New PRs on Vasa Ergometer

Thu, Jun  12, 2008 - By Mike Muha

We had another great session last week with the Vasa Ergometer. Competition was fierce!

Since is was almost 90F outside under bright sun, we pulled the Erg from the garage and parked it under a nice shade tree in the front yard. A cooling breeze and lots of water kept the session comfortable. (Adult beverages afterwards helped).

Here's Greg Worrel doing the first test, the prone doublepole:

Yvon Dufour shows the second test, doublepoling from the kneeling position. I noticed my heart rate was a bit higher when on my knees because I could engage my abs.

Greg goes at it. Notice he's actually off the heels of his shoes, trying to get more abs action:

We did a single pole test, then turned around, stood over the Erg and did the single pole test backwards, so the arm return had resistance:

Yvon has been racing canoes with Doug Heady the past couple years and wanted to try out the kayak / canoe option that comes as an option with the Erg. The pole that attaches to the Erg is good for kayaking, but doesn't quite replicate the motion of canoing. Luckily, the pole separates in half. Yvon discovered that using just half the pole felt very much like paddling, and he could easily get his cadence up to 70 paddles a minute (the "bottom" of the paddle connects to the pulley on the Erg):

 

Here's where we stand. Both Greg and I improved our times or distance this week:

Personal Bests on Vasa Ergometer as of June 7, 2007 (Best score in bold. *indicates improved score)

	Level	Mike	Hugh	Greg	Yvon
Fixed Distance		Time
100m Doublepole - prone	3	1:31*	1:27	1:21	1:33
100m Doublepole - kneeling	3	1:34	1:32	1:35*	1:39
100m Single Pole - prone	3	1:33	1:27	1:34	1:43
50m Single Pole recovery - standing	3	:48	:45	:45*	:53
Fixed Time		Distance
Doublepole - prone, 3 minutes	1	185m*	-	186m*	181m

 

Everyone felt like they had a good upper body workout...