erg

Erg’s are the most painful horrible things i’ve ever had the misfortune to come across i have to do this to stay on my team and to be honest i sincerely doubt any non-rower or person taught by a non-rower to erg is doing it right. Part of my team decided to take an erg class at our local gym and when we did everything they did was wrong well they had the basics catch drive recovery but if you erged like that you would work harder get less results and brake your back in the meantime. but hey if you want to live through painful 5k’s on the erg’s be my guest (by the way i broke 18 minutes on a 5k yesterday and its only my second season worst 18 minutes of my life)

I quit the gym for about two months but started going again this week. I am finally using the exercises I got off the concept 2 web site and they totally kick my ass. I can’t finish the first one yet! I think that’s good because it gives me something to work towards and hopefully I won’t lose my motivation again.

My brother Greg used to coach rowing in college and he had the following form advice for us:

the drive
Pulling away – mimics when you’re pulling on the oar and propelling the boat through the water.

the recovery
Returning forward – mimics when you’re pulling the oar out of the water and returning it back to your starting point in the water for another stroke.

On the drive it’s legs > back > arms
On the recovery it’s arms > back > legs

The goal is to separate the parts of the drive as much as possible without losing momentum when you switch from legs to back, and back to arms. Think of the extremes: if you’re pulling with your arms (the weakest muscles in the drive) at the same time you’re pushing with your legs, you’re basically wearing out your arms as they fight your legs and your acceleration is spent near the beginning of the drive; you have nothing left at the end of the drive – the arms have contracted already. Your oar is actually slowing down in the water = bad. The whole purpose is to get the damn oar moving as fast as you can over the stroke so that it is at maximum velocity at the end. On the flip side, if you’re too mechanical and you don’t “blend” the parts of the drive, you lose acceleration in your transfers.

As for the recovery, really the only reason you’re mimicking the drive backwards is to get the oar over your knees, and because you’re usually trying to get 8 rowers to set a moving boat which requires total synchronicity.

I joined a gym recently and the rowing machine is my favorite thing-no one is ever on the machine, you get to sit down, and it doesn’t seem to bother my “trick knee” at all. but it has been years since I actually rowed with any kind of guidance or instruction, so I’ve just been sort of sitting on the machine and doing my thing for 20 minutes and then feeling like “now what?” I’m just not sure what I should be aiming for-time, distance, pace, etc. I’m just looking to get in shape, gain some endurance and maybe lose some fat. I can’t swim so I am definitely not looking to translate this into actual rowing ability, as the idea of being in a rowboat sort of terrifies me.

I downloaded some workouts from the Concept2 web site and will try them out this week. Hopefully this will give me more guidance.

JAN 2006

1/23 – note: I strained my lower back muscles erging, so I’m popping Advil and now that it’s calmed down a bit I’ve actually started running yesterday. I head to Maui for 2 weeks and will likely pick up erging in mid-February.

1/23 – 36 min – running
1/22 – 36 min – running
1/18 – 20 min – 4814 – 2:05.1
1/17 – 20 min – 4755 – 2:06.8
1/13 – 30 min – ? – 2:12
1/10 – 25 min – 5623 meters – 2:13.7
1/7 – 20 min – 4684 meters – 2:08.8
1/6 – 20:47 min – 4700 meters – 2:09.5
1/3 – 16 min – 3669 meters – 2:10 split

DEC 2005
12/30 – 30 min – 6747 meters – 2:14 split
12/29 – 20 min – 4240 meters (flu)
12/26 – 30 min – 6522 meters
12/23 – 20 min – 4403 meters
12/22 – 30 min – 6359 meters
12/19 – 25 min
12/17 – 20 min
12/15 – 15 min
12/14 – 15 min

Felt great. My body is catching up with this excercise. Now I’m off to see The Wrens.

I hit the erg for another 15 minutes this morning, taking all the advice from people on this goal—I paced myself at a slower stroke and distance rate. 15 minutes not only became easier physically (my legs did collapse after the session like last time) but mentally it was a more enjoyable ride. I listened to NPR the whole time.

If I’m successful at this next round of erging this winter it’ll likely be because of reasonable pacing and the dedicated space in the basement for the model A rower. I’m shooting for 20 minutes next session which shouldn’t be a problem based on today’s results.

A few people asked me what “ergometer” means. I didn’t know so I looked it up. This wikipedia article explains it nicely.

_ “An indoor rower is also known as an ergometer, ergo, erg or rowing machine. Ergo comes from the Greek word ergon, meaning work. Therefore ergometer literally means “work meter”.” _

I erged this morning for 15 minutes. It kicked my butt—I tripped walking up the stairs. I’m hoping to be up to 3, 25 minute sessions a week by February.