What Was Your Work Out Today?
Replies
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8,500m in a quad this morning - race line up. Some steady state going up with some tens thrown in. After we turned around we did some race starts and then 2x 2min on/1min off and 2x 1min race pace (so on)/1min build and sprint.
We had a crappy selection of oars (and lights...) because there were so many boats that went out so I had a set of oars that were too long for me. A former US national team coach visited this past spring and as a result we have three lengths of sculling oars (four if you count the one pair that are for the two or three people who are 5ish feet tall and shorter). Or rather, the buttons are adjusted for varying heights. Needless to say, the hangnails on my right thumb suffered today :P3 -
Just completed Jillian Michaels 30 day shred. Yay!
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Hour workout at lunch today. SS (steady state) work on the Indoor Rower keeping my HR below 145 and then finished off with the AirDyne Pro. My HR keeps dropping relative to speed on both. Was able to get in over 8K today on the rower before it drifted too high. Working toward a full hour on the rower (around 13K meters) while staying under 145 BPM.2
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1 mile walk warmup
One leg Romanian Deadlifts 2x5
Pushups 3x15
Lunges 2x12
One arm DB row 2x80 -
Took a 50 minute interval training class this morning and I'm hoping to reach 9000 steps today (desk job).0
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7/30/2019 - another day of active rest which may be how my week unfolds, but I did "invest" 3 minutes while at work and self-administer the YMCA 3-minute bench step test for cardiovascular fitness.
I learned about this test earlier this year. It’s a 3-minute test using a 12-inch step, bench or box that you step up to and down from at a cadence of 96 beats per minute. I found a YouTube video of a Metronome playing for 3 minutes for my test here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJwwJgCIHBU
Here are my results today with prior results on 1/3/2019 in parenthesis:
Morning BW: 171.9 lbs. (185.8 lbs.)
Average HR during test: 107 bpm (116 bpm)
Maximum HR during test: 117 bpm (131 bpm)
HR one minute after test: 88 bpm (72 bpm)
Calories burned during test: 25 calories (26 calories)
My estimated maximum HR: 180 bpm (180 bpm)
According to a chart that considers HR one minute after the test, today I rated good while last time I rated excellent. This is an outlier since I'm in perceived better cardiovascular conditioning than what I was at the beginning of the year. Average HR and maximum HR during the 3-minute test aligns with this self-assessment so all I can say is that's the way my HR read.
Enjoying my rest week not being hot and sweaty from a workout.
[edited by MFP mods]3 -
Today's workout was 75 minutes of swimming. It's such an amazing work out and I dont feel gross at the end!3
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50 min spin class (16 miles)
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25 min of lifting for my entire body
10 min of ab/core exercises on the floor
10 min warm up - 1 mile run
60 min ride on exercise bike doing random hills at a high resistance
9 min 4x500 row at highest resistance with 30 second rests in between-hard as possible
8 min 2 reps x 60 seconds of burpees, side lunges, jump lunges, and mountain climbers
Workout time: 152 minutes
I had a ton of energy today and just wanted to keep going but forced a stop Bc I want to go hard again tomorrow and run more to get my knee back. The guy next to me raced me in my rows and I beat him—but it pushed us both harder and was a lot of fun...1 -
Workout number 2 - recovery ride on Zwift for an hour. I'm taking tomorrow and Friday off so I have one more workout before the regatta.
I ended up making a workout on Zwift that had me spend most of my time in the endurance zone power wise. I also had my phone on my handlebars (quad locks are fantastic) and ended up texting a rowing friend who is a coach, very good sculler, and very good cox about rowing. I figure that if I can engage in a text analysis of my row this morning while riding my bike (inside), then that counts as recovery.4 -
Crazy tuesday
30min stair workout with PT (included the burpees I earnt myself monday)
45 min zumba class
5/3/1 cycle 3 weeks 2 bench plus accessories
55min interval run on treadmill
45 min insanity class
50min boxercise class0 -
Quick 4.8-mile hike on flat terrain by my house.0
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Tuesday's workout was about 40 minutes of Barre Fit - some ballet moves for warmup, some crazy disco arm moves, some mad jumping around, a section of squats, lunges, birdcages, walking planks and pressups, and a bit of Pilates style core work to finish.
Plus, of course, the 40 minutes of walking required to get to and from the class.
Today is an Official Rest Day 0 -
25 min of lifting for my entire body
10 min of ab/core exercises on the floor
10 min warm up - 1 mile run
60 min ride on exercise bike doing random hills at a high resistance
9 min 4x500 row at highest resistance with 30 second rests in between-hard as possible
8 min 2 reps x 60 seconds of burpees, side lunges, jump lunges, and mountain climbers
Workout time: 152 minutes
I had a ton of energy today and just wanted to keep going but forced a stop Bc I want to go hard again tomorrow and run more to get my knee back. The guy next to me raced me in my rows and I beat him—but it pushed us both harder and was a lot of fun...
Please be careful with that. Ann might be able to chime in as well, but most, even men, should never ever use the highest Damper setting (what most know as resistance). Depending on the machine, it should not feel like you're weight lifting. Inevitably, you will injure your back. I use very low settings. It's a cardio machine, not a weight lifting machine. Also remember from physics class that Power equals force times velocity. It's about how fast your drive is as much as it is your force (from the Damper setting being higher).
Even world record holder rowers never use the highest Damper unless they are doing very short sprints, like 100 meters. And those are men that are 6 foot 4 or so and 250 lbs. I'm a decent Indoor rower (regionally competitive). I went to one Orange Theory class and broke their 500m "record" easily. Now, I use Dampers that are lighter because I have a bad back right now. This might helps explain damper more for you. It's a very common mistake among those that don't row all the time. I used to do the same thing.
Please trust me on this. My indoor rowing club, Sub7, has most of the top women not only in the US, but also the world. The one woman in my club (from Eastern Europe) rowed a 6:40 something 2K and crushed the World Record. She's around 6 foot 3 and doesn't use the top damper settings.
https://darkhorserowing.com/understanding-the-magic-of-damper-settings-and-drag-factor/
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MikePfirrman wrote: »25 min of lifting for my entire body
10 min of ab/core exercises on the floor
10 min warm up - 1 mile run
60 min ride on exercise bike doing random hills at a high resistance
9 min 4x500 row at highest resistance with 30 second rests in between-hard as possible
8 min 2 reps x 60 seconds of burpees, side lunges, jump lunges, and mountain climbers
Workout time: 152 minutes
I had a ton of energy today and just wanted to keep going but forced a stop Bc I want to go hard again tomorrow and run more to get my knee back. The guy next to me raced me in my rows and I beat him—but it pushed us both harder and was a lot of fun...
Please be careful with that. Ann might be able to chime in as well, but most, even men, should never ever use the highest Damper setting (what most know as resistance). Depending on the machine, it should not feel like you're weight lifting. Inevitably, you will injure your back. I use very low settings. It's a cardio machine, not a weight lifting machine. Also remember from physics class that Power equals force times velocity. It's about how fast your drive is as much as it is your force (from the Damper setting being higher).
Even world record holder rowers never use the highest Damper unless they are doing very short sprints, like 100 meters. And those are men that are 6 foot 4 or so and 250 lbs. I'm a decent Indoor rower (regionally competitive). I went to one Orange Theory class and broke their 500m "record" easily. Now, I use Dampers that are lighter because I have a bad back right now. This might helps explain damper more for you. It's a very common mistake among those that don't row all the time. I used to do the same thing.
Please trust me on this. My indoor rowing club, Sub7, has most of the top women not only in the US, but also the world. The one woman in my club (from Eastern Europe) rowed a 6:40 something 2K and crushed the World Record. She's around 6 foot 3 and doesn't use the top damper settings.
https://darkhorserowing.com/understanding-the-magic-of-damper-settings-and-drag-factor/
@lg013 - listen to Mike on this one, I'm sure Ann will chime in as well. Putting the damper up to 10 is not something you should be doing. You're only asking for injury with it that high and I'd imagine you're probably not able to use good technique that way either. If you watch videos of any Olympic rower on an erg (rowing machine), you'll see that they won't have it above 5 or 6 and many will have it well under that.
If you haven't done so already, read through concept 2's website, but especially this page:
https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/tips-and-general-info/damper-setting-101
The only reason to have the damper set especially high is if you can't get the drag factor to a reasonable number because the machines have been exceedingly poorly maintained (the ergs at my alma mater's gym are an example of that...).2 -
7/31 am
Mobility
Bands
Strength
Handstand Pushup - Pavel Fighter Progression (3RM) Day 18/20
*On a Yoga Block
6-5-4-4-2 (21)
Pull-ups - Fighter Pull-Up Program (12R Max) Day 18/20
17-14-10-10-7 (58)
Meditate
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Pull-ups - Fighter Pull-Up Program (12R Max) Day 17/20
17-14-10-7-7 (55)
@pierinifitness the pull-ups are getting hard. Can't finish the 17 and 14 rep sets in one shot. Have to drop from the bar and take a few seconds rest and then finish. Still not sore but not feeling as strong. Could be overdoing it, but my gut tells me it's not the case. I just think I am not strong enough yet to bang out 17 or 14 in a row. I guess that's the reason I'm doing this in the first place. Good news is this is the 4th and final week. I'll do a de-load next week and then re-access my max reps and take it from there...
Yup, understand. All of these progression programs start off easy and are fun but soon reach a reality point of being difficult to complete as prescribed. I had mistakenly thought you were getting all round reps in, now I understand. For me, it would be difficult to drop for a quick breather and be able to complete the remaining reps.
When I was using a progression program for bar dips, I would repeat rather than moving on and in some cases drop back to the point in the program where I was able to complete the suggested reps without breaks. Call it a deload approach.
I have found weighted pull-ups - low rep rounds with recovery time between rounds like heavy barbell training - helped me with rep completion for the latter reps. The weighted pull-ups gave me finishing strength which was my failure point of being unable to clear the bar for a legitimate rep. Is that your failure point? Everyone's is different. I know some have shared grip failure is there's, that hasn't been mine.
I've also had pull-up growth doing a workout of 100 reps for time, any which way I can and have learned that a cadence of 3-3-2-2-1 for reps, alternating between pull-ups and chin-ups got me to 100 reps in the quickest time, as opposed to, say, 20 rounds of 5 reps. It's all good training and however you skin the volume rep cat, it's nice to read and learn of your progress. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work.
By the way, I'm taking it easy this week and trying to enjoy the rest.
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MikePfirrman wrote: »25 min of lifting for my entire body
10 min of ab/core exercises on the floor
10 min warm up - 1 mile run
60 min ride on exercise bike doing random hills at a high resistance
9 min 4x500 row at highest resistance with 30 second rests in between-hard as possible
8 min 2 reps x 60 seconds of burpees, side lunges, jump lunges, and mountain climbers
Workout time: 152 minutes
I had a ton of energy today and just wanted to keep going but forced a stop Bc I want to go hard again tomorrow and run more to get my knee back. The guy next to me raced me in my rows and I beat him—but it pushed us both harder and was a lot of fun...
Please be careful with that. Ann might be able to chime in as well, but most, even men, should never ever use the highest Damper setting (what most know as resistance). Depending on the machine, it should not feel like you're weight lifting. Inevitably, you will injure your back. I use very low settings. It's a cardio machine, not a weight lifting machine. Also remember from physics class that Power equals force times velocity. It's about how fast your drive is as much as it is your force (from the Damper setting being higher).
Even world record holder rowers never use the highest Damper unless they are doing very short sprints, like 100 meters. And those are men that are 6 foot 4 or so and 250 lbs. I'm a decent Indoor rower (regionally competitive). I went to one Orange Theory class and broke their 500m "record" easily. Now, I use Dampers that are lighter because I have a bad back right now. This might helps explain damper more for you. It's a very common mistake among those that don't row all the time. I used to do the same thing.
Please trust me on this. My indoor rowing club, Sub7, has most of the top women not only in the US, but also the world. The one woman in my club (from Eastern Europe) rowed a 6:40 something 2K and crushed the World Record. She's around 6 foot 3 and doesn't use the top damper settings.
https://darkhorserowing.com/understanding-the-magic-of-damper-settings-and-drag-factor/
Thanks so much for this advice...I usually put the damper at my home gym at 3-4 and I always focus on speed and my form (they have a mirror to check my posturing too)...this machine was at a gym near my work and was one of the fan ones—the only reason I set it up that high was bc I was trying to adjust it to the normal drag I feel on my gym’s machine, which I can tell by how it feels and my speed. (I was doing my 500m 15-20 seconds faster than I normally do on the machine I am used to). It was nowhere near a lift feel (and I’m a weakling in my arm lifts so I’m a lot more sensitive to that...
I copy these diary entries from my own notes and I make note for the sake of attempting to be consistent as I need to go to different gyms, it helps me remember how to configure the machines a bit more. I think this machine at this gym was not working correctly or doesn’t allow an extreme drag. Should I reduce anyway?
Thanks so much for the info though. EXTREMELY helpful and thoughtful
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100 jump rope 10 burpees x 10 then 1 mile walk. (My lunch workout)1
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Wednesday
Didn't do as much as I usually do on a wednesday.
2mile bike ride to and from PT (so 4 miles altogether)
60min personal training session on the beach, included a lot of sprints on the sand along with some muscular endurance work. Oh and it also involved me climbing over a wall, that came up to my chest. I laughed when she said I'd be doing that but surprisingly enough I actually did do it. Also had 30 burpees, and they are hard on the sand.
60min piyo class, really needed this cos my legs were in pieces after the last couple days
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As my last bouldering session was so bad, I decided to do some active recovery yesterday. I then realised I don't really know what this means, so I played with a light kettlebell.
200 swings, 16k. I did 10 sets of 20, in about 10 minutes.
5 get ups each side, 16k.
Facepulls.1 -
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I copy these diary entries from my own notes and I make note for the sake of attempting to be consistent as I need to go to different gyms, it helps me remember how to configure the machines a bit more. I think this machine at this gym was not working correctly or doesn’t allow an extreme drag. Should I reduce anyway?
Thanks so much for the info though. EXTREMELY helpful and thoughtful
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This made me feel better! Whew! Like Aokoye mentioned, some machines are extremely dirty. This causes the fan to not resist as well and create a situation where you can be on the max Damper setting and still not be REALLY high on Drag Factor (the actual drag of that machine). Only way to tell is if it's a Concept2 Machine. I think that the link that Aoyoke explains how to do that.
I have a C2 at home but at my LA Fitness, where I go on Sunday to get out of the house, only has a Matrix Rower -- not a fan of those. I use 3rd from the lowest Damper (resistance) on that machine. Anything more and my form goes right in the toilet. Yet I see not only men but women in their late 50s and 60s trying to row at the highest setting all the time.
This finally made it clear to me a while back. One of the older rowers on the C2 forum (a former World Class cyclist) said "you wouldn't try to ride a bike race in the lowest gear the entire ride...". That's essentially what the highest Dampers are. They are communicating to the machine that you're really large (like 240 or 250) and it's meant to simulate the "drag" (thus the name "drag factor") of how much a large rower's body weight makes the boat sink in the water. So it makes no sense for someone like me (188 lbs) to tell the machine that I weigh 270 by setting the damper way up.
I bet that machine is very dirty at your gym. If it were cleaned, it would require a much lower damper to have the same feel. But at least you're not setting it where it compromises your form (hopefully) too much.
The row has a similar dynamic to it as the deadlift. Flat back, drive from the feet (staying tucked all with the arms straight), then untucking your body and using your core and then your arms/upper body last. All the while keeping a flat back, which is very important. When Damper is too high, you see people not using their legs and pulling more with their upper bodies and curling their backs, which puts tremendous strain on the thoracic spine. I hurt mine and had to take four months off the rower with bad form. I had some other factors too -- a bad desk chair and just not understanding how important work posture is. I know you said you were working back from a knee injury and I don't want to see you have a set back with injury again! That was quite the workout too!
Today's workout -- Slow steady work. I'm doing an hour and cut off rowing when my HR exceeds 145 or so (75% of my Max HR). This seems to feel about right to me for staying in Aerobic work (not crossing over into anything Aneorobic). Did 35 minutes on the rower, then 25 on the Assault Bike.
Conditioning coming back. Was holding a 190 watt pace on the Assault Bike while keeping the HR down toward the end (once the creep from the rower wore off). Still tons of work to do. Have to get these pace numbers down on my easy rows to around 2:12 or so to really get back to form. They've dropped from 2:30 down to 2:22 already, so their moving, just not fast enough for me being impatient. I also plan on adding in strength work again in a month or two. Just making sure the back can hold up to the training load on the rower first.
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MikePfirrman wrote: »25 min of lifting for my entire body
10 min of ab/core exercises on the floor
10 min warm up - 1 mile run
60 min ride on exercise bike doing random hills at a high resistance
9 min 4x500 row at highest resistance with 30 second rests in between-hard as possible
8 min 2 reps x 60 seconds of burpees, side lunges, jump lunges, and mountain climbers
Workout time: 152 minutes
I had a ton of energy today and just wanted to keep going but forced a stop Bc I want to go hard again tomorrow and run more to get my knee back. The guy next to me raced me in my rows and I beat him—but it pushed us both harder and was a lot of fun...
Please be careful with that. Ann might be able to chime in as well, but most, even men, should never ever use the highest Damper setting (what most know as resistance). Depending on the machine, it should not feel like you're weight lifting. Inevitably, you will injure your back. I use very low settings. It's a cardio machine, not a weight lifting machine. Also remember from physics class that Power equals force times velocity. It's about how fast your drive is as much as it is your force (from the Damper setting being higher).
Even world record holder rowers never use the highest Damper unless they are doing very short sprints, like 100 meters. And those are men that are 6 foot 4 or so and 250 lbs. I'm a decent Indoor rower (regionally competitive). I went to one Orange Theory class and broke their 500m "record" easily. Now, I use Dampers that are lighter because I have a bad back right now. This might helps explain damper more for you. It's a very common mistake among those that don't row all the time. I used to do the same thing.
Please trust me on this. My indoor rowing club, Sub7, has most of the top women not only in the US, but also the world. The one woman in my club (from Eastern Europe) rowed a 6:40 something 2K and crushed the World Record. She's around 6 foot 3 and doesn't use the top damper settings.
https://darkhorserowing.com/understanding-the-magic-of-damper-settings-and-drag-factor/
Thanks so much for this advice...I usually put the damper at my home gym at 3-4 and I always focus on speed and my form (they have a mirror to check my posturing too)...this machine was at a gym near my work and was one of the fan ones—the only reason I set it up that high was bc I was trying to adjust it to the normal drag I feel on my gym’s machine, which I can tell by how it feels and my speed. (I was doing my 500m 15-20 seconds faster than I normally do on the machine I am used to). It was nowhere near a lift feel (and I’m a weakling in my arm lifts so I’m a lot more sensitive to that...
I copy these diary entries from my own notes and I make note for the sake of attempting to be consistent as I need to go to different gyms, it helps me remember how to configure the machines a bit more. I think this machine at this gym was not working correctly or doesn’t allow an extreme drag. Should I reduce anyway?
Thanks so much for the info though. EXTREMELY helpful and thoughtful
That's good to hear. What I would do, if I were you, would be to make a note of the drag factor that you normally set your C2 at home to so that you can then set whatever other C2 you're using to the same drag factor. You can learn about how to do that here: https://www.concept2.com/service/monitors/pm4/how-to-use/viewing-drag-factor2 -
MikePfirrman wrote: »25 min of lifting for my entire body
10 min of ab/core exercises on the floor
10 min warm up - 1 mile run
60 min ride on exercise bike doing random hills at a high resistance
9 min 4x500 row at highest resistance with 30 second rests in between-hard as possible
8 min 2 reps x 60 seconds of burpees, side lunges, jump lunges, and mountain climbers
Workout time: 152 minutes
I had a ton of energy today and just wanted to keep going but forced a stop Bc I want to go hard again tomorrow and run more to get my knee back. The guy next to me raced me in my rows and I beat him—but it pushed us both harder and was a lot of fun...
Please be careful with that. Ann might be able to chime in as well, but most, even men, should never ever use the highest Damper setting (what most know as resistance). Depending on the machine, it should not feel like you're weight lifting. Inevitably, you will injure your back. I use very low settings. It's a cardio machine, not a weight lifting machine. Also remember from physics class that Power equals force times velocity. It's about how fast your drive is as much as it is your force (from the Damper setting being higher).
Even world record holder rowers never use the highest Damper unless they are doing very short sprints, like 100 meters. And those are men that are 6 foot 4 or so and 250 lbs. I'm a decent Indoor rower (regionally competitive). I went to one Orange Theory class and broke their 500m "record" easily. Now, I use Dampers that are lighter because I have a bad back right now. This might helps explain damper more for you. It's a very common mistake among those that don't row all the time. I used to do the same thing.
Please trust me on this. My indoor rowing club, Sub7, has most of the top women not only in the US, but also the world. The one woman in my club (from Eastern Europe) rowed a 6:40 something 2K and crushed the World Record. She's around 6 foot 3 and doesn't use the top damper settings.
https://darkhorserowing.com/understanding-the-magic-of-damper-settings-and-drag-factor/
Thanks so much for this advice...I usually put the damper at my home gym at 3-4 and I always focus on speed and my form (they have a mirror to check my posturing too)...this machine was at a gym near my work and was one of the fan ones—the only reason I set it up that high was bc I was trying to adjust it to the normal drag I feel on my gym’s machine, which I can tell by how it feels and my speed. (I was doing my 500m 15-20 seconds faster than I normally do on the machine I am used to). It was nowhere near a lift feel (and I’m a weakling in my arm lifts so I’m a lot more sensitive to that...
I copy these diary entries from my own notes and I make note for the sake of attempting to be consistent as I need to go to different gyms, it helps me remember how to configure the machines a bit more. I think this machine at this gym was not working correctly or doesn’t allow an extreme drag. Should I reduce anyway?
Thanks so much for the info though. EXTREMELY helpful and thoughtful
Yes, on Concept 2 machines (which are the gold standard of the flywheel type) for sure, damper setting is not "resistance". One doesn't increase the setting to make the workout harder; one pushes harder with the legs and uses good overall mechanics (distinct role for legs then back then arms in sequence) to accelerate the flywheel more quickly, which makes the workout harder. In effect, resistance is self-generated.
If someone can't get a good workout at a low damper setting (3-6), odds are strong that technique improvement would be useful. (In saying this, I can't speak to deficiencies of poorly maintained gym machines; this is true for adequately-maintained ones.) For all but specialized drills, it's common for women - including elite women like the US national team - to be in the 3s to 4s damper range, not much more.
I usually machine row at 3 to 3 and half, which feels the most "boat like" to me. I frequently machine row in Winter at facilities owned by a NCAA Div I varsity women's rowing team; we usually find the damper set closer to 4 on all the machines when we arrive there. I'm quite confident that's where they do the bulk of their machine rowing.
If you have a C2 at home, and use a different one at the gym, you can use the drag factor option on the monitor to find what drag factor you like at home, then set the gym machine at whatever damper setting gives you the same drag factor.
The only other machines I've used are WaterRowers, where I believe the water fill is what's controlling the "boat feel", in addition to the technique issues, but I'm not expert about those.
When you say you "focus on speed and form", I hope that speed means meters per minute (or pace, minutes per 500m being the usual split), and not focus on increasing strokes per minute. The highest stroke rating (strokes per minute) is something I see I lot of gym-goers try to maximize, but power per stroke (better measured by the pace if no watts display) is a more useful thing to pursue for fitness benefits . . . let alone boat speed.
Happy rowing!1 -
Back to rowing the double today, about 7.3k.
Yesterday (Tuesday) was an unanticipated and undesired rest day: Usually, it'd be spin class, but Monday night about 10:30PM, my right front car fender and a whitetail deer both tried to occupy the same space at the same time, to the detriment of both.
So, Tuesday morning was adulting my way through the aftermath (insurance adjuster, bodyshop, car rental), rather than having fun at spin class. I was signed up to supervise the rowing club's open rowing session in the evening, but that's more about helping others, and didn't in this case involve actual rowing myself.MikePfirrman wrote: »Hour workout at lunch today. SS (steady state) work on the Indoor Rower keeping my HR below 145 and then finished off with the AirDyne Pro. My HR keeps dropping relative to speed on both. Was able to get in over 8K today on the rower before it drifted too high. Working toward a full hour on the rower (around 13K meters) while staying under 145 BPM.
You're getting some great results through this level of intensity-management discipline. Too many people around MFP seem to be for the "all intensity all the time or you won't get fit" view; it's always great to see someone doing what it really takes - intelligently managing intensity - which is less glamorous (and in some ways less fun) but it's obviously giving you a great payoff.8,500m in a quad this morning - race line up. Some steady state going up with some tens thrown in. After we turned around we did some race starts and then 2x 2min on/1min off and 2x 1min race pace (so on)/1min build and sprint.
We had a crappy selection of oars (and lights...) because there were so many boats that went out so I had a set of oars that were too long for me. A former US national team coach visited this past spring and as a result we have three lengths of sculling oars (four if you count the one pair that are for the two or three people who are 5ish feet tall and shorter). Or rather, the buttons are adjusted for varying heights. Needless to say, the hangnails on my right thumb suffered today :P
By too long, I assume you mean too much inboard? (I can mash up fingers either way, short or long inboard - only difference is where in the stroke it will happen .
) Too-short inboard plus CLAMs could be better, but I'm assuming you didn't have that option. Frustrating!
Do you do some simple race start like half/half/three-quarters/three-quarters/full/lengthen, or is your coach/club one that uses more tricksy (and I think harder to execute) sequences?
For non-rowers: Race starts in rowing use special stroke sequences when the boats start from stationary on a starting line. Generally, these involve shorter, choppier strokes at first to accelerate the boat-hull, then lengthen out to normal-length strokes (and on the psych side, these sequences can get people to manage their adrenaline and settle into a sustainable race pace). Normal humans, without a race plan, tend to let adrenaline make them too fast off the start, which then is likely to cause depletion and speed loss somewhere later in the race. The start sequence stroke-length is a different concept from the stroke rating (strokes per minute), which may be varied strategically, somewhat, during the body of the race.)0 -
7/31/2019 - continuing with a week of active rest.
Single set maximum reps of bar dips completing 16 reps.0 -
dance for 30 minutes. will do something else when i get home.1
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MikePfirrman wrote: »
I copy these diary entries from my own notes and I make note for the sake of attempting to be consistent as I need to go to different gyms, it helps me remember how to configure the machines a bit more. I think this machine at this gym was not working correctly or doesn’t allow an extreme drag. Should I reduce anyway?
Thanks so much for the info though. EXTREMELY helpful and thoughtful
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This made me feel better! Whew! Like Aokoye mentioned, some machines are extremely dirty. This causes the fan to not resist as well and create a situation where you can be on the max Damper setting and still not be REALLY high on Drag Factor (the actual drag of that machine). Only way to tell is if it's a Concept2 Machine. I think that the link that Aoyoke explains how to do that.
I have a C2 at home but at my LA Fitness, where I go on Sunday to get out of the house, only has a Matrix Rower -- not a fan of those. I use 3rd from the lowest Damper (resistance) on that machine. Anything more and my form goes right in the toilet. Yet I see not only men but women in their late 50s and 60s trying to row at the highest setting all the time.
This finally made it clear to me a while back. One of the older rowers on the C2 forum (a former World Class cyclist) said "you wouldn't try to ride a bike race in the lowest gear the entire ride...". That's essentially what the highest Dampers are. They are communicating to the machine that you're really large (like 240 or 250) and it's meant to simulate the "drag" (thus the name "drag factor") of how much a large rower's body weight makes the boat sink in the water. So it makes no sense for someone like me (188 lbs) to tell the machine that I weigh 270 by setting the damper way up.
I bet that machine is very dirty at your gym. If it were cleaned, it would require a much lower damper to have the same feel. But at least you're not setting it where it compromises your form (hopefully) too much.
The row has a similar dynamic to it as the deadlift. Flat back, drive from the feet (staying tucked all with the arms straight), then untucking your body and using your core and then your arms/upper body last. All the while keeping a flat back, which is very important. When Damper is too high, you see people not using their legs and pulling more with their upper bodies and curling their backs, which puts tremendous strain on the thoracic spine. I hurt mine and had to take four months off the rower with bad form. I had some other factors too -- a bad desk chair and just not understanding how important work posture is. I know you said you were working back from a knee injury and I don't want to see you have a set back with injury again! That was quite the workout too!
Today's workout -- Slow steady work. I'm doing an hour and cut off rowing when my HR exceeds 145 or so (75% of my Max HR). This seems to feel about right to me for staying in Aerobic work (not crossing over into anything Aneorobic). Did 35 minutes on the rower, then 25 on the Assault Bike.
Conditioning coming back. Was holding a 190 watt pace on the Assault Bike while keeping the HR down toward the end (once the creep from the rower wore off). Still tons of work to do. Have to get these pace numbers down on my easy rows to around 2:12 or so to really get back to form. They've dropped from 2:30 down to 2:22 already, so their moving, just not fast enough for me being impatient. I also plan on adding in strength work again in a month or two. Just making sure the back can hold up to the training load on the rower first.
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Thanks so much for all of this info! I’m getting into rowing and seem to enjoy it this far—and it’s helpful to know the appropriate terms.
I did do a lot of video watching and the correct form and really watch myself at my home gym (and to be clear I mean the gym closer to my home—the other one is near work and much more outdated) in the mirror. I do not want injury either. I keep my back straight and make sure I feel the stroke in my legs until they are as long as they can be while keeping a straight back, then I focus on core and arms. I’m trying to elongate my row, and I’m finding it’s my weaker upper body that improves it thus far.
Mind if I add you in case I have more questions?1 -
Today was Turbo Jam. I forgot how fun they could be. 1
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75 min spin class
30 min HIIT circuits0
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