Help Me Break 2:15/500m

General discussion on Training. How to get better on your erg, how to use your erg to get better at another sport, or anything else about improving your abilities.
edl415
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Re: Help Me Break 2:15/500m

Post by edl415 » May 18th, 2015, 7:32 pm

Bob S. wrote: Are you using a gym machine? On an old machine, with a clogged cage, it might be necessary to use a high damper setting to get a drag factor in the normal 110-140 range. If you are using gym machines, be sure to check out the drag factor each time you start up. (Also, if you want to rank a piece online, be sure to check the time and date settings.)

Bob S.
+1.

One of the ergs at the local 24 hour fitness has 14 million meters and is not well maintained. The damper has to be set just about 9 to get a drag factor of 125. I only need to set the damper just above 2 on my model C at home to get the same drag factor.

RowerMatt516
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Re: Help Me Break 2:15/500m

Post by RowerMatt516 » May 19th, 2015, 7:45 pm

Hello all,

The machine is only a few months old-I bought it brand new and I'm the only one who uses it on a regular basis. And yes, I meant I raised the damper setting up to 9. Yesterday I managed 10 minutes straight between 1:50-2:00 /500m at between 22-25 SPM followed by another 10 minutes at around 2:30/500m. I don't think my form is that sloppy compared to what I've seen online, but I've been playing with the damper setting and it is definitely harder to get the split below 2:00/500m at the lower damper settings (1-3).

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Citroen
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Re: Help Me Break 2:15/500m

Post by Citroen » May 20th, 2015, 4:53 am

The damper lever setting isn't consistent between machines (it's less of a problem with your new machine). The way we compare drag is to get the monitor to measure "drag factor" as that gives a number (between about 90 and 220 on a clean machine) that is comparative.

There's a recommended starting point for new folks based on weight and gender.
http://indoorsportservices.co.uk/traini ... mper_lever

For the full monty read some of the results from
http://www.concept2.com/company/search?query=damper+101

The other thing we find with new rowers is that they have a whole lot of problems with sequencing the rowing stroke and rushing the slide.
This video is a good lesson in technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqVmMd7FdAA

And finally, if you're very brave get a side-on video of your rowing and publish that on YouTube. Then post a link here.

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