New to Rowing

[luckylindy]

Thought that I had the form down, but have indisputable evidence that I was wrong. Very wrong. Did around 15k meters three days in a row at a decent clip and today my lower back is locked up like a 90 year old arthritic man. I'm shuffling around, taking 10x longer to do normal tasks and need to figure out why I'm not getting enough drive from my legs and why I feel like I dug a 50 foot deep hole with a shovel without ever bending my legs???

I had the same issue for a while. For me, it was a matter of rowing too much too soon (i.e. 10k per day, 6 days a week, when I had never rowed before), and also having back muscles that were weak in comparison to my legs (I was a competitive runner).

I also dropped the Drag Factor down to ~115/120 (setting of 4 on my model D) except when doing 500's, and usually keep the monitor on the force curve since I can immediately see if I'm screwing up my form. I found that when the curve is spiked for a significant period of time, my back hurts. If I keep a more rounded/gumdrop shape, I usually felt good. See http://www.concept2.com/us/service/moni ... forcecurve for more info (click the 'How do I change the shape of my Force Curve?' link).

[aharmer]

I'm not sure the low back sorness is completely due to bad technique. With proper technique your lower back will get a lot of work erging. Most people don't typically do exercises that work the lower back so a few 15k pieces done with perfect technique could still put you in the hurt locker. That said, I'm sure posting a video will do wonders for your technique so that should still be the top priority. Good luck, hope you're getting around better soon!