Focus on getting the most power out of each stroke…….
When it comes to rowing, especially in a group class WOD setting. I believe focussing on 2 numbers can help people move the needle to get more power out of each stroke and the best out of their WODs. These numbers are your split time, centre screen, see 1:53/500m. And strokes per minute, bottom left, see 29 s/m.
So, what do these numbers mean?
Split time - measures the time it is going to take you to row 500M when the rower is set to meters. And how many calories you will row in an hour for Cals/hr. This is displayed as 2:00/500m and for Cals/hr see 623 Cals/hr. The harder we are rowing we will see the split time go down when the rower is set to meters e.g from 2:00/500m to 1:55/500m. And Calories per/hr go up when the rower is set to Calories e.g 623 Cals/hr to 900 Cals/hr. And vice versa for both measurements when we slow down on the rowing machine.
Strokes per minute – projects the number of strokes you are doing per minute at your current pace on the rower. See 29 S/M
Now, how to use these two numubers....
Split time - for our split time, knowing your 2k pace and 500m pace or 50cals and 10 cals pace will be extremely helpful. This will give us a good indication of what M split or Cals per/hr we should look to build up to in a few pulls and know that we can maintain powerful strokes for the duration of the row while maintaining good form. This is specific to longer duration rows. 500M + at 1:54/500m or 80 cals at 1200 cals/hr, consistency is key. For Sprints 500M or less we will go hard straight out the gate and use the M or cals/hr split to keep us rowing hard for the full duration of the sprint. Eg I might start a 500M sprint at 1:40/500M then drop to 1:42/500M and try to finish on 1:43/500M knowing I pushed the pace and kept the intensity up for the full distance of the sprint.
Strokes per minute - For a longer row we want to be pulling somewhere close to 23-26 S/M or whatever is maintainable for the distance required and specific to the athlete where we can generate a powerful stroke throughout the entire row. If I start at 23 S/M I should finish the row still holding my 23 S/M. Your focus here should be maintaining long powerful strokes for the distance required compared to doing more strokes per minute to get them M or Cals into the rower. For a sprint 500M or less 30+ S/M with only a small drop off in strokes per minute so finishing on 30 S/m The focus here is to consistently get repeatable, powerful strokes but also a higher amount of S/M as it's only a short sprint you will be able to maintain a higher power output.
So, what if you don't know your numbers?
A great place to start is adopting the S/M mentioned above. Then to start paying close attention to your split numbers in meters and/or cals at about 75% of the way through your row in a longer rowing wod. This should be a pace you can row at consistently. Then next time you jump on the rower in your warmups and wods try to build to your known split time and hold it all the way through the row. At first this may seem a bit on the easier side. However, you are building the habit to develop consistent powerful strokes and we can gradually increase the pace by 2/3 sec split for M and 50cals/hr for Calories with more time spent on the rower. we can continue to gradually increase until we notice our splits start to drop off the pace as we are not able to maintain such powerful strokes from where we start and where we finish.
I hope this helps some of you keen rowers out there?!
good luck!
















