My first 3 rows

[Mike10546]

I am 62 years old and have been exercising on ellipticals and stationary bikes the past 7 years 4 x/wk for 45 minutes per workout. I bought a Model E to vary my routine and to benefit from working my core and upper body. I started out with two 5000 meter workouts each taking about 30 mins. Today, I increased to 7500 meters at 44:08 with 388 calories burned and a heart rate staying at the 140 bpm range and 27 spm.

Does this sound like a reasonable start for a 62 year old guy who already has decent cardio fitness from my other workouts? Any advice would be welcome since I really don't know how to establish a base level from which to improve. I have been giving close attention to proper technique as well as maintaining an appropriate aerobic work level.

[OarConsequences]

I don't know what an appropriate workout would be for you but if you're already doing 45 minutes of riding then 45 minutes of erging doesn't sound unreasonable to me. I'm not a doctor though.

Just make sure that you understand that the "calories" that the monitor displays are purely gross estimates and are based on assumptions about the person on the machine.

[hjs]

I am 62 years old and have been exercising on ellipticals and stationary bikes the past 7 years 4 x/wk for 45 minutes per workout. I bought a Model E to vary my routine and to benefit from working my core and upper body. I started out with two 5000 meter workouts each taking about 30 mins. Today, I increased to 7500 meters at 44:08 with 388 calories burned and a heart rate staying at the 140 bpm range and 27 spm.

Does this sound like a reasonable start for a 62 year old guy who already has decent cardio fitness from my other workouts? Any advice would be welcome since I really don't know how to establish a base level from which to improve. I have been giving close attention to proper technique as well as maintaining an appropriate aerobic work level.

Instead of calories, you better look at watts, most of the cal you know burn do not come from exercise but are you given you by the calculation.
Looking at your current pace you have some technique issues, often starters don,t use there legs much. You very likely brek your legs before you finish the stroke. This gives a very soft and easy stroke, but won,t get you far.
A next time work the legs more and at the same time lower your strokerate, no doubt you will speed up.
Hf in itself says not much, it depends on your personal hf low and max.
Age is ofcourse a factor, but even more so seize, your height and lranbodyweight are important, the bigger one is, the faster scores are to be expected.

[Bob S.]

I am 62 years old and have been exercising on ellipticals and stationary bikes the past 7 years 4 x/wk for 45 minutes per workout. I bought a Model E to vary my routine and to benefit from working my core and upper body. I started out with two 5000 meter workouts each taking about 30 mins. Today, I increased to 7500 meters at 44:08 with 388 calories burned and a heart rate staying at the 140 bpm range and 27 spm.

Does this sound like a reasonable start for a 62 year old guy who already has decent cardio fitness from my other workouts? Any advice would be welcome since I really don't know how to establish a base level from which to improve. I have been giving close attention to proper technique as well as maintaining an appropriate aerobic work level.

Check out the C2 rankings site for comparison. 7500m in 44:08 is quite slow for someone your age. If you are in good cardiovascular condition, 10km or better in that time would be more like it. Very likely working on technique would help a lot. No need to up the rate. Try to get the most out of each stroke. Push hard with the legs at the start of each drive, following through with the back and arms. Get the hands away fast on the recovery and then take it easy coming up the slide to catch the next stroke.

Bob S.

[Mike10546]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Even though I've tried to watch my technique, it sounds like I'm not getting enough leg and back into my strokes. I'll focus on that and I guess a good indicator of making progress would be seeing an improvement in my watts which should dovetail into better times.

The biggest unknown for me is understanding what my beginner (base level) of rowing fitness is. Once I know that information, then I can work on improving upon my initial base level. But, like you're telling me, I can't really determine what my base level is until I get my technique squared away. So, that is going to be my focus.

[jamesg]

The simplest way to sort out technique is to set the drag very low and then do the backstop drill and warmup:

First pull arms only, at rating 60, Watts 50, 2 minutes;
Then add some swing, after hands away, reaching rate 40, 80-100W, 2 minutes;
Then start to lift knees AFTER hands away and after swing forward, until you get to say 150-170W, rate 20.
At the catch, shins vertical, with shoulders well forward, knee-thigh angle not less than 45 degrees. Then keep going until you've had enough.

NB such strokes with full length are very hard work, so tend to make us get fit and go fast even at low ratings.

Any video of Olympic scullers can show you what it looks like.

All numbers depend on your height, but should be ok if you're around 6' (180 cm).

[Alissa]

Take a look at this thread, which has good information about technique. I just added some updated links at the end of the thread, as the url for Xeno's stroke cycle had changed. That stroke cycle is useful because you can step through it a frame at a time, using the right and left arrow on your keyboard.

In addition, I added a link to a YouTube annimated rower w/ commentary about which Xeno said:

Very well done.
I agree with all.
My personal opinion about sliding back into the catch is that there is no change speed when rolling into the catch.
I am going to add this to my favorite videos. Here is the question WHO TAUGHT F L I P?

I love JamesG's suggestion about the backstop drill. And doing that backwards can help you "feel" when you need to blend the next element of the stroke in.

Start with the catch position: arms extended, shoulders down and relaxed, and torso/back stable and rotated forward from the hip joint.
First push with legs only (don't move your back/torso--hold a stable position!)--you'll feel a "drop" when your legs have provided as much to the stroke as they can. (And if your back/torso/pelvis moved because you can't push all the way to "legs flat" without doing so, or if your legs can't get all the way down, you need to work on hamstring flexibility.) Do this several times so that you can feel the power of legs only!

Then add the back swing...just when needed to avoid the "drop" you've been feeling at the end of the legs' effort. The backswing doesn't supply as much power as the legs, so you don't want to limit the legs to what the back can provide, so don't swing the back until you need to to blend the power smoothly between the legs and the back. Again, you'll feel a "drop" when your back swing has provided all it can to the stroke. Do that several times, until you have the point that you're adding the back in sorted out.

Then add the arms. Again, just when needed to avoid the new "drop" at the end of the legs/back only stroke. Again, do that several times until you can blend the power smoothly. Again, because you don't want to limit the power application of the legs & back to what the arms can do, you want to add the arms in at the end of the legs/back, and as late as you can while avoiding the "drop."

HTH,

Alissa