Rowerg use by children?

[JoeChaos]

My son has asked for our rowerg to be brought out of storage so he can use it to get fitter. He's 11.5 years old so I'm not sure how much to let him do.

He went on it and straight into a 2k. The next day he v did half that, then on it for various short bursts over the next few days. Then he complained about a sore leg, could have been football in the park though. I told him he needs recovery time off it. I think I need to supervise a bit until he's either older or has things worked out.

Any advice?

[Ombrax]

If he has good technique and can be taught to control his pace I would say let him continue. As long as he isn't doing any harm to himself.

[Dangerscouse]

As well as technique I'd be checking the drag factor is low enough. I don't imagine that there's any issue with using it in a general sense.

[Tandstad]

My oldest one has done the latest 4-5 CTC challenges for our team, and he loves it He is 10 now in July.

[ahooton]

I think it’s wonderful. How I would have loved to have grown up with a rowing machine to use. I do sometimes wonder how good I could have been had I had the experience of them in my youth. I don’t have kids but I think properly supervised it’s a wonderful way to keep them active and maybe lead to interest in OtW rowing later on. Anything that gets kids off their PlayStations and iPads is a good thing in my view.

[Sakly]

Anything that gets kids off their PlayStations and iPads is a good thing in my view.

This ^^ !!

[Dangerscouse]

In addition to the above comments it's just occurred to me that Tiger Woods was playing golf from 18 months old, so that's got to be on a par ( ) with erging, or possibly more likely to cause injury due to the planes of motion.

[JoeChaos]

I'm thinking about controlling the amount he uses it so he doesn't overtrain. I have read in the past that other fitness activities you have to put limits on them due to strain on growing bodies. I just wondered if there's limits on rowing when growing like at 11yo. Any sources of advice or information on this?

[Carl Watts]

Make sure the monitor is up high, kids let go of the handle all the time and smash the monitor display.

[iain]

C2 used to produce a "speed band" that could be wrapped around the fan to reduce the DF. This would not be required for an 11 year old, but anyone reading this who has younger children using the rower should consider one. When my children first rowed at 6, I had them using DF around 70. In children good technique is even more important than in adults, so supervision and training in technique is strongly advisable. Once they have good technique, then higher DFs can be used safely, but if they are rowing for longer periods, it is worth ensuring that their technique isn't deteriorating to avoid injury.

The literature focuses on the importance of children performing the full range of movements to ensure that they develop stability throughout their bodies, so I would suggest that rowing should ideally be only a part of the regular physical activity. I do not know much about the issues of growth spurts, but the associated "growing pains" can be significant and I am aware that some studies have reported that performance improvement during the periods of fastest growth is reduced, so for boys 13-15 or girls 11-13 total volume should be modified and "no pain no gain" may be even more detrimental than for adults. That said, I hope that they enjoy their rowing. Both miner were initially very keen, but quickly lost interest and moved to other sports.