Rowing technique for short middle aged women

[rowright]

Hi,
I am under 5'2" and in my 50's. I am again using rowing as a way to improve my physical fitness. I find my strokes per minute speed is much faster than the recommended but I am not able to get enough power without the higher speed. Are there any other middle aged short women who have tips on the best techniques. Thanks.

[Citroen]

I find my strokes per minute speed is much faster than the recommended but I am not able to get enough power without the higher speed.

Who's given you what recommendation? There are no stroke rate police.

Simple physics gives us: work = force / distance and power = work / time. Since you're shorter than the 6 foot+ rowers the distance you can move the handle is less, therefore to get more power you have to increase the number of times you pull the handle.

[jamesg]

I find it best, on the erg, to put as much work as possible into each single stroke; not by pulling hard (on which I am not keen) but by using my length. This because, as Doug says, Work done = Force x Length.

Clearly this lets me rate lower for any given Power output. The same will apply to you; at your height, the handle should travel about 3½ feet (one metre) at each stroke. Using this metric, you should see around 100W (= pace 2:30 per 500) at rating 25; but it won't be easy.

Indeed, sorry to say that the tougher it feels, the better your technique, the more you'll sweat and the sooner you'll get fit.

The key to length is the long slow recovery sequence: hands away, then swing well forward, only then lift your knees until your shins are vertical. This puts us into a posture that allows a quick catch.

You may need to adjust the drag. Since low drag helps to pull a long stroke, the simplest way is to set it to zero, pull a few (10-20) full length strokes, then increase drag slightly if the pull is too slack and you can't catch up with the flywheel soon enough.

This is what fast ladies do:
http://www.britishrowing.org/taking-par ... ing-stroke

[hjs]

Hi,
I am under 5'2" and in my 50's. I am again using rowing as a way to improve my physical fitness. I find my strokes per minute speed is much faster than the recommended but I am not able to get enough power without the higher speed. Are there any other middle aged short women who have tips on the best techniques. Thanks.

technique is alike for everybody, but ofcourse you adjust you moving patern to your seise, you would also not make the same walking stride as a very tall person. That would make no sence.
What you proberly do is the following, before you have finished your stroke. By that I mean finish the hole stroke, your knees start breaking, that will make the stroke a lot less powerfull and will increese your rate a lot. First finish compleet stroke before you start the recovery fase.