Resistance level

dbianco74 · Post by **dbianco74** » April 11th, 2006, 11:05 pm

Hello. I am new to the rowing world and had a question about resistance settings. Is there an official setting, like when people compete it is always at resistance level 7 or 4 or whatever?

Also when people have their scores ranked, do they have to have a minimum resistance setting?

Thanks.

johnlvs2run · Post by **johnlvs2run** » April 11th, 2006, 11:36 pm

Any setting that you wish to use is fine.

Hal Morgan · Post by **Hal Morgan** » April 12th, 2006, 12:06 am

The drag is regulated by the rate 0-10. You can set the rate at what ever you want. The racing, aspect you can not change rate of drag during a race. It is better to go with what you want out of the experience. 1 thru 4 if you are training for water. 5-10 If you like to grunt. And 10 if you are a big time gym rat show off.
Enjoy trying them all and see how they affect your times at different distances. That is my training and drag factor experience.

Colin · Post by **Colin** » April 12th, 2006, 2:52 am

EDIT:wrong thread
no actually you use the drag factor option on your erg computers to properly set the ammount of resistance on your erg. that one to ten setting is only good on exactly identical ergs, the drag setting fades as the erg collect dust on its intake cauing it to clock up and reducing resistance. many i know that many men erger use around 130 and women are at 115 drag you should consult your manual on how to set your erg properly

jfo · Post by **jfo** » April 12th, 2006, 7:51 am

I always row at 110 which is around 3 on the 1-10 scale.
I haven't experimented with that setting.
Is it like this?:
-If you are strong/powerfull you should increase the damperlevel.
-If you are more fit in a cardiovascular kind of way you should decrease it.

TabbRows · Post by **TabbRows** » April 12th, 2006, 11:51 am

I like the analogy...fast boat/slowboat. 1 is fast boat; 10 is slow boat.

PS: I love the gymrats who crank it up to 10 and try to pull at a 34 spm!
They usually don't last too long. One who does often last longer was bragging to me about breaking 45 for a 10K. I checked the monitor later and he did row it in 44:52 with an average spm of 31. not getting much power out of those strokes.

apdermond · Post by **apdermond** » April 17th, 2006, 12:35 pm

As far as I know, if the damper is lower, it's easier to get your splits down, but harder to maintain it. The higher the damper goes, It gets harder to get your splits down, but once it's there, it's much easier to maintain.

tomhz · Post by **tomhz** » April 17th, 2006, 2:26 pm

apdermond wrote:As far as I know, if the damper is lower, it's easier to get your splits down, but harder to maintain it. The higher the damper goes, It gets harder to get your splits down, but once it's there, it's much easier to maintain.

That is new to me. Is that personal experience or something you read somewhere? It does not fit with my own experience. More the other way round, actually.

Tom

apdermond · Post by **apdermond** » April 17th, 2006, 7:06 pm

tomhz wrote:
apdermond wrote:As far as I know, if the damper is lower, it's easier to get your splits down, but harder to maintain it. The higher the damper goes, It gets harder to get your splits down, but once it's there, it's much easier to maintain.
That is new to me. Is that personal experience or something you read somewhere? It does not fit with my own experience. More the other way round, actually.

Tom

It's from both personal experience as well as talking with teammates and coaches. I tend to keep the damper at about 6-7, and I train for the water. If I'm doing short timed pieces (2k, 500m, etc), I'll do a start (short, quick strokes) that get my splits down low, and with the higher damper, it is easier to maintain it there for longer.

johnlvs2run · Post by **johnlvs2run** » April 17th, 2006, 10:11 pm

apdermond wrote:As far as I know, if the damper is lower, it's easier to get your splits down, but harder to maintain it. The higher the damper goes, It gets harder to get your splits down, but once it's there, it's much easier to maintain.

The higher the damper and drag factor, the higher the resistance, thus the more quickly you can speed up the fan and the more quickly it slows down.

It is easier to get the split down with a higher drag factor, but easier to keep the fan going with a lower drag factor, because the fan takes longer to slow down.

apdermond · Post by **apdermond** » April 18th, 2006, 9:10 pm

John Rupp wrote:
apdermond wrote:As far as I know, if the damper is lower, it's easier to get your splits down, but harder to maintain it. The higher the damper goes, It gets harder to get your splits down, but once it's there, it's much easier to maintain.
The higher the damper and drag factor, the higher the resistance, thus the more quickly you can speed up the fan and the more quickly it slows down.

It is easier to get the split down with a higher drag factor, but easier to keep the fan going with a lower drag factor, because the fan takes longer to slow down.

That seems to contradict itself, but okay. If something has a higher resistance, wouldn't it be harder to get going because its resisting? I don't know much about physics, but maybe you're right. As I said, from personal experience and talking with teammates, when the damper is at 10, its harder to get the split low, but once it's there it's easy to maintain. If I put the damper on 1, I can get the split really low very easily, but it's impossible to maintain it.

Dickie · Post by **Dickie** » April 19th, 2006, 7:07 am

apdermond wrote:
tomhz wrote:
apdermond wrote:As far as I know, if the damper is lower, it's easier to get your splits down, but harder to maintain it. The higher the damper goes, It gets harder to get your splits down, but once it's there, it's much easier to maintain.
That is new to me. Is that personal experience or something you read somewhere? It does not fit with my own experience. More the other way round, actually.

Tom
It's from both personal experience as well as talking with teammates and coaches. I tend to keep the damper at about 6-7, and I train for the water. If I'm doing short timed pieces (2k, 500m, etc), I'll do a start (short, quick strokes) that get my splits down low, and with the higher damper, it is easier to maintain it there for longer.

I am closing in on 14,000,000 meters and my personal experience agrees with Tom. I also think if you knew as much as you think you do, you would not be talking about 6-7 because you would know that 6-7 is different on every erg, instead you would be talking Drag Factor. Most of the On Waters rowers here talk of training at a drag of 120 to 130. If your erg at Level 6-7 equates to a drag of 120 to 130, then you don't take very good care of your erg.

Fred Dickie

ehagberg · Post by **ehagberg** » April 19th, 2006, 7:50 am

Dickie wrote:If your erg at Level 6-7 equates to a drag of 120 to 130, then you don't take very good care of your erg.

Or you might have a C-Breeze attached to your erg; it makes an unaltered level 4-5 equivalent to a 6-7.5 with the C-Breeze.

Bob S. · Post by **Bob S.** » April 19th, 2006, 10:18 am

Dickie wrote: If your erg at Level 6-7 equates to a drag of 120 to 130, then you don't take very good care of your erg.

Fred Dickie

Fred,

That needs qualification. My model D is brand new. I leave the damper at 6 and when I checked the drag yesterday it was 123. I am sure that it was this low because of the altitude (4000 ft). The drag is reduced when the air pressure is lowered. I have also found that it is affected by temperature. On a warm day the drag is lower because the warm air is less dense. I'll have to recheck this in the summer to try to get a more quantitative handle on it.

I agree with your main point, that it is important to check the drag and that the damper setting alone is not a good way to judge the resistence. I am usually too impatient to do this. It is an annoyance to have to go through the required protocol to find out the drag factor.

Bob S.

RowtheRockies · Post by **RowtheRockies** » April 19th, 2006, 11:41 am

[/quote]
If your erg at Level 6-7 equates to a drag of 120 to 130, then you don't take very good care of your erg.

Fred Dickie[/quote]

Fred,

I agree with Paul. My erg is very clean but I live at 6900 ft. so Level 7 on my model D is a 125 DF.