How is work measured on new SkiErg?

Talk about the ski ergometer and training tool from Concept2
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floatingbones
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Joined: November 30th, 2010, 2:04 pm

How is work measured on new SkiErg?

Post by floatingbones » December 13th, 2014, 9:57 am

Since the advent of the Model B in the 80s, the computers have measured work by repeated sampling of the flywheel speed in the recovery. Single-poling was not possible on the original SkiErg; a big reason was that work could not be measured.

What has changed? How does the computer accurately record work? How does it keep from getting thrown off with funky phasing of single-pole work? Bicycle computers use strain gauges to help measure work, but that's a far more complicated signal to send to the SkiErg computer.

TIA.

jamesg
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Re: How is work measured on new SkiErg?

Post by jamesg » December 13th, 2014, 12:59 pm

The technique video shows double poling only, with plenty of recovery time, so presumably work is measured as on the erg. The workout is probably more effective that way, much like the flat and downhill poling action as is most used these days with no grip.
08-1940, 183cm, 83kg.
2024: stroke 5.5W-min@20-21. ½k 190W, 1k 145W, 2k 120W. Using Wods 4-5days/week. Fading fast.

C2Trevor
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Re: How is work measured on new SkiErg?

Post by C2Trevor » December 15th, 2014, 12:04 pm

The PM5 programming is able to calculate drag from a very small amount of flywheel deceleration. Once a valid drag factor is determined, the monitor is able to provide accurate data for the rest of the workout. Very rapid single stick skiing at the beginning of a workout does have the potential to interfere with calculating a drag factor. For this reason, we've inserted a warning message in the monitor that instructs the user to pause, or double poll for a stroke to allow the flywheel to decelerate and provide data for drag factor calculation.

floatingbones
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Re: How is work measured on new SkiErg?

Post by floatingbones » December 16th, 2014, 2:44 pm

Thanks, Trevor. The basic idea sounds very simple, but I'm sure the implementation took many hours of R&D. It's cool you were able to keep the machine's basic design while adding to the functionality this way.

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