Rowing

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Have rowed 500m in 1:29, once, almost died. Haven't had the desire to do that crap again.
 

Bughalli

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I rowed competitively in high school, college and club level. I didn't think I would make the Olympic team and there's no career to be had in rowing after college so I gave up the serious racing my senior year in college. ...to basically enjoy being a senior. That said, I spent a lot of time on the rowing machine. I was in the best shape of my life. Wish I was climbing mountains going after elk back then vs hunting whitetails. Waste of being in shape.

I wouldn't focus too heavily on comparing times. Better to set a base/benchmark and build upon it to get your own times down. I say this because there's a lot to be said for good form. Two people will appear to be doing the same thing but one will be going much faster when you compare stats. Rowing is a game of inches or fractions of an inch. If your stroke is half an inch longer or you get an inch more "run" or "travel" out of the boat (wheel spin on the machine) that adds up to be a lot over 1,000 strokes. Your height is another factor. The taller you are, the longer your stoke and faster you go. It's a lot harder for a 5'7" guy to match some who is 6'1". You need to work harder to go the same speed (in general).

As someone mention, long power strokes with what feels like a little lag in between will get you the best speed and time. You want your body to operate on that line between an aerobic and anarobic workout. Pay attention to your splits, but also your strokes per minute (upper right on display). As a test, pick a split, say 1:90s or whatever. Maintain the split, but adjust the length of your stoke (go longer, further reach forward in front and lean back at end), your power (stronger more explosive with the leg push) and speed of recovery (slide forward slower!). All the speed per se, for a complet stoke, is on the pull back. It should be much faster than the slide forward. You want to slow down the slide forward. At least that's how it will feel. Now at your 1:90 split, try to maintain 16-19 strokes per minute. The more explosive you are on the pull back, the slower you can go on the slide forward. It will seem odd and slower, but you'll go faster. See if you can get the strokes even lower, while maintaining the split.

After a couple minutes for comparison keep the same split, but increase to 25 stokes per minute. It will seem easy, much faster and almost a panic sloppy pace, but eventually it gets a lot harder to maintain. You've gone too far into the aerobic side. Its far less efficient.

The long stoke, that's explosive on the pull, with a low stroke per minute allows for more recovery as you slide forward and still maintain speed as measure by the split.

Food for thought. Have fun with it. Eventually you will settle into the right balance of splits and stokes per minute to optimize you output.
 
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bradb

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Jan 8, 2013
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Great post!
Much of the same my cousin(rowed for Temple) went over with me.
 

Ironman8

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Aug 15, 2013
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Awesome post Bughalli.

Quick Question: Would your technique (the "powerstroke" with the slow recover), strokes/minute, ect. change at all if it were a sprint (500m-1k) vs. a long distance event (3k, 5k, 10k)?

That was a very good way to explain it btw, when you said that you're flirting with the line between aerobic and anaerobic domains. That is what I was feeling when I posted above about playing with that technique. I was still pretty smoked afterward, but I was able to recover better between strokes...and I may have even had too high of a stroke rate. I'll have to play with it more, but I am a beginner, so still have lots of progress to make.
 

MP.hunter

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Apr 18, 2015
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It is important to maintain your stroke rates, especially over longer distances. Sprints are very sporadic, with starts/power 10's during a 2000 meter race. You can burn out if you rates are not consistent, and form is also very important. Make sure you back remains flat and pivots the same. It is good to hold a slower strike rate over a longer row, you just have to generate more power each push, but when you row at the lower rate you have a chance to breath:)
 

Bughalli

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True races are always 2,500 meters. These are head to head races, 5 or so boats lined up next to each other.,starting from dead stop. Horn blows and you go balls to the wall until you have nothing at the finish. The long distance races 5k, 10k, etc aren't really races. At best they're a time trial. Rolling start, one at a time, different conditions for each boat etc. More for sport and something to do in the fall to stay in shape.

Generally your stoke rate doesn't change much if you're balancing the anaerobic vs aerobic line correctly. Most likely it will be your split that changes based on distance, stoke rate less so. But I will adjust things mid-session depending on what type of recovery I'm trying to accomplish. If your legs get fatigued you might lighten the power for 10 stokes and increase the stoke rate to maintain your split. If your lungs are getting gased, you might increase power for 10 stokes and lower the rate to recover. Or lower both. You would never do this on the water in a boat because there's other guys rowing with you in synch, but rowing solo on an erg allows you to react to the conditions of your body more. Similar to cycling, you're encourage to stand on occassion vs always sit to change the emphasis on muscles in your legs and allow for slight variances in recovery.

I'm not a fan of long distance rowing unless you're trying to loose weight. The intensity is often too low to really make you stronger and you get most of the value of the workout in the last minute when you decide to push it. Better off doing 2-5k, but row hard and push the limits of your body. You'll get stronger and gain more aerobic capacity faster.

Form..power stoke:.give it a good reach forward (knees almost in your chest), arms level, lock your back up firm. Explode with the legs first, then transition to pulling with the back and finish by pulling with the arms. Finish with the hands coming to the center of your chest, stopping an inch short of the chest. Too many people usually try to do it all at once and not as a sequence ...and/or they simply shorten the their stroke. From a stats/numbers perspective, rowing with a long stroke is better. You'll see a difference in your times for sure.

Recovery portion: everything in reverse order. Try to have fast hands or getting your arms out from your chest and straight again. Then a medium speed on moving your torsos forward and lastly a slow slide forward. Your legs sliding forward will seem so slow compared to how fast you went back. Don't shoot your butt forward, get your arms and torso over them first, then slowly bring your butt forward back up into the start position.

Have fun. Track your stats and try to beat them. Even better, ask the guy next to you if he wants to race side by side. For 1,500 meters. That's when you'll really see a difference because you can see his form, splits, stroke rate etc. it's pretty cool when you appear to be going slower and yet the moniter dash is saying you're going much faster than him. ....and he's like WTF, this thing is broken!
 
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bradb

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Jan 8, 2013
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Kind of a funny story on the wtf it must be broken.
My younger brother years back sat down on the rower and this lady was next to him rowing, he was in good shape from wrestling and thought he would just race her and kick her ass. Well you can guess how well that worked for his first time rowing and the lady(Carrie graves) was a gold medalist in rowing! She gave the poor idiot tips!

Nice five minute warm up this morning for me then two minute intervals down the tree......fun
 

Archerm

Lil-Rokslider
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Apr 6, 2015
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Rowing is great and have been doing it a while. I just try to keep 2minute 500s during the 2000m row. I now alternate between rowing and Jacob's Ladder. Jacob's ladder is a butt kicker!!
 
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