Great you enjoy it!
Drop it to the lowest of the markers and row 2k, reflecting how your RPE feels, if it simply feels far too light top it up one marker at a time and repeat. It’s so easy to make changes.
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so i understood it fine: to put max water is too much?
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Not necessarily, as per the manual. I personally have it on 17.
The Water Level is adjusted according to one’s personal preference or user
type; the intensity of course is altered simply by moving the chosen mass
faster or slower. A level gauge is positioned under the tank.
Typical settings are:
Children 12-14 levels
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ok, i have it on 18. will reduce it a bit. i am still not sure how to do quicker strokes of 26 or more. the resistance is already quite high. i do 5k in 20:30min, 500 i manage to in 1:40. but i seldomly go beyond 24 strokes/min.
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In case you haven’t yet, look through dark horse rowing’s technique videos on YouTube. Could be something as easy as engaging your muscles in the right order. But don’t obsess with stroke rate but build your strength gradually.
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thanks a lot. I watched many of his videos and some other instructions, too. Good help, but they all mostly refer to the Concept2 and also explain the importance of the proper resistance level on that device.
Using the WR and not the C2
I am still confused about the water level vs resistance question:
I am 44y/6.1/175lbs, very sporty and i’d say well trained.
As mentioned above:
I have the water level on 18l. but i am still not sure how to do quicker strokes of 26 or more. Already at 22 strokes the resistance is already quite high.
So far I can do 5k in 20:30min, 500 i manage in 1:40. but i seldomly go beyond 24 strokes/min.
I dont understand how to do quicker/faster stroke rates without pushing harder and therefore having much higher resistance.
I am looking at a aerobic training of 60-70% max HR. At the moment I can only do that by going low on stroke rate.
Is it about the water level? Or should I be less explosive with the legs?
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Could be water level, but it should be possible for you to reach 30 SPM if only for a moment.
Drop the level a few steps and do a 2k as I suggested above. Top up incrementally until you feel it’s challenging but not as hard as your current level.
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Definitely. There’s no real benefit from a high resistance. To get certain splits you will still have to put out the watts.
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means you also advocate for reducing the water level?
I don’t really know about water rowers but if more water = more resistance then I would drop it down. Gives you a better chance at good technique.
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thanks to all of you.
I reduced the water level from max/18litres to 16l.
Now I can easily row 23-28 strokes/min and can reach the 1:40min/500m quite well as Tempo workout. As sprint 30-32 strokes are managable as well.
Before with 18l I would have been close to collaps trying this.
thx again! I will now start over with the Petes 3week plan.
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Good to know as I’ve a Waterrower on order. Looking forward to a bit of upper body workout to compliment the cycling…maybe it will help me shift a few more kilos!
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Waiting for some feedback from the on-water rowers and experienced trainers over on the Concept 2 forum, but I ran across this rowing-specific watt levels table from former team GB rowing coach Terry O’Neill. The percentages are the upper limits for each training band.
For what it’s worth, these wattage bands reduce the intensity for UT2 and UT1 a fair bit – on the 2k training zone pace charts that are out there, my UT2 at peak shape last winter would have been 1:58/500. whereas this table would have me at 2:03/500. I’ll take s bit slower as it might help keep me from getting injured again.
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If anyone is interested Dark Horse Rowing is doing a month long challenge with 30 days of workouts. Currently on day 6 so I’m a bit late to post but here’s the link if anyone is interested.
https://darkhorserowing.com/rowvember
I’m inconsistent with rowing as I only get on the rower a few days a week. Figured the would be a good push to get on more regularly and not just for a warmup/cooldown to other workouts.
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VO2max on the rower (for a change) in the wintertime?
Here’s a video where a highly-decorated ex-rower talks about a VO2max workout he just did (short intervals). Just a casual discussion, so if you don’t have time to listen to someone ramble on, this is not the video for you:
…and here is another where he describes the workout in detail:
He stresses the need to hit the beginning of each repeat at full speed, rather than ramping it up after the repeat has already started. He progresses the workouts from 3sets x 6repeats to 2x15repeats over 4 weeks. So, from 12 minutes in the zone, up to 20 minutes at the end of the block.
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thx again for this link. I signed up as well but found the daily email workout suggestions rather uninspiring - signed off after some days again. Just nothing new and certainly not pushing me further.
@JulianFishtown Thx as well - I will have a look. I dont know how to get VO2 data on my “dumb” waterrower though
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Some workouts were definitely blah but there were a few good ones. Though to be fair, not very many ways to design intervals. Same can be said about bike/run workouts. I also don’t think the month was intended as a ‘training plan’ but rather more of a challenge.
I used the daily email to get me to be more consistent on the rower… which definitely helped. I think I only missed 4-5 days due to family/life.
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For rowing, I recently found this
Some decent (free) training plans and videos you can row along to. Much better than just staring at the Concept2 PM5 display 
. Also using ErgZone app to load the rowing workouts into the PM5.
I’m going to try a low volume cycling plan + 6 days a week of rowing this winter…for fitness only. If it gets to be too much, I’ll scale back the rowing…or AT will figure it out and scale back my cycling workouts.
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seems that not many rowing websites are aiming at waterrowers and almost exclusively at concept2 users. a pity.
Even though the RowAlong guy uses a Concept2 erg, his workouts are machine neutral. No need to even program a display unit. Just row along and match his pace. I’m doing a 2K plan and the split time (speed) recommendations for each row in the plan are based on a 2K time trial row done before starting a plan. Except for no AT, the approach is similar to TR…do 4 weeks of structured rowing, then retest and repeat.
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