What is an Ergometer?

Ergometer, erg, indoor rower: same thing

Three names cover one piece of equipment. The technical one is "ergometer", borrowed from Greek ergon (work) and used in coach education through the NCCP, in sports science journals, and in the Rowing Canada Aviron testing manual. The casual one is "erg" - what anyone who has rowed in a Canadian boathouse actually says: "60 minutes on the erg," "her 2k erg is 6:48," "the ergs are booked solid at five." The fitness-industry name is "indoor rower" or "rowing machine", which is how it appears on a Costco price tag. All three refer to the same kit: a sliding seat on a rail, a footplate with adjustable straps, a chain-mounted handle, and a flywheel that resists the pull.

How an ergometer works

Each stroke pulls the chain, which spins the flywheel. The flywheel resists through air (Concept2), water (WaterRower), magnets (Hydrow), or some blend of the three. Sensors inside the housing time how quickly the flywheel decelerates between strokes, run the work-done calculation, and convert the answer into metres rowed. Everything the PM5 displays - split, watts, calories, distance - falls out of that single deceleration measurement happening hundreds of times per second.

On a Concept2, the lever on the side of the flywheel cage is the damper. It runs from 1 (light, snappy acceleration) to 10 (heavy, slow acceleration) and changes how each stroke feels. It does not change the score. The number that actually matters for performance is drag factor, calculated by the monitor under More Options and adjusted automatically for damper position and the air density in the room. Most Canadian boathouses run cold and dry through winter, which pulls drag factor higher at the same damper setting than a humid summer afternoon would. Use the erg pace calculator to convert any 500m split into watts, calories per hour and projected race times.

The Concept2 standard

The Concept2 RowErg (previously sold as Model D and Model E) has dominated Canadian rowing since the mid-1980s. It is the machine used at the World Rowing Indoor Championships, the Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships (CIRC), every Rowing Canada Aviron and provincial selection trial, and at every U Sports varsity programme from McGill to UBC. What gives it that position is design longevity. The flywheel, chain, monorail, handle, footplate and damper have stayed essentially identical for decades, and the calibration is consistent enough that a 2k score from 2008 compares cleanly against a 2k score from 2026. That continuity is why coaches can compare a fresher across years and why university recruiters can read a high-school score from anywhere in Canada without asking for context.

WaterRower, Hydrow, NordicTrack and Echelon build machines for the home fitness market. None of them calibrate to the Concept2 standard. A 2k personal best on a WaterRower is not directly comparable to a 2k on a RowErg, and Canadian club coaches, OUA selection panels and Rowing Canada Aviron testing administrators will only accept Concept2 scores when it counts. If you want a score that travels, the machine has to be a Concept2.

What the readouts mean

• 500m split: the time the monitor projects to cover the next 500 metres at the current rate of work. A 1:45 split means the next half-kilometre would land in 1 minute 45 seconds. This is the primary pacing metric in Canadian rowing and the number coaches write on the whiteboard.
• Watts: instantaneous power output. The Concept2 formula is watts = 2.80 / (split_seconds / 500)^3. A 1:45 split produces roughly 268 watts; a 1:30 split produces roughly 425 watts. The cubic term is what makes the climb hurt.
• Calories per hour: approximately watts x 4 plus 300 for basal metabolism. Useful as a session-to-session training-load proxy. Not a dietitian-grade fuelling figure.
• Stroke rate: strokes per minute. UT2 (low aerobic) sits at 18 to 20, UT1 at 20 to 24, anaerobic threshold at 26 to 28, race pace climbs from 32 to 38.
• Distance: metres of work calculated from flywheel deceleration. Not literal distance. The machine is not moving.

How Canadian rowing clubs use ergometers

Canadian clubs lean on the erg harder than clubs in milder climates because the calendar forces it. Across Ontario and Quebec the river is unrowable from late November through early April. In the prairies the season is shorter still. Even on the south coast of Vancouver Island, where Elk Lake and the Gorge stay open through most of the winter, ergs carry the morning trials. So the erg is not a winter substitute - it is the platform that holds the OUA fall trial block, the winter Royal Canadian Henley build, and the spring sprint preparation together. It gives coaches a controlled environment for the standard fitness tests (2k, 5k, 6k, 30 minute, 60 minute), and it feeds crew selection alongside seat-racing and on-water timed pieces.

Erg scores belong in the squad management system next to on-water data, body weight, attendance and injury notes. Recording every test against the right athlete, plotting the trajectory across a season, and comparing against age-adjusted and weight-adjusted standards is what makes selection decisions defensible when a 1st VIII seat comes down to two athletes. Row HQ's coach tools hold erg scores against each rower's profile so coaches can see who is climbing fastest going into CSSRA week or Royal Canadian Henley.

Erg testing protocols

Standard ergometer test pieces used across Canadian competitive rowing:

• 2,000m (2k): the headline fitness test, matching the Olympic race distance. Maximum effort. Elite men land between 5:40 and 6:00; elite women between 6:30 and 7:00; competitive OUA and CSSRA 1st VIII rowers between 6:15 and 6:45.
• 5,000m (5k): aerobic capacity test. 17 to 19 minutes for competitive senior men, 19 to 21 minutes for senior women, longer for juniors and masters.
• 30 minutes: distance covered at sustained anaerobic threshold pace. Standard winter benchmark for tracking aerobic base across the long Canadian off-season.
• 60 minutes: the long aerobic test, typically rowed at UT1 or UT2 pace. Common in November and December training blocks at university programmes.
• 4 x 2,000m or 8 x 500m intervals: race-specific power and recovery testing. The 8 x 500m piece is the standard sharpening session in the final weeks before a 2k trial.

Each test gets logged with the rower's body weight on the day (lighter rowers carry a power-to-weight disadvantage that the World Rowing weight-adjusted formula corrects) and the drag factor used. Without the drag factor and weight in the record, a score is hard to compare against itself.

Indoor rowing as a sport in its own right

Indoor rowing has grown into a discipline of its own, no longer just a training tool for on-water athletes. The C.R.A.S.H.-B Sprints in Boston (running since 1982) is the original international indoor 2k championship and Canadian crews travel south for it every February. The Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships (CIRC), the World Rowing Indoor Championships, and Concept2's annual online challenges - Holiday Challenge in December, Fall Team Challenge, the Million Metre badge - fill the calendar with events that need no water and no boat. CrossFit gyms and commercial fitness clubs across Canada run their own erg leagues, pulling in participants who would never set foot in a boathouse.