what should be my average watts

[kkishore]

Hi,

I am 30 yrs, 5'7", 165 pounds, Male. What should be my average watts/pace. My heart rate seems to be vary from 135 to 170 depending on how heavy I am driving with my legs with SPM around 24. My current watts vary from 80 to 150 watts. what should be my average watts basing on my stats. I feel lthat since I am short, I cannot generate wattage like 300, 400 as some others do. Is this understanding correct? Any advice is appreciated.

I am not looking to get into any competetion, but for weight loss. I just want to make sure that the time spent on the erg is well spent as opposed to spending hours together without any results.


Thanks
Kishore

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

I'm not really sure about wattage based on your stats. As far as I know not many people use wattage to plan their workouts.

If your main focus is weight-loss, I would recommend focusing on your heart rate. The best HR for weight loss for your age I believe is around 140 or so.

[Citroen]

You should be able to easily generate 302W for seven minutes.

200W == 2:00.5
302W ~= 1:45.0 (seven min 2K or 4.76m/s for 420s)
350W == 1:40.0 (or 5m/s [350 = 2.8*(5*5*5)])

Take a look at http://www.concept2.com/sranking03/rankings.asp to see how you compare to other 30-39 lightweights. Everyone above the 25th percentile gets 200W for 2K.

If you're doing worse than that you've got some serious problems with technique.

If your main focus is weight-loss, I would recommend focusing on your heart rate. The best HR for weight loss for your age I believe is around 140 or so.

At 165lb the OP is already lightweight so I don't think weightloss is relevant.

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

I am not looking to get into any competetion, but for weight loss. I just want to make sure that the time spent on the erg is well spent as opposed to spending hours together without any results.

Unless I read that wrong, he stated weight loss as a goal...

[Citroen]

I am not looking to get into any competetion, but for weight loss. I just want to make sure that the time spent on the erg is well spent as opposed to spending hours together without any results.

Unless I read that wrong, he stated weight loss as a goal...

Why? Even crappy, meaningless stats like BMI come out as an ideal 25, for 5'7" and 165#.

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

Je ne sais pas!

I am merely copying and pasting what he said, I neither suggested nor agreed with his goal of weight loss. I too agree his weight is fine, but I'm not one to tell people anything about their weight.

[kkishore]

Thanks for giving me some positive belief that I am not over weight . But my BMI is over 25 and I have a good sized pot belly. My triglycerides were 365 and total cholestrol is too higher than normal. I am not obese or anything but just overweight.

Thanks for the info once again.

[jamesg]

Most people I believe generate between 2 and 3W/kg during long "slow" (i.e. hard) work. You can use an ideal fit weight, based on say a BMI of 23, according to how wide you are.

Hypothesis: height 1.7m, BMI=23. Corresponding weight 67 kg. Watt range 135-200.

First problem is to put in place a technique (which means an effective stroke) that will let you do this at reasonable ratings, let's say between 20 and 30 strokes/minute. You may need to work on the length of your stroke, on recovery sequence and on posture. The work done in a stroke is directly proportional to the net length.

This is good rowing, and the comments are well worth reading too:

http://www.britishrowing.org/rowing-stroke

For weightloss programs, follow Training - Interactive on the C2 UK site.

[PaulH]

I think concern about watts isn't really appropriate to your situation. Assuming that you're new to rowing then whatever wattage you can produce is lower than what you could produce, with training. So test yourself now in whatever event appeals (2K or 5K are probably the most common, but if you're interested in endurance rowing then 10K or the hour might be more relevant to you). Note your average watts, or time, or pace - anything that is a quantitative measure. Then pick a program you want to follow, or make one up for yourself. Follow it for some time, then test yourself again. If your wattage (or whatever) has gone up, well done! If not, rethink your training. Repeat until your triglycerides are where you want them to be

[aharmer]

Are you up for a 2k time trial? Once you have a 2k standard, I use 60% of my 2k watts for most weekly rows. This keeps me in the lower aerobic zone I want to do a majority of my mileage in.

Once a week I'll do a piece at 74% of my 2k watts. That workout is usually a very easy 3-4k, followed by 4-6k at 74% of 2k watts.

Once a week (or recently not that often) I'll do 4x2k with 7' rest at 88% of 2k watts. This is the workout that will tell you when it's time to move up the training paces of your other workouts. Do the first 3 at exactly 88% of your 2k watts, then do the 4th as fast as possible (which should be fairly close to the first 3). Take the average watts of the 4 2k's and divide by .88, this would theoretically be your new best possible 2k. Convert that to watts and you now have the watts and paces for the 60% and 74% segments.

That's just how I do it...I'm pretty green at the erg thing myself.