Concept2 Forum

One of the main things I love about the rower is, without fail, the more I row the better my times get. I've never followed a structured plan for long enough on the skierg to know if the payoff is the same. For those who have been consistent, do you get a result on the skierg that is similar to the rower in that the more you ski the faster you get? If so, do you see a similar rate of improvement on the skierg compared to the rower?

My SkiERG 500m pace is about 15s slower than RowERG, regardless of the distance.

Some others report similar or even faster pace on the SkiERG.

gvcormac wrote: ↑

April 11th, 2025, 6:01 pm

My SkiERG 500m pace is about 15s slower than RowERG, regardless of the distance.

Some others report similar or even faster pace on the SkiERG.

I'm thinking more about the rate of improvement assuming someone puts in the work. The stroke is so different I wonder if someone could expect a rate of improvement that is similar on both machines. I'd be surprised if my rate of improvement on the skierg was similar to my rate on the rower, assuming a similar time and effort invested, but I'm curious to hear from people who have been consistent on both (since I have been inconsistent on the skierg).

My skierg performance is about 5s slower than on the rower (can only report that for shorter distances up to 5k).
When I started to incorporate the skierg, I was a good bit slower, as I rated low and had an inefficient stroke. Additionally I was not used to the higher breathing rate.
Changing the technique to shorter strokes at higher rate was giving me better results with lower fatigue, when I adapted to the even higher breathing rate, which was the main issue and took about 3-4 weeks.
In terms of cardio fitness there is a huge carry over from the rower, so I think I don't necessarily need the long steady stuff at the skierg to improve the same way as on the rowErg. I do 15min skierg warmup every time in the gym (3/week), that is enough to ingrain technique.

For me it's +10s/500m for same perceived effort / heart rate on slow sessions.

I haven't tried yet to go full out on the skierg but I suspect it will be =10s/500m at least, likely a bit more.

Hello mromero680 and all

My guess is that it's probably easier to improve your rowing times than your ski-erg times

The reason I think this is that you use your legs on the rower, and your legs are by far the biggest muscles in your body.

So if a "novice" or unfit persons start training on both machines, as they get fitter, their times will improve more on the rower.

To put it another way to clarify, it's like asking where you can improve most between your calves and your pecs in terms of weight.

On a sit-down calf machine, you might start at 10kg and get up to 40kg (30 kg gain) but on the bench press, you might start at 30kg and get up to 100 kg (70 kg gain)

I'm not saying though that rowing is "better" than ski-erging, but trying to answer your question as I understood it

Dave Neve

I’ve found the improvement curve on the SkiErg a bit slower than the rower, probably because of the different muscle focus. That said, with consistent training, the gains definitely come, just not quite as quickly in my experience.

Thanks for the responses which track with my experience. The improvement comes with the skierg but, because of the different muscles involved, the gains come more slowly than on the rower.

I'm faster on the skierg than the rower due to my training.
I would guess, starting both from zero, gains will be faster on the rower than on skierg due to muscle fiber composition(?).
Anyway there is a lot of carry over between the 2, they are complementary. At faster pace, double poling (the ski-like) uses up to 50% or little more legs.
That's why olympic level rower like tufte and karonen went on vasaloppet and ranked in top 100.

Slow on the rower, even slower on the skier. Happy to still be able to do either. Wanna race? I'll break out my hour glass! Loser picks up the tab at In-N-Out.

In general, athletes on the SkiErg are slower than athletes on the RowErg. This difference is quite pronounced; as of today 376 athletes have achieved a sub-6 2k on the RowErg. On the SkiErg only two athletes have achieved the same.

With regards to rate-of-progression: The RowErg has a much longer history and is more well-known than the SkiErg. So often folks start their fitness journey with the RowErg and make lots of progress on this machine. If they then add the SkiErg to their workouts, the expected progression will be less as they started from a higher level of fitness. Having said this, I myself was quite surprised how much progress I made over the first 12 months of SkiErg use (following multiple years of RowErg use).

It's a question RowErg users are interested in once they start exercising on the SkiErg: "what progression should I expect?". To throw more light on this matter, I analysed the RowErg and SkiErg world records for distances of 500 - 5000 meter and ages from 19 to 74 years. It turns out that, regardless the age and regardless the distance, the speeds achieved on the SkiErg are typically 6 % slower than those on the RowErg.

So if you row a 5k in 19 minutes, your target on the SkiErg for that distance should be around 20:10 - 20:15. Now everyone is different, and some people have a body more suited for rowing, but If on the SkiErg you achieve say, a 21:30 5k, with a 19:00 RowErg 5k you know you have quite some potential progression ahead of you.