Welcome to /r/Rowing!

I'm looking to buy a good smartwatch, focusing more on OTW rowing (since I just use the ergdata app for erging), since I'm not too comfortable taking my phone into the boat.

I've read a lot about how Garmin is the best watch for rowing, and I was looking at the Vivoactive 5 because that seems to be within my budget.

However I also did a little more research into Coros watches and I thought the Coros Pace 3 and Apex 2 seemed pretty economical for where I live, and tracked the same if not more metrics than the Vivoactive. (I'm currently leaning more towards the Apex 2)

Just wanted to get some more feedback from rowers here before I make a decision! Thanks in advance.

10.02 km in 34:50 minutes. Rowing for 17 months, on average four times a week. Male, 34, 73kg, 1.80 cm.

I am a 17 year old from Europe with international racing experience at the U19 Europeans in the single. I rowed a 6:19 2k and a 20:38 6k this year, but I fear that I am too small at 6ft 166lbs. How high should I be aiming?

I have nothing better to do and I want to maximise my time to improve the 2k(summer break), understand ppl don’t really care about these posts but I wanna know if this is the best use of my time or if I can make it better. Thanks 🙏

Info: I’m a decent hs rower, I have no friends so next 4 weeks are free, I am struggling with keeping high rate and sprinting at the end of 2k, and bad mobility. 2 sessions a day except Sunday is 1 SS session.

Intervals 2-3x: 2 tough ones, 1 “easy” session (aim to rate high)

Heavy weights 2x: Back squat, deadlift and all the rest

Lighter weights 1x: Same routine it just excludes exercises that pressure my back.

SS everyday: 2h bike or 60-90min erg

Core + stretch everyday

PR’d my 10k row today. I need to get video to post sometime, but judging off of 2k splits, 500m pace, and stroke rate - how is this? I’ve never received actual coaching on rowing technique or anything, just some YouTube videos. I’m 6’3”, about 255 lbs.

Any of those rowers at Oxford able to shed some light on who’s going to be quick this year? I (M) will be at Oxford starting Sept. 2025 and have applied to Keble. Curious how different crews are shaping out and whose M1s have a good shot to be top 5 over the next 1-2 years. Cheers!

So in my hometown McFit Gym they threw two totally fine working Concept two ergs along with other old cardio machines in a garbage container. They replaced them with three Matrix rowing ergs. They suck by the way... iam sad.

177,023m of 200,000m Christmas Holiday Challenge! 🎄💯

15, sophomore, 160 lbs

I purchased a Concept 2 over the summer and for some reason the splits on my erg are super slow relative to the ergs used at my high school club last year and the ones on my college team this year. I called Concept 2 and they made me check the drag factor settings (which they said were okay), and I keep it pretty well maintained. I promise that this isn't psychological: I have to SS at a 2:06 to have the same heart rate I would have steady stating at 1:59 on another erg, and my peak power on this erg is 1:15 (around 800 watts) while my peak power on other ergs is closer to 1:11 (978 watts). This disparity is also reflected when I try to do 2K or 6K pace work. Has anyone else experienced this problem, and if so, what should I do?

Did an 8 by 500 peice with a 2 min rest (may be longer idk fs) below is my pacing. How shld I go into the 2k tmrw and what shld my avg be? Avg: 2:06.3 i. 2:08.7 (Went lighter than I should've) ii. 2:05.3 iii. 2:06.1 IV. 2:05.5 V. 2:06.2 vi. 2:05.3 vii. 2:06.4 viii. 2:06.5

Away for the Christmas period and don't have your Erg? Follow this simple and short workout.

I am in my freshman year of rowing and I am 5 6 115 lbs. In my past few pieces I have been having panic attacks for example during my 12x250m I started by pulling around a 201 split on avg but around my 6th I started having the panic attack. I felt like my throat was closing and my splits dropped by like 15 secs.

I erged next to a mirror for the first time in a long time recently, and I noticed that I am just plainly not reaching full compression at the catch. It is not easy for me to tell where my length is going. I'm 6'1/185cm and my stroke length ranges anywhere from ~117cm at the lowest to ~132cm at the absolute highest, both on a Concept2 and an RP3. When I erg next to other people that have their stroke length on display, I row with the same amount of length as people who are much shorter than me. Up until now, I've always attributed it to poor calf mobility (which I've been working on for a while), but when I was erging with the mirror, I realized that whether or not my heels were in contact with the footplate at the catch made no difference to my stroke length. Does anything immediately come to mind for any of you, or should I provide pictures/video to try to figure out the issue? I'll continue working on my calf mobility for the sake of my squat form, but I feel like it is not the only issue I'm having with my rowing technique. I've tried asking coaches about it in the past, but I've been brushed off, given information that didn't help me, or told to "pay attention to your own monitor."

I did this 2k a while back, how good is it for scholastic rowing?

The plan started at 1000m at 1:50 (my goal pace for a 2k) on day 1 and added 50 meters a day, all the way up to 2000m. I did the first 5 days up to 1200m, and already felt confident enough to try the 2k again. Hit my goal time down to the tenth of a second. 12 second PR achieved, from 7:32 -> 7:20! Thanks for the idea u/Specific-Rise2527

It seems obvious I was being held back by lack of confidence and mental toughness, not fitness or strength. The day I did the 2k would have been the 1250m day, so the first 1250m was mentally quite easy, and I was only really hurting from 750m left through ~300m left.

The plan was a good confidence builder and got me comfortable at race pace/rate. It's hard to overstate the value of that confidence for this piece. Anyway, I intend to do it again sometime in the new year, targeting a 1:47 pace, but next time I will try for 100m increments, and plan to get to 1500m before going for the 2k. For now back to the typical strenth training and wolverine plan.

Sorry to all the OTW folks, but here's a link with 6 erg screens (sorry for the dirty monitor, I cleaned it off before the 2k):

https://imgur.com/a/W6IzkgU

I am looking to take a year and row at a UK university and get my masters in business, after rowing womens D1 in the US for the past four years. I want to go to a fast program that has winning potential, can anyone give me any insight into UK rankings on the womens side? Where does Brookes fall for women? Are they as dominant as they are on the mens side?

Did my first workout on Apple fitness+ 20 min session. Obviously I have a lot to learn but didn’t seem to difficult. I had some sweat dripping but not as much if I was on my bike. It was enjoyable.

How do I make it harder? The fly wheel has a turn dial that goes 1-10 (I think). Is 10 hardest and 1 easiest? I was expecting more of an upper body workout too. I know that the legs do 60% of the work and the core does 30% and the arms do the last 10% and I feel that’s what I got. With that said my heart rate was about 125 which is high for me. An indoor bike, outdoor run or a HIIT exercise can get it up to 145 - 150.

Am I doing this right? Am I doing this wrong? I am a heavy sweater and was surprised at how little sweat was pouring out of me.

Let me know your thoughts. I know there is limited info. But just looking for general advise/pointers.

Edit: Thanks for all of the reply and input. I’ll try to record my stroke and compare it to some with knowledge of what they are doing. I appreciate the feedback and not kicking my butt for not knowing what I’m doing yet.

Hi All,

I’ve been offered a waterrower S4 and 40-% retail cost. It’s ten years old though with 7500km on clock. Otherwise, In great condition and manual and pump available. Do you think this is too expensive and risky given age of rower (thinking tank seal/risk potential) ? Not sure whether to just save a bit more and go for a C2 given metrics appear to be more accurate (from what I read). The sound is mainly what attracts me to the waterrower…thanks!

I will be applying for the STAR Scholars program at Drexel University, which would allow me to perform faculty-mentored research. I will be studying Exercise Science.

It is my understanding that there is more research that has been done on other endurance sports (running, cycling) as opposed to rowing. I am looking for any ideas on topics that people believe should be more heavily studied. I, being 17, have only read so much literature, thus my post. I am passionate about performance and would really like this opportunity, any help is appreciated.

More recently, I noticed that my seat has a lot higher tendency to become more "bumpier" (iywim). I also noticed that even when i get off the seat, the seat sounds bumpy, like it sort of skips, and no amount of cleaning with glass cleaner can resolve this. It doesn't necessarily impede my ability to row, but it is unbearable to experience a bumpy seat in the middle of a 20k ss. I looked closer at the slides itself and noticed a bunch of small surface level cracks, which I fear came from my use of Pino Sol to clean up the slide. Can i easily fix this at home, or should i contact c2? I have been rowing on this machine for 1 ywar, and i have encountered bumpiness here and there after a few concsecutive session, but it became way more often now.

Does anyone have any info on this new regatta? Theres a vague instrgram page for it, apparently its the u22 regatta, for some reason they are being very cryptic about it " get us to 100 followers and we will tell you when it is".

I only know about it because rowing WA shared their insta story. My contact at rowing WA has never heard about it as well as my contact at Rowing Australia. The only person that knows anything about it is a friend from Tas that's only seen the insta page.

I get building up hype for something but if this goes ahead athletes and coaches need to know in when and where the regatta is as soon as possible, holding it to get instagram clout just seems really unprofessional.

Hi everyone,

For winter break, all I have access to is one of those planet fitness ergs. Does anyone know how I might be able to adjust it, like the drag and all to feel like a concept2. I want to do erg workouts and idk if they will be as effective on this.

Hey, I’m looking for any workouts to do for this winter season because I’m in between rowing season and I still wanna get some rowing done. I’m 140lbs 6ft if not just under I just did my first 2k last week and got a 7:12 a time I’m pretty proud of but I’m honestly not to sure where to go right now to improve