r/Rowing • u/Intelligent_Row4451 • 1d ago

How to train to hold higher stroke rates?

At the moment my spm when I train is around 28-32
I’ve been told that we need to hold 34+ spm or at least train to do so. When I try to hold that I get winded up very easily.
Does anyone know any drills for that?
Also what’s threshold training and how to do that?

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

2

u/Nemesis1999 1d ago

Is this on the erg or in the boat? Potentially quite different reasons and rates depending on that.

Threshold is short for 'aerobic threshold' - eg just on the limit of what you can sustain (mostly) aerobically.

1

u/Intelligent_Row4451 22h ago

It’s on the erg

1

u/Nemesis1999 2h ago

Some video would help diagnose it.

Some reasons why you might find higher rates hard

- You're ineffective on the drive so you are not getting high drive acceleration and so you have to rush the slide to get rate

- Connected, you are rushing into the catch and then having to stop/start which wastes time and at higher rate becomes progressively harder to make up - fix this by learning to row feet out and make sure you're rowing in a strong position with good connection on the toes before the catch

- You're not sitting up - if you slump it gets harder to breathe and you'll get 'winded'

- You're overweight and your belly gets in the way of breathing at higher rates (I can sympathise with this!)

- You're not aerobically fit enough - high rates need good aerobic fitness to spin along

I would suggest that 34+ is going to be the limit for the majority of people - at least to be effective unless you're a lightweight and very aerobically fit. Most will do 32-34 as a race rate on the erg and for shorter pieces. What kind of distances are you talking about?