Photo courtesy of Concept2, Inc. (Click image for rowing technique)

The Concept 2 Indoor Rower, often called an "erg" machine, is a very popular training device for rowers when the weather is too cold to be on the water. This animated photo on the right illustrates proper rowing technique as demonstrated on a Concept2 rower. Click on the image to see a short description of each of the four phases of the rowing cycle from the "Catch," through the "Drive," the "Finish," and the "Recovery."

The Concept2 Display

The Concept2 has a microprocessor-controlled display that allows you to view the progress of your workout and, when you are finished, to look back on your performance in each of a series of 2:00 minute periods.

The photos below illustrate the display on the Concept 2. They are also interactive so that by clicking on the "Display" and "Recall" buttons you can see how the information changes. [Note: The latest version of the Concept2's Indoor Rower - "Model D" - has a new graphical display with more features than those discussed here. This page illustrates the display that is found on the most commonly installed rowers in use today.]

To illustrate how the display works, we will take you through a hypothetical 10:00 minute workout with a 2-minute warm-up period, 6 minutes of strong performance, and a 2-minute cool-down. [Note: This short workout is for illustration only. A more realistic workout might be 40 minutes with a 10 minute warm-up, 25 minutes of steady rowing, and 5 minute cool-down.]

Step 1: Set the Display Mode

Before you start your workout, press the Display button to select one of the four display modes. These are:

1. Time (minutes:seconds) per 500 meters - with average time/500 in lower left
2. Time (minutes:seconds) per 500 meters - with total meters in lower left
3. Watts (energy expended) - with average watts per minute in lower left
4. Calories (energy consumed) per hour - with total calories in lower left

You can see how to select the display mode by clicking on the Display button in the image below.

Step 2: Start Your workout

When you start your workout the Concept 2 will begin to display your performance using the parameters you selected above.

The photo below shows the most common setting of time per 500 meters with total meters in lower left. We are now 14 seconds into the workout and the initial stroke rate is 33 (too fast for a warm-up!). The machine has calculated that we are traveling at a speed of 2 minutes and 27 seconds per 500 meters and so far we have traveled 46 meters (about half of an American football field).

Workout Time ->    Speed ->    Distance ->

Step 3: Finish Your Workout and View Your Performance

When you finish your workout the Concept 2 will display your final performance data.

The photo below shows that the workout lasted 10 minutes and 10 seconds and that the final stroke rate was 22 strokes per minute. We were traveling at a final speed of 2 minutes and 17 seconds per 500 meters and we traveled a total of 2,512 meters (about 1.56 miles).

To see the performance in each of the five 2-minute periods, click the Recall button in the image below. To switch between the total meters display and the average time/500 meters display, click the Display button. (In this simulation, both buttons are active.)

Time Period ->      Distance      or       ->  Speed

Performance Table

The table below shows the data on this workout that was taken from the 2-minute periods obtained by clicking on the "Recall" button above. You can see that workout had three phases:

1. Phase 1: Warm up - In the first two minutes the average speed was about 2:03 minutes/500 meters and we established our workout stroke rate of 28 per minute.
2. Phase 2: Workout - The middle six minutes were pretty steady at just under 2:00 minutes/500 meters and a stroke rate of 27-28 per minute.
3. Phase 3: Cool down - The final two minutes were a cool down period with a lighter stroke (2:17/500) and a slower stroke rate (24).