Lower back pain - why?

[Bob S.]

lowered the DF (damper setting) on the rower.

Whoa! DF stands for Drag Factor. It can, indeed, be lowered by lowering the damper setting. But folks that are new to the C2 indoor rower are confused enough by the whole business of damping and drag factor. Please don't mix up the terms. They are related but not synonymous.

Bob S.

[luckylindy]

lowered the DF (damper setting) on the rower.

Whoa! DF stands for Drag Factor. It can, indeed, be lowered by lowering the damper setting. But folks that are new to the C2 indoor rower are confused enough by the whole business of damping and drag factor. Please don't mix up the terms. They are related but not synonymous.

Bob S.

Clarification deserved - I probably used a poor choice of punctuation ... i.e. DF(damper setting) instead of DF/damper setting. My point is simply that lowering the damper setting (which controls DF) is a good way to reduce the stress on the back.

[gadgetware]

I started out with the damper at 3 (DF=108) but found that it was too easy for my legs and I was using too much of my upper body. The last row I moved it up to 5 (didn't measure DF) and I think that it helped with balancing my power. I just tried a couple of hip flexor stretch exercises and yep, that's what's hurting. I'll try to do a better job of stretching that area before my workout tomorrow. My training now is every other day. I warm up for a few minutes, do my stretching, and then row two 2K runs with a break in between. My time for the 2K is right at 10 minutes (at 22spm) so I don't think I'm pushing myself too hard.

Reading here it sounds like the dynamic is better on the back but at the same time one of my goals is to strengthen my back. I'll give it another week and hopefully I'll have enough of a feel to make a decision on whether to upgrade or not. Thanks for the info!