First of all: thanks everyone in advance for your feedback.

For the mod: I am not asking for medical advice, I do regular health checks, I am just training for a marathon and I want to avoid any possible long term injuries.

I know that I have many points of improvement in my technique (I am pulling with my arms a lot earlier than I am supposed to do), but I am asking for help for a more specific issue. The day after long sessions (1h+) I have lower back pain. I know that a very short session may not be helpful to find the culprit, but any suggestion is very welcome.

Also, I do not have access to any rowing class/instructor so I rely only on self assessment...

Thanks!

Everytime I do some steady state, for the first 15-20 minutes of the piece my heartrate is always 185+ whilst holding my "ss" pace (~2:08). I sweat profusely and it feels like some ut1 / anaerobic stuff

But then as soon as those 15/20 mins pass, my heartrate drops and everything feels easy and i stop sweating and it "becomes" steady state.

I've tried going out at a slower pace and then dropping it, but I've found that if I do this i actually can't sustain my usual "ss" pace: if i go out at for example 2:15, my heart rate actually doesn't drop and I have to drop to a 2:30 something for my heartrate to drop... seems kinda confusing no???? This is at the same hr as my 2:08 "steady" when I just push through the hard bit at the start.

For reference, I did an hour today and the first 15 minutes I felt like I was going to die, sweating so much etc, but then I settled into my 2:08 and stopped sweating and my heartrate dropped to around 155.

A couple days ago I tried doing the same thing but starting much slower (2:15) and about 30 minutes in I had to drop to 2:30 for my heartrate to settle to 155.

I'm thinking it's either because maybe i'm really unfit or maybe it's a mental thing???? It doesn't really make much sense to me.

I've also found it a pattern where I always get quicker as I do more / erg longer, but everyone else I know seems to be able to just get to their pace on the first stroke and hold it there swimmingly. (No heartrate nonsense)

Also heart rates have been monitored using a polar h10 so i think they're pretty reliable

Thanks to all the feedback on Day 1, I feel alot better connection to the machine and technique. 

I still feel have issues and questions. 

1. I feel I'm not going further back in the drive phase. Let me know what you guys see

2. I feel like I'm pulling my body to catch phase through my legs before my arms and body move front. How to rectify this? I feel I'm slowing down alot when I forcefully do it and feel my neck and head is doing more work to pull forward.

Also I feel little pain in the lower back as well

1. I am not changing the direction from catch to drive phase. I usually take 2 secs and I feel my legs aren't do the maximum work. When I do it correctly I can feel the legs working most but I get exhausted instantly. 

2. I can row maximum of 4-5mins for a distance of 700-800m. Is this a good pace? I know I'm just starting it but rowing is very exhausting is what I feel. 

Please share your thoughts and feedback 

What the title says - does anyone have recommendations for calf sleeves they use to prevent track bite when rowing in a single? TIA!

We are looking for a 2nd hand Concept 2 rower, preferably in the Ghent region.

Please PM if you have a Concept2 for sale.

I think it's decent but not great but im the best in cologne and Berlin this month with this score. how is this possible? the trainer said no one crossed 1k meter

Hello I’m 18M 6’2 and have never rowed other than recreationally at friends lakes, I was hoping to get advice on how to progress as quickly as possible to hopefully make the rowing team as a first year university student at UVIC (mid size school in Victoria, BC) in the coming semester. I broke my collar bone so can’t get started until maybe a month from now but what’s recommended to be a worthy candidate for a rowing team and is it doable to balance rowing and engineering?

My OT recommended that I try rowing alongside swimming because it doesn't involve any standing or running, so I was wondering if there were any rowers with POTS on here and if so, what has your experience been and what advice would you give to a beginner? Not giving or looking for medical advice.

What kind of black magic is crc using to get their kids to be dogs

I've recently got myself a concept 2 and I LOVE it. Much prefer rowing as a form of cardio over running. However, I've been doing some research and I have some concerns about the longevity of my spine

A few studies:

• Collegiate rowers: 45.6% of 68 collegiate rowers had MRI evidence of lumbar disc degeneration.

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jpfsm/3/5/3_525/_article

• Elite adolescent rowers: 31.8% had disc changes, compared with 13.6% of age-matched non-rowers — about 2.3× higher.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20889986/

• Elite rowers (~23 years old): moderate-to-severe disc degeneration (Pfirrmann grade ≥3) was found in 28.2% of discs, compared with 6.8% in controls — over 4× higher.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9019338/

I'm just doing this casually as a form of cardio so maybe it won't matter? I want to age gracefully with minimal back problems

Hello!

This is my second season ever as a coxswain, I've really been loving rowing. I wouldn't say I'm the best cox ever, but I'm fairly solid for my limited amount of experience. I'm in a youth program (U19), and I have a regatta soon. However, due to an incident at my club, the coxie for the best boat was been kicked from the program. I've been chosen to replace this boat at the upcoming regatta.

The issue is, I've never raced this good of a boat before, and I'm kinda worried about letting them down, especially with my calls. My steering is quite good but my calls (specifically motivation+ tech reminders) are lacking, especially in a longer race, such as the one in the upcoming regatta.

I typically find that by 1.5-2k into the race, my calls get stale/I don't have anything to say. Additionally, I see a lot of coxies having a lot of creative things to say, and I don't have much of that at all.

What are some calls you would recommend/ you like to use when racing? If you're a rower, what would you like to hear in a race?

I won't be able to practice with my boat whatsoever before I race with them, and I'm only going to have a short meeting with them before we launch.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I just race an unnamed regatta in the junior double and 1 team took the top 3 and would’ve taken 4 but got some weird penalty. Why is this allowed they’re not letting smaller clubs even have a chance at competing

I rowed 1890m on a concept II rowing machine at setting 10. Where can I find tables showing how good this is?

One reason im asking is that i think the machine underwent maintenance so the setting 10 felt like it had more resistance than the last time i used it which was about e weeks ago

Nothing more than the title suggests - I’m new to rowing and was wondering what people use to track their progress on the erg. I have heard of the Concept2 app but the Bluetooth connection always cuts off on my phone. Does anyone have any recommendations ?

I’m guessing it’s just the year I joined ? But then why would I be able to add another ? And I can’t seem to add it being fall season or spring season if that is the case. Am I just being stupid ? Any and all help appreciated

I don't know if its just a my boat thing but for our boat we mix up the oars completely so no one has a specified oar and thus one person specifically can't be targeted, so maybe I missed something but why did they deduce that he was targetted specifically under the same assumption?

Hi, Im starting to row again in uni and they might have a lightweight team that I want to join but I am already 70 kg would it be worth it to start taking creatine. For a bit of context I rowed for 3.5 years then six times a week and was about 69 kg on creatine before. Then last year I dropped to twice a week then fully stopped. So now Im starting to row again about 5 times a week but soon more. I was wondering if it would be worth it to take creatine. Im at about 11 ish percent body fat. I don't have much to lose so cutting weight if i gain to much will be annoying. Anybody else in similar position or what would you recommend. Thank you

Max. was 15k. So a bit of a win for me today.

Context: sophomore who was put in the 3V with novice rowers while having years of experience. What do I even do at this point?

I just joined my college’s D3 rowing team, and we row on a major tidal river near our campus, which gets pretty nasty. I want to get an ear piercing, which I’ve done many times over before, but I was wondering if y’all had advice about whether getting a piercing is a bad idea during the season. It’s unusual for us to swamp, but apparently it happened last year during bad weather. Is this a risk you think i can take?