Ask The Experts
What does the watt reading mean?
Michael Davidson: "I can't find any explanation of what watts are all about and why I have to know about them. Also, when I'm getting to the mad bit at the end, the sprint to get under the previous time, I find that there comes a point where the chain starts to thrash around because I'm going pretty darn fast. What am I doing wrong? Finally, side benefits for me of using the rower is weight loss and muscle gain. My girlfriend, however, is a bit concerned by the idea of getting big muscles and so doesn't use the rower as much as she would like. What's your opinion on this?"
Terry O'Neill: You don't really need to know about watts so you can leave the monitor on the 500m split setting. The machine measures the power consumed in watts and then from simple maths converts this to calories or speed over 500m. Watts are a very small unit and if you keep the machine on watts when you are rowing you will find that it is jumping around and so we recommend leaving the monitor on 500m split time where these small differences are averaged out. The reason the chain is jumping about could be because you�re throwing your hands away too quickly at the Finish and you�re moving about quicker than you should be. Alternatively, it could be because the shock cord needs a bit more tension. I think your girlfriend is worrying unnecessarily. First of all women do not have the same body structure as a man and to develop muscle definition is much more difficult. Secondly, to develop muscle definition the rowing machine is not the most effective way, you would need to pump iron. In your case I suspect that the weight loss you refer to is revealing and toning a muscle structure already quite well defined.
Back to Answers