Rowing machine pace

PaulC9554

Hi
I use the Concept rower in my gym. I don't have a heart rate monitor yet so I don't know how many calories I burn. When I enter my exercise in the diary I have an option to select either light, moderate or vigorous rowing activity and it works our the calories for that pace / time (as you know if you use it!). Having looked on the Concept site I see that a pace of 2:10 / 500 is mentioned as being a moderate pace so I use that as a mark. But what do you guys rate your pace at when recording your activity? Would you say that sub 2:00 / 500 was vigorous while 2:20+ / 500 would be light?

RUNN3Rmom

Good question. I did 5000 meters in 30 minutes the other day and wondered the same thing. It averaged me on the machine as 250 calories but it never asked my weight/age so I assumed it was based on 150lb person (only assume that because that is what most other machines start as)...

So, I'm curious too!

PaulC9554

I'm a bit of an old lump. I know these machines are set for an average person but I'm abit outside that range. I normally do a pace average of 2:10 / 500 at a resistance of 130. Today I was feeling good so I dropped the resistance to 120 and did 15km. Averaging 2:12 / 500. I've yet to enter the time in my diary (66mins) but not sure whether to go for a moderate or slow pace. Might not seem relevant to some folk but I'm reading that I should eat my exercise calories, which I've not started doing yet by the way... but here on the site I've entered my size and weight so there must be some calculations in the back ground looking at the pace / time / age / weight. Perhaps I should pose this question in the technical board?
I guess the way to go is to get a HRM which will account for my size and weight to get an accurate figure.

Azdak

The calorie counts on the C2 performance monitor are set for a standard reference weight only. So they are not going to be very accurate in a literal sense. (C2 has always said this up front).

I didn't read it in detail, but C2 has a page that allows you to make your own calculations:

http://www.concept2.com/us/interactive/calculators/calorie.asp

This will likely be MORE accurate than a heart rate monitor, since the C2 measures ACTUAL work performed, whereas a HRM only estimates based on heart rate--and heart rate can vary, not only between individuals, but within the workout itself (cardiovascular drift). Most exercise machines do not measure workload that precisely, but C2 is known for the precision of the performance monitor.

tonyodell

The calorie counts on the C2 performance monitor are set for a standard reference weight only. So they are not going to be very accurate in a literal sense. (C2 has always said this up front).

I didn't read it in detail, but C2 has a page that allows you to make your own calculations:

http://www.concept2.com/us/interactive/calculators/calorie.asp

This will likely be MORE accurate than a heart rate monitor, since the C2 measures ACTUAL work performed, whereas a HRM only estimates based on heart rate--and heart rate can vary, not only between individuals, but within the workout itself (cardiovascular drift). Most exercise machines do not measure workload that precisely, but C2 is known for the precision of the performance monitor.

Anything measuring the amount of work you did (remember Kilojoules) will be more accurate. Calories expended is usually based on KJs because the calculations for Calories involve fudge numbers and efficiency between people varies (and doesn't change much even for pro athletes).

That said the above link uses one of it's own calculations to determine Calories and it looks like it's a little late to be used if you're not at the machine and didn't write anything down.

PaulC9554

Thanks for that.
I can get the figures from the machine tomorrow when i go back to the gym. I'll then check the results between the figures shown here on MFP and the concept site.

PaulC9554

Follow up:
I got the results from the machine and input the required info in to the concept calculator and the result was 1197 cals. The calc here on the site with the same info gave 1117 so it's not too far out.
Thanks

meerkatbz

The calorie counts on the C2 performance monitor are set for a standard reference weight only. So they are not going to be very accurate in a literal sense. (C2 has always said this up front).

I didn't read it in detail, but C2 has a page that allows you to make your own calculations:

http://www.concept2.com/us/interactive/calculators/calorie.asp

This will likely be MORE accurate than a heart rate monitor, since the C2 measures ACTUAL work performed, whereas a HRM only estimates based on heart rate--and heart rate can vary, not only between individuals, but within the workout itself (cardiovascular drift). Most exercise machines do not measure workload that precisely, but C2 is known for the precision of the performance monitor.

Anything measuring the amount of work you did (remember Kilojoules) will be more accurate. Calories expended is usually based on KJs because the calculations for Calories involve fudge numbers and efficiency between people varies (and doesn't change much even for pro athletes).

That said the above link uses one of it's own calculations to determine Calories and it looks like it's a little late to be used if you're not at the machine and didn't write anything down.

the concept2 monitor calculation is set for a 175lb man. I am a 140lb woman and used the machine with a heart rate monitor, rowing easily for 40 minutes. the HRM showed 290 and the adjusted calculation on the website showed 282, so very accurate.
http://www.concept2.com/us/interactive/calculators/calorie.asp

cw106

very handy tool.thanks