How much Indoor Rowing is needed per week?
Many rowing clubs have been re-opened their doors and access to gyms are not restricted anymore. Winter is gone in the northern Hemisphere and most of us are back in our boats.
Rowperfect met a local coach Joseph from Croatia and discussed with him what would be the appropriate weekly time an athlete should spent on an erg?
Joseph was very worried. He told me about a club which has givens 6 Concept2 Ergs to their U19 athletes to exercise outside the club gym. Most of the ergs were used at home. Why he was worried? He has looked at their training plans and discovered erg rowing every day. The intensity was different – from short 500 m intervals to 6000 meter workouts. And he noticed that the minimum erg rowing for the athletes was 30 minutes per day.
Joseph refers to a Study in Germany where athletes spent max of 10% of their annual training time on the erg. He also points out a FISA Training Plan where the recommended erg time per week in winter is ca. 2-3 times.
“I am just afraid, that the young athletes have overdone their training and will suffer from Rip Stress and Back Pain soon. We are not looking for weight loss. We are not doing this to burn calories or want to loose 10lbs in 5 weeks twice per yea. 5 times erging per week is too much. How much indoor rowing does it need to harm their back? Theses poor kids”
How much Indoor Rowing. How Hard Should One Row?
A more specific research was done by Jane S. Thornton et.all..
She and her team investigated on injuries while rowing and erging: The result:
“A prospective investigation of injury incidence in elite rowers found that the risk of overuse injury in general was associated with time spent on the ergometer, possibly explained in part by the observed greater lumbar spine flexion, longer stroke length, and higher force at the catch with a flexed spine.
So if you want to flatten that stomach, do your exercises and consider it a temporary project. But using the erg as a training tool for improving your rowing be careful. Twice per week is probably sufficient. With intensity variations. Do not overdue it and consult with your coach.
What do you think about this? How much erging have you done during the crises? Are you afraid of back pain? Let us know.
