152 years ago, the first fly wheel was sent spinning, and it has been spinning ever since. Once used as a tool to exercise young ‘gentlemen’ and now used as a measurement of physical strength and endurance, the rowing machine certainly tests all. This year, hundreds of rowing machines will be lined up in Prague in a search to find who has mastered it, an execution requiring both technical skill and physical ability. The O2 Universum Hall will see 126 different events take place across two days, including lightweight, openweight and PR1, 2 & 3 categories.
The initial form of a rowing machine was intended to maintain the form and fitness of a rowing stroke, but indoors. It allowed for athletes to continue their training on days where the water was either un-rowable or they could not access the equipment necessary to get out. Akin to early boats, the rowing machines also had fixed seats, allowing only for arm and body swing (no wonder non-rowers always assume rowers have strong arms only). However, these were later adapted with a sliding seat to include the leg drive, allowing for a longer stroke (Bloomsbury, 2012, p.11).
As the sport of rowing developed, so did its accuracy, and thus the rowing machine started to become a means for testing. It became important to see how much force an athlete could exert on the machine, which gave coaches a useful insight and allowed them to adjust their boats or line-ups appropriately. In the 1940’s the need for scores and testing initiated the making of a new type of rowing machine; initially developed in Australia, the ‘ergometer’ was made. The name was derived from the Greek word’s ‘ergon’ – meaning work – and ‘metron’ – meaning measurement. Now the ‘ergometer’ is widely known by athletes across the world as the ‘erg’, an easy abbreviation for the rowing machine (Bloomsbury, 2012, p.11).
As the sport of rowing developed, so did its accuracy, and thus the rowing machine started to become a means for testing.
Frank Cotton, a pioneering sports psychologist, believed that there was too much emphasis on style in rowing when it was much more of a power, strength, and endurance sport. After all, you’re not judged on how aesthetically you can row but rather how fast you can make a boat move. The introduction of ergs allowed for those athletes with a visually unflattering style to have a chance to prove themselves to be physically capable.
The world rowing indoor championships gives those who are physically exceptional on the erg to have their time in the limelight. In 2018, World Rowing inaugurated the first Indoor Championships and, since then, the event has developed and thrived with incredible athletes regularly gracing the world stage. To keep up with the ongoing development of indoor rowing, many training tools and devices have been developed. A tool that is fast emerging within the indoor rowing world is EXR; a virtual rowing experience designed to help athletes through any type of training session.
EXR was launched in September 2021 and has since expanded; thousands of keen athletes have used the platform to improve their ergometer experience. To get a better insight on EXR’s emergence within the rowing world, I spoke to Maxim Van Ginneken, head of business development at EXR. According to Maxim, “EXR provides goals and achievements for rowers to work towards” and aids “elements and community efforts such as weekly group rows and events”. This is because EXR makes it possible to connect with others from around the world through a virtual 3D experience, helping to grow connections and group performance.
An athlete who has seen his performance and fitness increase through the use of EXR is Ward Lemmelijn. Ward is certainly someone to keep an eye out for in 2024, having stamped an impressive time of 5:39.7 in the open men’s 2000m category in 2023. Ward has since integrated EXR into his full-time training schedule of 13 sessions and 25 hours per week. Rowing on the erg can be tedious but Ward finds that “with the right music and the EXR app, you get into a kind of flow that’s hard to get out of”. Staring at an erg screen whilst watching the time decrease and the distance increase for hours is tough but with the right motivations it can “certainly be more enjoyable” as Ward puts it.
As well as being entertaining, EXR has some great analytical tools which have helped Ward explore strategies and formulate his race plan. Ward has found the tool very advantageous to his training and explains how “EXR helps to perfectly track and analyze my training sessions, this way, I can aim for a new personal record!” and beat the already outstanding time of 5:39.7. It can be difficult to create a race plan without being too conservative or over stimulated, so EXR is important to aid athletes in mapping out what is physically possible considering the data from their training.
Ward has also seen his biggest rival, Oliver Zeidler, enhance his training experience with EXR. When it comes to competition though, may the best man win.
Maxim and his team will be present at WRICH to watch the racing take place and inform the participants and spectators of this exciting new direction that indoor rowing could take. There will also be some small competitions and group rows taking place to provide additional entertainment to this exciting event. Undoubtedly, it is prosperous to see what direction indoor rowing could take with the continuous advancement in technology. In the future Maxim hopes to “create a hub where people from all around the world can come together and share their passion for rowing” and join people from all across the world together through their passion for rowing.
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