However, many gyms don’t have an indoor rowing club and you have to plan your training on your own. I have already covered the basics of indoor rowing technique. Following on from that, this post will help you to structure your rowing training and get the best out of the ergo.

But before going into the workouts, you need to know how to set up the rower correctly and how to measure your efforts effectively.

Setting the damper correctly

The damper is the lever at the side of the flywheel with positions marked 1 to 10. You’ll often see people in the gym get on the rower, crank the damper up to 10 and start rowing. Actually this is not really what the damper is for, and higher resistance is not always better.

To understand this, think in terms of real boats. A setting of 10 is like a big heavy boat: it has the potential to cover a given distance faster than a lighter boat, but only if the rower is big and powerful enough to drive it. A smaller and lighter rower will do better in a lighter boat and will be able to cover the distance faster than they would in the heavy boat.

A real racing boat is equivalent to a damper position of 4. Rowers who race on water will do the majority of their training at this setting to replicate the river conditions. For indoor rowing, the most efficient damper position for you will depend on your weight, level of conditioning and what kind of workout you are doing e.g. sprint or endurance.

To set the right damper position, you need to test your ‘drag factor’ by rowing a few fairly hard strokes on the machine. The drag factor will display on the machine as a number between 100 and 150. The British Amateur Rowing Association has a list of recommended drag factors as follows:

• Lightweight (around 61.5 kg or less) women performance athletes: 125
• Heavyweight women performance athletes: 130
• Lightweight (around 75kg or less) men performance athletes: 135
• Heavyweight men performance athletes: 140

For normal trainees, I would knock 5 off these recommended drag factors. For example, if you are a lightweight woman doing a 5k row, go for a drag factor of 120.

How to set drag factor

Which buttons to press depends on what model of rowing machine you are using. On the Concept2 PM2 machine pictured below, press the RESET and READY buttons simultaneously. The drag factor will appear in the bottom right corner of the screen. On the Concept2 PM3, drag factor is one of the menu options. Row around 10 strokes reasonably hard and adjust the damper lever to get your desired drag factor. For most of my training sessions, I tend to go for a drag factor of 120 – which for me translates to a damper position of 5.

Using Split time

When I first started using the rower in the gym, like many people the numbers I used to track progress were distance, time or calories. These were things I understood – or thought I did. Then someone explained split time to me, which is the number labelled av/500m. This is short for “average time to row 500m” and is the standard method of measuring pace in rowing.

So if you row 2,000m in 8 minutes, your av/500m split time is 2 minutes over that distance. However, at any one point in time you may have been rowing a bit slower or a bit faster than your average. You would probably have started slower and got much faster in the last few hundred metres.

The rower’s readout can give you both your current split time and your average split over the distance. In the picture, my current split is the figure of 1:54 in the middle of the display. The lower that number goes, the faster my ‘boat’ is moving. However, I can only row that sort of split for a couple of minutes, so that would be a sprint for me.

Split time is used obsessively by on-water rowers and people who compete because it gives you the most important piece of information: how fast the boat is travelling. I use split time as my main benchmark, but it is acceptable to utilise calories, heartrate or other measurements as well. Crossfit, for example, often makes use of calories as a rowing measurement in its workouts.

Choosing stroke rate

Stroke rate is measured in “strokes per minute” or SPM. A high stroke rate, e.g. 35 SPM is not necessarily the most effective way to make the boat go faster, especially at medium to long distances. Many workouts will have a prescribed stroke rate range, such as 22-24 SPM.

Stroke rate can also be a matter of personal style or technique. For instance, I tend to row at a lower stroke rate than many lightweight women because I have powerful legs due to my weight training background. So I give an almighty shove with my legs, which generates a lot of power but means I move a little slower.

Standard distances

The most common race distance in rowing is 2,000m. Elite heavyweight men will do this in around 5 and a half to 6 minutes, elite heavyweight women in around 6 and a half minutes. Mere mortals will achieve around 8 minutes, or half a minute either side depending on sex, weight and fitness.

The 5,000m and 10,000m are common long distances. Popular sprint distances include 250m, 500m and 750m.

Putting it all together

All these settings and numbers might sound rather technical, but once you start rowing it is much easier to understand how all these factors work in tandem because you can see the effect on the computer readout in real time.

For any distance, it is important to pace yourself and not go off too quickly. It is very easily done as when you take your first few strokes on the rower, the wheel feels very light. Be warned, this feeling does not last!

For long distances such as 5,000m, it is advisable to use a slow stroke rate of 20-24 SPM until the last 1,000m or 500m when you can up the rate.

It is also good practice to pick a modest split time and try to stick to it consistently; for example trying to keep to a split of 2:15 for the whole distance, or upping your split every 1,000m. This is trickier than it sounds and is important for good technique.

For sprint distances, it is fine to increase the stroke rate and the damper position as you are not rowing for very long. A 250m sprint will take most people a minute or less. Sprint distances are useful for interval training.

Sample workouts

To train for my first 2,000m race competing at womens lightweight, I used some of the following workouts:

1. Medium distance steady row

3,000m steady row, gradually increasing split as follows:

• First thousand metres @ 2:20 split, 22-24 SPM
• Second thousand metres @ 2:15 split, 22-24 SPM
• Third thousand metres @ 2:10 split, 26-27 SPM
• Last 250-500m, push as much as you feel able

To replicate this workout, choose your own split but keep the SPM the same.

This kind of session trains you to row at a consistent, steady pace. It’s important to learn how to row at a steady pace because it is so easy to go out too fast and fade halfway through. The first thousand metres will feel very easy but you will start to feel it after the halfway point.

2. Long distance steady row

5,000m or more steady row at a consistent split. This is about getting your base distance in so that you can work on technique and endurance.

To find your steady pace, row 5,000m in any way you can. It will probably take you somewhere between 20 and 25 minutes. When you have finished, note your average split time over the entire duration. The next time you row 5,000m, try to keep to that average split time for the duration.

3. Intervals

1000m or 750m intervals off 4 minutes rest. Aim for a medium stroke rate of around 26-28 SPM and try to get faster with each interval. 2-4 intervals is sufficient when you first start doing these.

4. Sprints

It is useful to do the occasional sprint (especially against a friend) to get the feel of going flat out for a short distance.

Warm up and warm down

As with any workout, it is good practice to warm up and warm down. Spend at least 5 minutes on each. You can also use the stationery bike or cross trainer to warm up and down.

Further reading

Indoor rowing technique

Explanation of drag factor from Crossfit forum

Recommended drag factor settings from the Concept2 website

Few people really think that going on a treadmill and running flat out for as long as you can is a good way to train. But I see people do this on the rower all the time. In fact, I used to do it myself when I first joined the gym!

But while creating a lot of sweat and getting puffed out might make you think you are getting a good workout, you can achieve so much more once you improve technique. You will generate more power, use more of your body, go faster and be able to row for longer. You don’t have to be ‘into’ rowing or want to compete in order to benefit from better technique. Plus, you won’t look like a newbie in the gym!

How indoor rowing works

The most important thing to understand about the indoor rower is that the numbers are measuring the speed of the flywheel, not you. So doing faster strokes doesn’t necessarily make the wheel go faster. It’s the amount of power applied to the wheel that makes it go.

The power comes from the legs, trunk and arms working together and applying force to the machine. The majority of the power comes from the legs, not the arms. According to Concept2, the leading manunfacturer of indoor rowers, your legs are responsible for 70% of the power in your stroke. Good technique is all about getting this right, which allows you to generate more power on the wheel.

Technique

I am sure that everyone reading this has either seen an indoor rowing machine in action or used one. Sitting on the sliding seat with your feet on the footpads and your hands on the handle, you push back as far as your legs will take you and then slide forward ready to push back again.

Good rowers have a smooth flowing motion. You will notice that they move faster and more forcefully on the push back than they do on the slide forward. It is the push back, or the drive, that makes the wheel move. The slide forward is your opportunity for recovery.

Legs and Feet

Before starting to row, adjust the footpads so that your heels are as high as possible and make sure they are the same height on each side. The straps should go over the bottom of your shoelaces, i.e. quite high up the foot. This is because you need your feet to bend when you push off the balls of the foot. Unless you are very flexible, you will need to let your heels come off the footpads in order to get your legs in the optimum position to push back.

The optimum position for the legs at the catch (just before you push back) is shins vertical. Most people don’t come forward enough for their shins to be vertical. In the picture above, my shins could be a tad further forward. If I had longer legs, my knees would be poking up between my arms at this point.

If you are not very flexible, it is tempting to let your knees tip outwards in this position as you try to get your hips forward. But if your knees are bending outwards you will lose a bit of power on the drive back, so try to avoid this or actively work against it by thinking about pulling the knees in. Whatever you do, don’t have your arms on the insides of your knees. If you simply can’t get close to the shins vertical position at this stage, just go as far forward as you can; your flexibility will improve over time.

And for you very flexible people, it is not advisable to come too far forward so that your bum is almost touching your heels. You do need to keep a couple of inches gap between the seat and your heels in order to generate maximum power.

On the drive back it is very important to push hard with your legs, as this is where most of the power comes from. The arms do contribute with a pulling motion but if you don’t push with your legs you will not be able to maintain high speeds for long. The power comes from straightening, or extending, the knees and the hips.

The leg drive is very similar to a squat and the idea is to get faster as you move back. This can be quite tricky to get your head around at first. When I first started rowing, I didn’t get the concept of increasing speed as you move back. There just didn’t seem to be enough time! However, now that I’ve got it I can see that I simply wasn’t pushing hard enough with my legs. When you do, you automatically move faster as you slide back. It’s hard to do this straight off the bat, so get rowing first and get into a rhythm, then focus on pushing as hard as you can with your legs and you will see what I mean.

One word of warning though: if you exaggerate the leg drive too much, you can actually end up pushing forcefully back with legs and hips but not bringing the handle back with you (called ‘slide shooting’). Remember to move the handle and the seat at the same time. In other words, maintain the angle of your back until your legs have straightened.

Trunk

Keep your back straight and chest up throughout the stroke. A common technique error is rounding the upper back and shoulders at the catch. This happens when people are only thinking about pulling with their arms. But as we know, most of the power comes from the legs, from the knee and hip extension. Think of your back as a lever, opening your body at the hip. If your back is rounded, it is not going to be as effective as a lever.

As you drive backwards, use the weight of your trunk to add force to the stroke at the end by leaning back slightly. This finishes the process started by your legs. It is important not to over-lean though. In the picture above, I could afford to lean back a few more degrees – and if I was rowing hard, I would. But that would be enough.

Arms and hands

At the catch (the forward position), your arms should be straight. As you drive backwards, your arms pull straight back, elbows slightly flared as you bring the handle into your chest. Watch out that your wrists are straight; it’s easy to get into the habit of curling the wrists under slightly as you pull into the chest.

It is important to keep the cable as straight as possible and for the cable to travel in a straight line, otherwise power will be dissipated. If you’re not careful, your knees will get in the way and you will find yourself having to lift the cable over your knees as you slide forwards or backwards. The way to avoid this is to let the handle pass your knees first, before allowing the knees to rise.

So from the front position, you drive back hard with the legs and keep the handle slightly in front of your knees until your legs have straightened out, then finish the stroke by pulling the handle into your chest and levering your trunk backwards. On the recovery, let your arms straighten first and allow the handle to come back past the knees before you bend them to slide forwards. When you are not used to this process it can be a bit jerky so try to make the stroke as smooth as possible. It doesn’t take long for this to become a flowing movement.

Head

Keep your head looking straight ahead. Make sure you set the computer display on the rower so that your head is in the right position when you are looking at it. A lot of people have the display a bit too low.

Summary of technique

• At the start, straight arms, back straight, chest up, looking straight forward
• Big push with the legs to start the drive back
• Wait until knees are straight before passing the handle over them
• Pull handle into chest with straight wrists and use trunk to lever back slightly
• On the recovery, allow handle to pass knees before bending them
• Keep back straight and chest up

Check out http://gubernatrix.co.uk/2008/03/indoor-rowing-training/ for how to train with the indoor rower, including ways of measuring your rowing and using the numbers on the computer display to help you improve.

Further information

I recommend watching the following videos from Crossfit on rowing technique, as you will be able to see a good stroke in action:

Rowing basics – mov version, wmv version

• Angela covers all the main technique points in this article and demonstrates both good technique and some common errors

Technique refinements – mov version, wmv version

• In this video, Angela goes into more detail about some aspects of technique.

The concept2 website is also worth a look as they have some good resources and information. In particular, check out Technique on the Indoor Rower, part of the Concept2 online rowing guide.