Brandon Oto wrote:Many, many years of rowers trying to explain how the stupid thing works has not made much of a dent in this.
How does it work?
The damper on a C2 is essentially its inertia; by analogy to a boat, which is the whole point, a higher damper is a heavier boat. So sure -- heavier means a harder workout, right?
Well, no, heavier just means you have to pull harder, which means you have to pull slower, which means you pull fewer times over a given period. It's exactly like shifting the gear on a bike. Would you rather peddle faster, with less resistance, and have to spin more times? Or would you rather have to push harder but go faster and farther for each push? I don't care, it's up to you -- but you'll cover the same distance with the same overall quantity of work either way. With the damper on 1 you can row at a million strokes a minute, but you'll also NEED to in order to reach a fast pace, and you probably can't shuttle your little assplatform quickly enough for a good split even though there's minimal resistance. With the damper on 10 each pull is like a deadlift and you'll need to make each one monstrously powerful, because you're not going to get very many of them. Either way the machine doesn't give a shit because the monitor is calibrated to take all this into account.
So pretty much everyone rows their fastest within a moderate damper range. I usually shoot for a drag of 135 or so (you can pull up the actual drag setting on the monitor, which is more accurate than just using the damper number since that can vary). A lot of people also prefer somewhat lower drags for longer distances.
Okay, that's what I thought. Didn't realize the @Fers were unaware of that!
You'd figure that @fitters would know all about drag factor given the look of their female athletes.
Interestingly, it is the lighter and shorter folks who often end up dialing up the drag factor. Increasing the drag factor can also help for short sprints (=<500m).
Drag is affected by many factors; the damper is the cumbersome lever you have to get things to your taste.
Athletes compete in sports. If you don't compete you're not an athlete. Bullshit made up competitions don't count.
Joe DeFranco doesn't seem to have any problems producing actual athletes.
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. - Helen Keller
Nafod,
I get what you're saying, and I'd say running a 100yd dash is also exercise as sport, and is easier than PL. Start and run.
My issue with @F and why it isn't a sport is that the events and the rules are not known beforehand. No other real sport does this (regardless of the "exercise as sport" issue), and the potential for cheating by knowing the events early could give a huge advantage, which is probably why no one else does it. It also nearly guarantees crappy standards and bad judging, as even the judges don't get any practice!
Almost forgot, as far as I know, other "real" sports are run by supposedly/apparently independent organizations...not by a for-profit cultish scam group that squashes dissent and makes sure everything works in their favor to make more $$. This is where @F will always fall short.
I guess if you've got the shoes, and the bumpers, you gotta have the chalk to complete the "elite powerlifter" collectors set!
I might be able to excuse the chalk if she'd helped herself out in other areas, like using a bar with center knurling, taking a narrower grip and actually gripping the damn bar, and not wearing a thick ass hooded sweatshirt over her t-shirt.
WGM's Andro/spank Friday pics are one of the highlights of my week.
I love the apologist tone in that bit. This is like the toddler soccer league where everyone gets a medal and a chance to eventually kick the ball into the goal. That bit is so pathetic it should be on the main page.
The pictures are starting to get kind of hard to find, aren't they?
The Bastard Son of the Shafman wrote:
The pictures are starting to get kind of hard to find, aren't they?
I don't think so. The trick is to scrounge up photos that everyone hasn't already seen. There's still hundreds of out of the way affiliates that are just as in love with the camera as the well-known ones.
I mean, look at this beefy chick:
Who knew that humble Crossfit Traverse City would have such a contender?
Fergie, meet Anadrol. Anadrol, Fergie. I'm sure you guys will get along just great.
