Rowing Machine Routine?

We used to do a brutal 3x2500m workout in college, with around 8-9min rest in between pieces (we’d trade off with another guy on the erg)

I could come close to breaking 8:00min on all three, and I was working toward having an average under 8min on all 3 toward the end of my senior year. We’d do that every tuesday morning.

I did my share of super long steady state, but I made my biggest gains keeping it under an hour- anything longer is kinda pointless, and is detrimental to your technique, as you just end up pulling sloppy- trying to make it through the workout.

Training at specific wattages according to your lactate threshold is def the way to go.

[quote]LiquidMercury wrote:

Come on now, as someone who rowed you should know better then to give non-rowers a reason to put the fan at 10. [/quote]

I assume we’re talking about the damper setting on concept2 rowers (10 being the max)? I was under the impression that one should experiment with damper settings, and use the one which best suits you. There is no inherent advantage in one setting over another (ie: there is a tradeoff between resistance and distance gained per stroke).

There were a couple of demo video’s from concept2 reps on the xfit site which pretty much said the same thing.

Whats your take on this. Is there a certain spm where, if I’m going over that, I should think about reducing the damper from 10 (for best results)?

PS: from this question, you can obviously deduce that I haven’t been disciplined enough to check all the damper settings, to see which one works best with my spm :slight_smile:

[quote]isr wrote:
Whats your take on this. Is there a certain spm where, if I’m going over that, I should think about reducing the damper from 10 (for best results)?

PS: from this question, you can obviously deduce that I haven’t been disciplined enough to check all the damper settings, to see which one works best with my spm :slight_smile:
[/quote]

Rather than approaching the erg with the damper set on ten, and working out until you can sustain a certain rating at that setting, build up your ability to sustain ratings at lower damper settings and then build from there.

If your new to the erg, I really suggest starting with the drag set on a 3-5, and just learn how to work with the machine. It will be novel and fun at first- then once you starting getting comfortable enough to really push yourself, you’ll see how evil a machine it is.

Regarding damper settings- there is more than one way to skin a cat. We had a few lightweights go in the 6:20’s for 2000m sustaining high stroke rates on the erg, with more moderate damper settings, while at the same time I’ve seen guys go in the 6:20’s with their ratings in the 20’s, with the damper set on a 7-8.

While there isn’t really any inherent advantage of one damper setting over another, a setting which allows you to properly activate all your energy systems is important. 80% of of energy expended in a 2000m erg piece is aerobic, so you don’t want a drag setting so high that you quickly reach and exceed your lactate threshold/heart rate. Its really all up to your physiology.

For 2k and shorter pieces, I’d try typically to hold a base rating of around a 30-32, which would allow me to boost my rating at the end for a sprint.

For longer pieces 5-6k, I’d stay around a 28.

For steady state pieces- usually nothing over a 22.

I’d also second Cprimero’s advice about the tabata workouts. When I was trying to keep things fresh and balanced between aerobic and strength work, I’d throw in a workout where I’d do something along the lines of this:

A: Front squat x 5 reps
B: 500m sprint. (repeat)

Alternate between the two, no rest. I’d do something like 5 total sets, pretty brutal. Its a once a week workout for sure.

Hawk: We used to do 3x2500’s too and yes it was miserable but then it made taking a 2k no big deal. I love overdistance training. Also steady state pieces over an hour really do serve a purpose as that is the time where you can get the most aerobic workout and build your base larger.

Anything shorter then 45 mins isn’t really going to do much for steady state work. Go check the national team training and you will see they do a lot of longer pieces in the 90-120 min range.

Isr: The digital setting of 135 or so is around the thickness of water hence why most rowers keep it around that as it mimics our sport much better.

I say stay away from keeping the damper all the way up at 10 due to the fact that most people aren’t strong enough to maintain that at any spm and will result in lower back problems. Focus on keeping splits, not stroke rates (spm).

If rower A is going at an 18 spm, 2:00 split, and rower B is giong at a 32 spm, 2:00 split, rower A will always be able to win in a race for the fact that he has the ability to bring it up and spint. At a 32 spm you have much less gears to go to (car reference) since you’re already closer to your top gear.

[quote]CrewPierce wrote:
I would just like to point out, the erg doesn’t float ;)[/quote]

This is my motto. And one I was fortunate to get to say today to some of the rowers I coach.

[quote]LiquidMercury wrote:
CrewPierce wrote:
I would just like to point out, the erg doesn’t float :wink:

This is my motto. And one I was fortunate to get to say today to some of the rowers I coach.[/quote]

Who do you coach/row for? Just curious, I don`t very often meet other rowers.

I coach grades 6-12 at my local club in Atlanta. I’m currently rowing out of ARC in a double and my partner and I are lookin at worlds 2010 as our ultimate goal. So guess we’ll just have to see where it goes. What about you?

Are you going as a LW or HW ?

Your height of 5"10 would lean towards the former but your muscle mass has you towards the latter.

[quote]Invictica wrote:
LiquidMercury wrote:
CrewPierce wrote:
I would just like to point out, the erg doesn’t float :wink:

This is my motto. And one I was fortunate to get to say today to some of the rowers I coach.

Who do you coach/row for? Just curious, I don`t very often meet other rowers.[/quote]

If you meant for that question to be for me as well, I rowed for Clemson.

[quote]LiquidMercury wrote:
CrewPierce wrote:
I would just like to point out, the erg doesn’t float :wink:

This is my motto. And one I was fortunate to get to say today to some of the rowers I coach.[/quote]

Haha good work. People could beat me in erg tests but after seat racing, I always sat power seat :slight_smile:

Rowing only works if you put the blade in…

[quote]echelon101 wrote:
Rowing only works if you put the blade in…[/quote]

That’s what I tried to tell her :stuck_out_tongue:

[quote]LiquidMercury wrote:
I’m currently rowing out of ARC in a double and my partner and I are lookin at worlds 2010 as our ultimate goal. So guess we’ll just have to see where it goes. What about you?[/quote]

liquid-
I rowed with a bunch of guys who were training out of ARC last summer, I actually bought my blades of my buddy who rowed there last year, and right now they’re still painted ARC colors.

I’ve done my share of long steady state rowing, I spent between 60-120min on the erg almost every afternoon in addition to our morning practices the fall of my senior year. No question it improved my cardio and made my 2k faster when the spring rolled around.

In that time, I found that whenever I went over 80min it reached a point of diminishing returns. Probably a personal facet of my physiology, as I came from a strength-sport back round before I picked up rowing in college.

When I graduated from still school and continued rowing competitively on the pre-elite/elite level, I was following a very specific training routine based around lactate threshold heart rates and working toward sustaining much higher wattage’s for longer periods of time. The program was developed by a former czech national team coach who coached the US u23 light quad which medaled at worlds in 2006, as well as at Columbia.

The longest piece it prescribed was 70min if I recall correctly. Following it’s guidelines, I soon was able to hold my old 5 and 6k splits for periods around 40min.

My buddy who was coached by the guy and clued me into the program went from barely breaking 6:30 as a lightweight in college to under 6:20 as a lightweight, and placing 4 at the lightweight 1x trials last year

I’d be interested to see that workout. Which coach was it? I’ve had a few coaches that were from the czech as well as from bulgaria.

And echelon if you’re talkin bout me goin HW or LW well ultimately I’ll go LW. I got up to 215 or so to play college lacrosse and just kept erging to keep my endurance up (wasn’t actively competing). I’m cutting down right now and am at a very lean 180. If I can get down to 170-175 I can lose the rest in water day of the race and then hammer it out on the water back at my normal weight after I rehydrate. Losing all the water doesn’t seem to effect me as much as some of the others. I’ve lost 9 lbs in 30 mins before doing a sweat run and still managed to pull a 2k within 1.5 seconds of my fastest time.

Yeah, losing water weight is great way to lower weight. Sort of why rowing coaches hate creatine, too much water retention.

I am going to be training to be a coach in October then next level hopefully in January as well. So by March I may have a CSCS qualification, even though I may be pretty weak in the lifts department (300lbs DL 1RM, whilst doing 3RM could only lift it once). I kind of want to coach a Novice Womens squad because I believe they can gain the most out of rowing, in terms of improvement and fitness.

Rowing Thread forever?

Rowing thread forever indeed.

GL with novice womens squad. I personally hate coaching women and novice. Ironically I’m coaching middleschool men and women. But I will fill the needs of the program and just hope I don’t kill these kids or burn them out. I suppose it’s good for me to learn to “chill” out and not be quite as intense as I am.

I thought about getting my CSCS but ultimately I am trying to do something with my degrees (corporate finance/accounting/economics) and then once I have my 401k all settled and able to retire I’ll coach collegiate hopefully.

Be careful coaching novice women, they are very impressionable and don’t take well to the verbal kick in the ass so I’ve found out. Good to hear you are certified for coaching though, I should probably go ahead and get my coaching certs, they just never seem to have clinics around me when I’m in town.

Currently I’m trying to form a sort of formalized weight routine for rowers both heavyweight and lightweight. I’m thinking of running something like 5x5, Westside Barbell for skinny bastards, and then maybe German Volume Training. There is a huge lack of formalized weight training for rowers I’ve seen. I remember when I was going through high school/college our coaches would just have us do squats randomly and bench pulls. Any ideas on that?

Hey guys, just wanted to say thank you for the great ideas for mixing up my erg routines, I’ve been getting a little bored with the long distances.

[quote]LiquidMercury wrote:
I coach grades 6-12 at my local club in Atlanta. I’m currently rowing out of ARC in a double and my partner and I are lookin at worlds 2010 as our ultimate goal. So guess we’ll just have to see where it goes. What about you?[/quote]

Rowed during highschool in Vancouver. Stopped participating after graduating though. Decided to get into strength sports cause my rowing coach at the time was always egging me on to try Power Lifting or O lifting.

401k? ie you have completed 401,000m in your rowing career?

Would any of you recommend doing indoor rowing as the main cardio activity for fat-burning and conditioning during non-lifting days? I find running really boring so this is basically what I do now in addition to boxing workouts on the heavy bag about once a week.