Slick wrote: ↑Wed May 12, 2021 9:16 am
Torq, I want to get on the rower a couple of times a week and build up - haven't done it in any way seriously for a long, long time. Would you have some good training suggestions for getting back up to a standard
Some of this depends on whether you are going to be using for power/sprint training or whether endurance but technique is critical to both.
Join Concept 2 site
There's some great stuff here
https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training
And keeping track of your progress can be done here
https://log.concept2.com/login
1) TECHNIQUE
I've been teaching people how to use the erg for almost 3 decades now. Technique is in bold because prob more than any other exercise machine, it's crucial on the erg. Get it wrong early on and at best you'll compromise your fitness efforts and spend years unpicking what you are doing wrong. At worst, you'll bugger up your back: which would be a shame because done right, rowing (like swimming) is a great all round exercise which causes no impact damage or stress to any part of the body.
So:
There are technique videos here
https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/ ... que-videos but they key points are
- you get the most power from your legs. Think about it: can you walk on your hands and if so, how long for? Versus walking on your legs?
So why row with your arms?. Your arms are really only designed to act as fully extended levers holding oars. They should only be drawn in at the end of the drive. Use your arms early and you will tire fast and knot up your shoulders and back.
{EDIT} Forgot:
> don't "chicken wing" your arms at the end of the drive. Your forearms and upper arms need to be in the same plane for max efficiency so try to brush your elbows past your ribs.
> same principle with the chain, it should be near horizontal all the time. Any angle means your effort has some component wasted in the vertical plane.
Some stuff is negotiable. Most rowers use a shallow back lean at the end of the drive but Canadians use a much deeper one. The latter gives more power in a stroke but is also more tiring depending on lower back strength.
- cadence.
It's not a drumbeat. Your drive should be approx 1/2 the pace of your recovery to optimise the flywheel. So if you count 1-2-3, 2 and 3 should be your return up the slide. You can help enforce this by pausing at the end of the drive. It's a valid technique. It's surprisingly mentally hard to do this. Especially when you tire, the temptation is to speed up your stroke rate AND get into 1-2, 1-2 rhythm. DON'T. NOT EVER. Whatever distance or stroke rate you are training at, never forget the correct cadence.
- staying relaxed. If you row correctly, your neck and shoulder should never tighten. They will tire but not tighten.
Don't grip the handle tightly. I row without thumbs at all and open-ish hands (i.e. fingers clawed but not closed) and will lift fingers off to help relax/rest them in longer sessions. A tight grip will immediately transfer tension into your shoulder blades. In a real boat, it would screw you up entirely because the oars couldn't move correctly.
- the fan setting is not a resistance machine setting. It should not be thought of like weights. I see idiots putting it on 9 or 10 all the time. If you are Cracknell or Pinsent (or Blackmac), fine. A boat on water would be more like 5. The fan is like gears on a bike: you need to find your optimum for efficiency. Sure, go lower deliberately to force lung stress or higher to build power in sprints but those are consciously wrong with a measured purpose: like riding a bike uphill in 10th!!
Better to start with a low fan setting and work your way to optimum because that will less likely stress out getting technique right.
- stroke rate. The optimum outcome will always be the same stroke rate throughout. Hard to do because as you tire, you will subconsciously speed up. It will take time to work out what is the right combo of fan + stroke rate is for you but generally speaking, high rates are less efficient. I'm a bit of an outlier that being lightweight with a high VO2max, I tend to go at 27-28. Blackmac would be nearer 21-22.
2) Practice
The best way to practice (I do a few mins warm up this way) is to row deliberately low on the fan (say 4) WITHOUT THE FOOT STRAPS. If you've got your 1-2-3 rhythm wrong, you'll shoot out of the footrests at the end of the drive. Think about this: if you did that with straps on, all you are doing is wasting energy like crashing a bike into a wall. Absolutely perfect technicians can row full sessions without the straps and be damned close to their best times with straps.
3) Build up slow
This is where power and endurance will differ. For endurance I would
- start at 2k on fan 4 or 5 and
go slow AND FINISH. Always finish. Even if you f**k up and go out too fast and then have to rest or slow down to a crawl. Psychologically, not finishing is damaging for your next sessions so better not to put yourself there. Try and do a min of 3 sessions a week (less and you will never make progress) and once you are comfortable, you can start setting goals like increasing the distance or completing it faster (which will depend on endurance or power goals).
4) Messing/stressing
Once you can row sessions evenly then you can start doing things to break up that. 2 routines I use
- on my 10ks, I will take my current target spit per 500m (say 1:57) and then add 4 seconds because that's roughly what this messing will do to your times. Then will row
500m @ 2:05, 500m @ 2:03, 2:01, 1:59, 1:57 (so that's 2.5k) and then around again 4x.
- Sprints. For me I'll do 250m targeting 1:54 splits with a 30 sec break and do it 10x. I hate these.... because they involve power and I'm an endurance person.
These types of routines really test your ability to control your technique as well as improving your actual race times and your mental hardness: a normal, even paced sessions seems a breeze after one of these.
