VO2 Max - does rowing machine contribute?

RASCOTT1970 over 4 years ago

Hi all

I have a Concept 2 indoor rower with PM5. I do not run or use a bike with a power meter.

I noticed today a VO2 Max reading with "Wednesday" on it, on my Fenix 6 pro. On Wednesday I did a row. On the app I see my VO2 Max has been registering since I got the watch in July.

Does this mean that the rowing is contributing to a VO2 Max reading? I thought it was only running or cycling with a power meter that contrubuted to a VO2 Max reading.

thanks

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0 Klick over 4 years ago in reply to jsla7527

indeed you can do this, ak concept 2 exist as a datafield too, mentionned in my first post. You can then use the native app, with a custom field, still having access to real time load, etc

really, the situation is not that bad currently, the future fe-c support may do better things than it is doing currently too soon :)

0 RASCOTT1970 over 4 years ago in reply to Klick

just to make sure, are you sugesting I use Runalyze for my rowing sessions? Is this a garmin app/widget?

0 RASCOTT1970 over 4 years ago in reply to jsla7527

this is exactly what I do - i use the rowing activity on the watch (for training effect) then go into GC and edit it with the work distance and time (not elapsed) and I also overwrite the average HR with the C2 number (as I use a HRM belt so it should be more accurate than wrist HRM) and I add the C2 values for average watts and stroke rate.

It's all a bit manual but it's a nice little post-row ritual...

0 Marbuel over 4 years ago in reply to RASCOTT1970

I use ErgIQ app and I get all the training effect data and everything else on top (speed, power, stroke rate, distance) .. the only stupid thing is that it is as IQ data field and not the native field. It's a shame that Garmin does not allow IQ apps write those native fields!

The native Garmin rowing app is useless. But I hope Garmin will improve it and let the watch connect to Concept2 PM5 using FE-C. This would the the first step to getting VO2 max from rowing (or SkiErg). Why this is still not possible is beyond me! Concept2 machines give very precise power measurements. They are used for VO2 max tests.

0 RASCOTT1970 over 4 years ago in reply to Marbuel

cool, i might try ErgIQ this evening and see what it gives me.

0 KatRow over 4 years ago in reply to Marbuel

me too - I sooooo sooo want this! any news / updates?

0 KatRow over 4 years ago in reply to RASCOTT1970

and when you do that RASCOTT1970, does it generate a VO2Max value? that would be cool!

0 RASCOTT1970 over 4 years ago in reply to KatRow

No - as discussed in the posts above, rowing will not affect your VO2 Max score on the Fenix watch one way or the other. I have concluded that the VO2 Max score was estimated from a walk I recorded as an activity on 31 October. Most of the time I don't bother recording walks as activities unless they are proper hikes - I just leave it to Move IQ.

Bottom line - rowing has no bearing on the Garmin VO2 Max. If you're into rowing, there are other VO2 Max calculators you can use to estimate your VO2 Max based on your 2K score and your weight...like this one

https://www.machars.net/

0 2148689 over 2 years ago

You can track rowing using ergdata and then have that feed into Garmin connect and it will provide all the data that you need for calculations.