Concept2 Forum

Hi everyone - I'm new to the site.

I've been putting on weight gradually over the past few years...no excuses, just poor diet, and laziness.

After a family member got ill, I decided enough was enough and purchased a Concept2 Model D after lots of research.

After a few days of use, I'm loving the machine...but have a quick question:

I know I'm new to the rower and am extremely unfit but I wonder how bad I am - I manage to row 2000m in around 12 minutes and then can managed a gentle row up till around 20 minutes before I have to stop. After this, my arms hurt, my thighs hurt and I'm knackered. Am I under-doing it? Should I be pushing myself more? Or shall I stick with this for a while and then try and up my initial row to 2500m in the same time?

Give us some more details: gender, height, weight, age.

Have you looked at any technique videos?

fattie-leesufc wrote: I know I'm new to the rower and am extremely unfit but I wonder how bad I am - I manage to row 2000m in around 12 minutes and then can managed a gentle row up till around 20 minutes before I have to stop. After this, my arms hurt, my thighs hurt and I'm knackered. Am I under-doing it? Should I be pushing myself more? Or shall I stick with this for a while and then try and up my initial row to 2500m in the same time?

Hi, Welcome to the site and congratulations on your decision to get fit. The erg is a great way to do it because it is low enough impact o do every day without doing damage to yourself. It also is essentially self regulating. The hard you push, the harder it pushes back. At this point it doesn't matter much at all how fast or slow you can row 2000m, if you feel a bit winded while you do it and tired when you're done, then mission accomplished.

I started rowing for the same reason you did, to get fit and lose weight. I second the advice that Citroen gave. Try to take some steps to make sure your rowing techinque is sound. Here are my tips.
1. Avoid setting the damper all the way up at 10. Most folks row with it set between 2 and 5.
2. The drag on different machines can vary, and there is a whole lot of information about something called drag factor. You can read it on the PM3 and it makes sense to learn how to do this, especially if you use a lot of different machines.
3. There are two key measurements presented on the PM. One is pace, which can be shown as time per 500m, watts or calories. Most people use time per 500. The other parameter is strokes per minute, also known as rate. Both are important.
4. Many folks when they start out row at a relatively high rate. This works for some, but in general, it makes sense to figure out how to increase the amount of power per stroke and slow down the rate. For general fitness rowing, most people will end up rowing in the 18 to 24 stroke per minute range.
5. If you rowing at a higher rate than that, you might want to try a few drills to increase your power per stroke and make your rowing more efficient.
- Try rowing with your feet unstrapped. This will make you finish each stroke strongly with your body and arms to prevent you from falling backward and encourages a slower rate.
- Try to row at a fixed slow rate and alternate one minute of paddling very lightly at that rate and then trying to push the pace as fast as you can go at the same fixed rate for 10 or 20 strokes. Try this at 24, 22, 20, 18 and even 16 strokes per minute.
6. I found it really helpful to buy and use a heart rate monitor. It took away the mystery of how hard I was working and I could see progress as I got fitter
7. There is a great customizable program for weight loss using the concept2 erg on the "indoor sports" website, here:
http://indoorsportservices.co.uk/weightloss/interactive

Best of luck!

Being new to exercise is always a difficult time as knowing what to do for the bst is not always easy, personally I would suggest to find a decent personal trainer (research them first) and have a couple of sessions with them to find out exactly what you should be doing, I could easily give you information on here but without seeing you it would be difficult to make it specific for you.

I hope this helps you a little