The gym will be open for equipment pick up from 6am – 6pm today. There will be no classes or working out due to the Boston Fitness shutdown mandate.
Decoding The Erg Screen
Check out some helpful information from Goose on how to decode your Erg Screen!
Your time elapsed is the first number shown here and dictates how long you have been rowing for. In this case the athlete has been on the rower for 5:30.
The split is the number in front of the /500m. Your split changes with every pull of the chain and is essentially your pace. Here you can see it is at 1:45. This means if you were to keep up your current pace you would finish 500m in 1:45. For longer distances you can do the math yourself. For 1000m this pace would take you 3:30, 2k would be 7:00 and so on and so forth. On a longer row, your split should be slighter higher to allow you to maintain your pace. On a shorter row, you can push the pace a bit and achieve a lower average split time.
The current distance traveled can be found on the screen in meters. It essentially lets you know how far you have gone during your piece. Here the athlete has traveled 1008m.
The s/m (strokes per minute) is often overlooked but can be very important and will vary depending on the length of your row/workout. It can be found here in the upper right corner of the screen as 55. If you have ever witnessed someone rowing on the water you will notice that they perform long even strokes that take about one second on the way out, they then take their time to recover, about 2 seconds on the return, to ensure that the get the hardest most efficient pull possible.
This typically translates to a s/m of 22-28 and puts high anaerobic demand on the legs. Maintaining this s/m will be of the utmost importance to maintain form, efficiency and to prevent the athlete from gassing out prematurely in longer rows/workouts. In sprint workouts, less than 500m, you may find that you can complete the task before the anaerobic/aerobic pain sets in. As a result, during these sprints the s/m may venture higher than the 28 standard. The higher you go on the strokes per minute, the less efficient your pull becomes, the less you use your legs and the more likely you are to lose your breath before your legs get tired.
The force curve changes with each stroke and displays two important concepts:
- When you are providing power to the chain during your stroke.
- How much total power you are providing over the course of the stroke.
The force stroke is not pictured above. An ideal force curve is a left-leaning parabola without any abrupt spikes. It displays an early drive from the hips and hamstrings with distributed power throughout the stroke. If your curve looks like a tee-pee or a graph of ups and downs in the stock market, your pull is not consistent and could use some work to improve efficiency. Remember, efficiency is cool.. it means less work. Make sure you are getting tight in the catch with good posture, driving with your legs and pulling evenly throughout instead of just yanking on the chain.
Secondly, the total area under the curve is going to demonstrate the power you applied over the course of a stroke, which is going to determine the distance traveled and calories of work. A long, high-arching parabola, with lots of area underneath it, is ideal and will mean more distance and more calories. A low-lying curve would mean less power and not as much distance traveled.
Use these tools to work on the efficiency of your pull. In the next segment, we will discuss using power 5’s and power 10’s to get through the agony of longer lower intervals and set some new PRs!
At Home Warm Up
2 Rounds
1:00 Work/No Rest
-Mt. Climbers
-Single Leg V-Ups
-Single Leg Dead lifts (Use whatever equipment you have, BB, KB, Med ball, or odd object)
-Single Leg Glute Bridges (Switch Every 10)
Warm-up
Row 250 with Straps – First 125 – Legs Only, Second 125 – Arms Only
1 Minute Low Plank Hold
Row 250 without strap
1 Minute Side Plank with Single Arm Change Plate Pull Through Right Side
Row 250 with straps
1 Minute Side Plank with Single Arm Change Plate Pull Through Left Side
Mobility
Glute Rolling
Hamstring Rolling
Strength
E2MOM12
Tempo Deadlift
3-3-3-1*
2 Reps
*3 second negative
3 seconds on the ground
3 seconds up
1 second at the top.
**If you have only light weights available or an odd object go every minute and/or perform on single leg alternating minutes.
WOD
3000M Row or 1.5 Mile Run or 4.5 Mile Bike or 125 Burpees
E2MOM – 20 Sit Ups
ADV – Weighted Sit Up With Reach
Extra Work
Push Ups or Body weight Bench Press*
Strict Pull Ups
*Add weight to your body where possible for the push ups
ADV – Strict C2B
*not for time, take as much time as need be and try to complete in as few sets as possible.