ear") detects as motion. I'm not sure how this could be caused on the erg.

Do you row on slides? What sort of stroke rates are you rowing at?

If it is a problem of focussing on the monitor, for the first few session back either try not to look at the monitor, or put something over it to prevent you doing so.

Pete

hkp2ksk · Post by **hkp2ksk** » November 26th, 2006, 7:52 pm

check it out with your physician if you are vulnerable to "benign positional vertigo."

tony

Morgan · Post by **Morgan** » November 29th, 2006, 10:44 pm

General tip for motion sickness I recieved from the pilot of the KC-135 Vomit Comet (NASA's micro-gravity aircraft):

Pilot: "Eat bananas for breakfast."

me: "OK...... uh, why?"

Pilot: "They taste the same coming up as they do going down."

michaelb · Post by **michaelb** » November 29th, 2006, 11:30 pm

When I started rowing I noticed this too. At the time, I found turning the rower around, so that I didn't face a wall, really helped, since I could look off into the distance.

But I also think this is related to technique too, at least for me. I would work on being in control on the recovery, and come in smooth and clean for the catch. I think that will help stop that feeling of bouncing back and forth.

Rowing unstrapped at a lower stroke rate would be a good way to work on that. There are lots of posts in the past about proper technique, and I am not really the one to give out that kind of advice. But I think of the recovery as a mirror of the drive: fast with the hands away, rotate the body, have your hands out and the hip angle set before then bending and recovering with the legs, coming into the catch position slow but then instantly exploding on the drive. So the drive is slower to fast, the recovery is fast to slower.