- Today is a look at one of my favorite apps,
don't mind this blank screen,
there's actually stuff happening in here.
Honestly this is my first look
'cause I want you guys to experience it
as I would experience it for you
experiencing it for your first time.
Maybe that was unnecessary and redundant.
Doesn't matter.
(hip hop music)
So for those of you that aren't familiar,
my name is Shane Farmer,
this is Dark Horse Rowing
and here we teach you everything
that you need to know about rowing
as well as the indoor rowing machine specifically,
so that you can perform better
and/or coach better on that machine.
Today we are taking a look at an app
that I have downloaded once before,
but I can't say that I know a whole lot about it.
That is LiveRowing.
LiveRowing has been around for some time.
I know that they have partnered
with many in the indoor rowing industry.
We're gonna start from scratch,
and we're gonna see what happens.
So, first off I just need to go to the app store,
and I am going to download the LiveRowing app.
Once you get, then you're gonna ask to log in,
go ahead and do that.
Once you are inside, you're gonna come to
what it looks like is a dashboard.
Now on my first time here what I'm seeing are,
so this is keeping track of I guess the metrics
that I've done in this workout?
I mean last time I used this was like, three years ago?
So I guess this is still holding
my data from, like way back when.
But, next we've got,
okay, so there's like a scroll bar on top,
where we have featured workouts,
shared workouts, workouts shared to me,
that is like, friends can share a workout with me.
My custom aired to me?
Don't know what that means.
My custom, so I can, I guess program custom workouts here.
And, challenges my custom?
Don't know what that is either.
Challenges received, featured workouts,
back to the beginning.
Okay, so then I've got challenges,
so there's join a challenge.
So everything is basically like rows,
and then each row has like a little swipe feature.
And then I have like a quick start,
so I can just, oh this is interesting,
all right so I can just tap up here,
and it's going to add to the number of meters
I guess that I can row oh,
so if I swipe to the other side that gives me a quick start.
Then I can hit just row as well,
and it basically just starts recording
from what I gather so far.
I go into community workouts, there are
all sorts of community workouts loaded in here,
I guess just ready for me to do?
So, that's cool.
I can just click one I assume it then
propagates it to my monitor and that's the thing
that kinda made LiveRowing stand out
when they first came out,
is that it takes over the monitor
and it will push a workout to your monitor,
program it for you, and that's a nice feature.
If I go into the menu, on my left hand side
I've got dashboard, profile, join a challenge,
featured workouts, community workouts,
my workouts, build custom, history,
join affiliation, metrics, wow there are like
more things here than I know what to select from.
What we're gonna do is test this
per what our usual test is,
1,000 meters on the machine,
and then we'll test it on the SkiErg,
and see if it connects there as well,
and see if it does any work there.
I mean, I know it's called LiveRowing,
not Live Skiing so, they're the same monitor.
Maybe they will work, maybe they won't.
We'll test it, we'll see if we can break it.
I guess, like if I'm looking through
my metrics and rankings, it shows me
that I am ranked 1,874th for my total workouts
that I've done on here.
Less impressive than I would have expected.
It shows me my total meters rowed.
Ooh, I'm 3,024th for that one.
Well, I guess that means I'm 3,024th
of all of the people who have registered for LiveRowing.
And I only have 16,000 meters that I've logged.
17,000 meters that I've logged.
I think back in the day, when they first started out,
I created an account and I did a bunch of,
like maybe a 10k and then two other workouts.
No, no, apparently I've done 13 total workouts,
that's what it tells me.
I've rowed for one hour and seven minutes total on this app.
And I am the 3,501th (laughing),
3,501th person, 3,000 I don't know
if you can see that, 3,501th.
Apparently I have a competitive record.
I've raced somebody and I lost.
I go into rankings, I've got my rankings here.
This is everybody from FM rowing,
to log, Concept2, oh Conor McGregor!
I could race Conor McGregor.
I wonder how I would do.
Let's give this thing a try, see what happens,
and we will get back with the results.
Let's give this a go.
So, for my first time pairing the app to the machine here,
I'm noticing that there's a fair amount
of delay in the phone on the app once things get connected.
I'm noticing that there are about 30-second pauses,
which it just takes a while for the app
to really give me any kind of feedback.
It's almost like an invisible pinwheel of death.
And being the rookie that I am,
I just, I'm still tapping the screen,
and that is certainly not helping the process,
because I thought that the phone had just frozen,
but really, it just seems to be taking its time.
I'm guessing it has to do with the fact
that it's also, it's acting as a third party
between my phone and the monitor.
I think that's probably the issue that's happening here.
So, I'm gonna row 1,000 meters.
That's our standard distance
that we use for testing the apps.
So I'm just gonna use a quick start here,
setting 1,000 meters on my own.
Now, I would recommend getting the foam mount.
It's something that it's fairly inexpensive,
easy to get a hold of.
I would encourage you to have this
for any of your apps with the rower,
it just makes it much easier to see your phone and use.
You put it right on top of the monitor.
The only issue that I'm finding
is that there's a problem with the mount
hitting the lock button on the phone.
So it can lock your phone,
when you're trying to see your app,
so I've come up with a fix,
which is just to offset the phone a bit,
and it takes it off of that lock button.
I've heard of the lock button actually
taking screen shots or selfies while you're on the machine,
but I haven't experienced that.
I've just heard that that happens.
I'm gonna pass the option for stroke rate guidance.
I'm not gonna set a pace boat.
I'm just tryin' to set that 1,000 meters.
I'm gonna hit next, which takes me to proceed to workout.
And then it tells me to sit ready.
So, I'm gonna strap in and sit ready for this workout
and let's get goin' on the 1,000 meters.
So, I just finished the workout.
It was 1,000 meters. (breathing very heavily)
I don't know what I was thinking.
I came out hard, and I just went for it.
(breathing heavily)
That was not the purpose, or the intent.
Just kinda happened. (breathing heavily)
So I got done with the workout,
and then the app proceeded to say
that it was loading data, pinwheeled for maybe,
I don't know, 25 seconds.
Now it's asking me if I wanna
recommend this workout to a friend.
1,000 meters for time, not super exciting.
Nah, I'd give you something more interesting.
So now it's giving me a breakdown summary.
(breathing heavily)
So, I rowed 1,000 meters.
My time was a 312.3.
.1 different from what I'm seeing on the monitor here.
A 136.1 average, that's the same.
My average stroke rate was 24. (breathing heavily)
And I took 79 total strokes.
Now apparently, I had 1,000 that I did at some point
at a 306.6 because it was making me
race myself the whole time.
And that time was a 306.6, 133.3 pace,
31 rate, I took 98 total strokes in that last one.
So, if I scroll side-to-side,
I guess it's giving me breakdowns,
200 by 200, interesting.
Can we get LiveRowing to be live skiing?
Let's find out.
All right, we're gonna see if we can
break this thing on the SkiErg.
Who knows if LiveRowing can be live skiing?
All right, turning it on, my monitor's on,
more options, turn wireless on.
Wireless is now on, on my SkiErg.
LiveRowing is now turned on.
I've disconnected my rower,
I'm scanning for Bluetooth devices.
Connection successful, okay, so we have a connection.
Now, I love you guys but I don't, well, okay fine.
I'm gonna do 1,000 meters, you talked me into it.
You guys, you're good training partners.
So, it still says 1K row on my monitor.
Man, this whole workout alone option
makes me feel really bad about myself.
Yeah, fine, I'm gonna work out alone.
Show, no I don't wanna see my personal best.
And I'm gonna set an optional pace boat
to 145 how's that?
Okay, let's give it a try, next.
It still says 1K row, sit ready.
(machine rattling)
It looks like it worked.
(breathing very heavily)
So, (breathing heavily) when I (breathing heavily)
selected automatically push the logbbook,
post workout now (breathing heavily)
it's forwarded me to the Concept2
logbook book login screen, and (breathing heavily) now,
I have to try to remember my login details.
What I'm looking for is to see
if it pushes to the Concept2 logbook.
Which I feel like it should, but I'm not seeing right away.
I'm just not seeing it anywhere in here,
that I could connect to the logbook.
That should be a simple connection
because ErgData does it, and I'm pretty sure
they use ErgData as the base.
I'm not seeing anywhere where if this
can connect to the Concept2 logbook.
Maybe I'm wrong, I don't want to misspeak here,
but I'm not seeing a logbook functionality anywhere.
Oh, here we go, found it.
Automatically upload to Concept2 logbook
inside the profile, it's a little bit hidden,
but it is here.
All right, that's good.
But I don't know where it's getting
my logbook information from.
'Cause I didn't login, but it says,
automatically upload to Concept2 logbook.
I'm gonna assume that when I set it up,
it asked me for my logbook info,
and maybe that's what's in there.
(breathing heavily)
Well, I can barely breathe,
but that's how you get logged in.
(breathing heavily)
I did it in under 145, thank you.
I got my workout summary!
Now, (breathing heavily) unlike ErgData,
it's not recognizing that I skied,
it's still just reading everything as row.
And, (breathing heavily) I would imagine, I don't know.
Let me try and login to the logbook
and see what it does pushing it to the logbook.
It asked for approval for LiveRowing
to take control of my logbook, gave it approval.
Told me to go back to LiveRowing,
I went back to LiveRowing, and I seem to be,
I think I broke the matrix.
Going back and forth with a constant pinwheel
saying refreshing logbook and getting logbook user.
Just flickering back and forth.
I'm assuming that's my fault for clicking away.
Uh oh, unable to upload results,
uh oh, unable to load results.
Okay I got that three times.
My workout's not showin' up, either of those thousands.
They aren't there.
Assuming they worked, but that I just didn't,
maybe I screwed up the order or something.
Okay so what's my main evaluation of this?
Let's say that number one, it's a pretty good,
like, glorified pace boat screen.
It definitely makes a much prettier interface
than ErgData, that's for sure.
It's main winning functionality that I am seeing so far,
is that when a workout is set on the software,
it will push to the monitor.
And for that, I give it big thumbs up.
That's a very useful, for us as coaches,
that's a very useful functionality.
Because it means that I can program a workout,
you don't have to know how to use the monitor,
and it automatically pushes the workout to your monitor,
automatically tracks what you need.
Now the only other thing I'm gonna check here,
I can connect Apple Health, Strava,
heart rate sensors, they make it prettier.
That much I think they do.
Purchase LiveRowing Connect, LiveRowing Store.
Huh, let's see what the store does.
So I can buy a cable, cradle, buy T-shirts,
buy rowers, heart rate monitors,
looks like it's basically an Amazon,
a few things you can buy direct from them.
And that's all I really have to say about LiveRowing.
So, I don't know, go give it a try yourself.
Do a workout, see what you think.
Let me know in the comments below.
(departing footsteps)
(approaching footsteps)
I said go try it.
Why are you still here, sitting in my garage?
Get outta here.