I need help!

[Sw33tstar21]

New to this, started this week. I have gained 2kg this week so I must be doing something wrong. I am on weight watchers and track my food intake and have lost 23kg doing this but just started exercising this week. I am not consuming more calories. I don't really know what I'm doing and I don't understand alot of what I'm reading on the forum (like how a lower spm burns more calorie?) I am doing 26mins, 3500meters at 25spm on damper 2. What should I be doing, in plain english?

[gregsmith01748]

Hi, congratulations on your weight loss so far. That's a terrific accomplishment. I don't think the weight gain over the past week has anything to do with the rowing machine.

Can you tell us a little more about yourself? Did you exercise regularly before you started rowing, or are you starting a new exercise program? What is your height, age and weight? Is the rowing machine in good shape?

Basically the Pace at which you are rowing is only generating 32 watts of power, which is not going to burn a lot of calories. There are two possible reasons for this number to be so low. First, you might not be pulling hard enough. Second, the machine might be working right. Here's what I think you should do:

1. Check the "drag factor" of the machine. You do this by starting at the main menu and pushing more options, then display drag factor. The machine will ask you to pull a few strokes and displays a number. If the number is much below 100 with the damper set on 2, then the machine badly needs a cleaning.

2. Check how hard you are working. How do feel at the end of 26 minutes? Really tired and sweaty? If not then you aren't getting the workout you are hoping for. Here's a few things to try. Sit on the machine before you start and measure your pulse. Then row for 5 minutes at your pace, stop and measure it again. If it hasn't gone up by at least 50% or so, maybe you need to pull harder. To experiment with this, set the display on the calorie mode and start to pull. You will see a calorie per hour display that goes as you pull harder. I am not talking about going at a faster rate though, 25 is just perfect for you spm, what I want you to try to do is pull faster and return up the slide slower. When you get the hang of it, you will see the calorie number get higher, and you will feel the effect aerobically.

[jamesg]

Such low Wattage is usually due to the stroke being very short. To do any useful work, the handle has to travel a long way. Force need not be high, and low drag is fine.

[becz]

To get the most benefit from rowing, you should make sure your technique is not keeping you from a good workout. The Concept 2 website has a couple of good videos that may be helpful:

http://www.concept2.com/us/training/technique.asp

In particular pay attention to the "Technique" and "Intensity" videos.

Regarding lower SPM burning more calories: this is probably a misinterpretation of a few different pieces of information. If you maintain a HR of ~120 bpm (low aerobic zone), your body will utilize mostly fat as the energy source. If you maintain a higher HR, say ~140 - 160 bpm, you will be in the high aerobic/low anaerobic zone and your workout will use other sources of energy. You will still burn fewer calories at lower effort for a given period of time, so if you have some calorie burn target for your workouts, you will have to row longer at lower HR to burn the same number of calories as if you worked harder for a shorter period of time.

So: view the videos to understand technique, find a pace that gets you lightly sweating for 20 to 30 minutes (for you I would guess this might be a 2:20 pace or somewhere in there), and then increase the pace of your workouts as your fitness improves.