- I'm Shane Farmer, this is Dark Horse,
and today, you're gonna learn the fastest way
to get better on this machine as a beginner.
(techno pop music)
Welcome to Dark Horse
where you are the hero of your own story
and we're the guide that gets you there.
Let's cut to the chase and get the point
where you are just SkiErging faster, happier,
and enjoying your workout so that this thing isn't quite
as much of a black pit of energy as it is for many people.
Let's just quit, just quit talking, Shane,
and just go right into it,
just right into the information,
straight to it,
no mincing words.
Away we go!
So to get started,
it's really important that first and foremost,
we understand how this machine works.
Basically, these handles move the flywheel
that's down there
and your body is the thing that moves the handles.
Therefore, this, this thing, the body has to move right
in order to make this move the flywheel.
Does that makes sense?
Once we grasp that,
the rest gets much easier from there.
Body moves the handle, moves the flywheel.
Getting started, you're gonna set your feet
in the right position
because that's gonna be your foundation for where you move.
Easiest way to do that.
Now, aside from outlying foot sizes,
if you have a generally normal foot size,
you can measure two feet back from the flywheel
and then you're going to place that third foot
at the line of your heel from the second foot
and that should put you about 24 inches,
roughly 18 to 24 inches behind the flywheel.
Then you'll set your feet at shoulder width.
All right, now that you have
your feet set in the right place,
the second most important part
is getting your handle set on the handles properly.
Now, first and foremost,
get the wide part of the handle adjusted
so that it's resting on the thick meaty heel of your hand
or right around the base of your wrist
slash the connection to your hand.
Then your elbows are gonna be bent at 90 degrees
with your hands slightly above the head.
The important thing to imagine is if I told you
that you had to hold a beach ball in front of your face
and couldn't use your hands, that essentially would create
the catch position on this machine
because that's a normal thing that I would ask you to do.
Next, to get the flywheel actually moving,
remember, body, handle, flywheel,
you're gonna make an aggressive downward crunch.
Now, this is first and foremost the movement that you make.
You need to lock in and crunch quickly
and that snap of a movement
is what is going to establish tension on the handle
and begin moving it downwards.
You don't want any of this,
I like to call it the Michael Phelps technique, right?
None of this getting here to come down and around.
That's an inefficient movement pattern
where you're spending energy in that rotator cuff
just trying to bring the handle up and down.
Instead, by being here
and making a quick active crunch motion down,
you're gonna begin that downward momentum.
Now, it's very common to see people squatting really low
into the stroke or using that Michael Phelps technique.
Just understand that the majority of the power comes
from creation at the top quarter of the stroke,
as opposed to the bottom half
and that's a really important distinction to make.
Place your efforts on getting power up top
rather than power at the bottom.
Then as you're following through the stroke
from that aggressive crunch,
what you're gonna have happen
is that the hands travel right by the pockets.
The important distinction here
is that the hands travel by the pockets
as a byproduct of the downward momentum,
not because we're trying to establish a tricep extension.
A good way to note whether or not you're getting this right
is you should feel like you're putting your weight
on top of the handles which creates a downward push
versus some kind of a squat or getting behind the handles
because that results in a pull
and we always want to, just like in the rowing stroke,
be thinking about a push, not a pull.
From there, it's an easy stand up.
You don't have to travel this long distance
because you've been squatting down
and your arms aren't in this crazy outward position.
Your hands are just by your pockets so it's an easy stand.
At this point, when you come up,
think about coming up nice and easy.
You shouldn't be under a whole lot of tension
because you can't work on the machine.
So come up nice and easy
and you're welcome to come up onto your toes a little bit.
The important distinction is that you don't come up
to your toes because you're trying to do a calf raise,
you come up to your toes as a byproduct
of that upward momentum that you've created
and you just happen to float for a moment up on the toes.
That will also give you the opportunity as you turn around
to put your weight on top of the handles
and create that downward momentum
and push into the handles again.
One final note that's really important to make,
and this also comes with rowing as well as the SkiErg,
don't be in a rush to overextend
at either the top or the bottom.
Get as tall as you can get within your own anatomy.
Stretching outside of that
is going to make you more inefficient
because you're gonna have to work
to get just back to the starting phase in order to do work.
So stretching taller is not always going to be the solution.
Instead, search to find your tallest good position
instead of just your tallest position, period.
Those are the basics
but what about some of the smaller details
because I know there are two primary
that tend to come up a lot.
The first is where should my eyes go?
And that's an excellent question.
Something that you should be paying attention to
is what your eyes do.
For me, personally, and this is a personal discussion,
I like to try and keep my head relatively neutral
and I try to keep my eyes relatively fixed on the monitor
because that keeps a nice sight line and I don't get dizzy.
I find that if my eyes come up with my body
and down every time, it actually starts to make me dizzy
or a little bit motion sick
so I try to fix my eyes on the monitor
but I try to keep my head neutral
so that I'm not craning my head
and putting my spine into,
or my cervical spine into a poor position as I'm skiing.
The second question is what about damper setting?
How do I choose the right damper setting?
I wanna start by making a note.
If you take a look at the flywheel on the Concept2 SkiErg,
especially the new black versions,
you'll notice that there is a plastic sheath
over the flywheel.
What that does is it limits airflow
in and out of the flywheel,
essentially making any damper setting lighter
than the same damper setting on a rower
because it's limiting air supply.
What that tells us is that there's a need
for a lighter damper on this,
mostly because our shoulders are a smaller
and not as strong joint as our leg, our knees, and our hips.
And therefore, we want to make sure
that we are keeping a lighter load
as we move through the stroke.
My suggestion?
Play with something in the middle range.
Think two to six is generally a good range.
The higher you go, generally,
the harder it's going to be on that joint
to be able to support over a prolonged period of time.
It also is not going to allow you
to be quick and light with the handles
which is the type of technique that you're going to want
when you are thinking about skiing properly.
And the final question
that I would say a lot of people are thinking
is what about stroke rate?
Well, it's definitely higher
than it's going to be on the rower.
With this quick turnover stroke rate,
you could expect a stroke rate
anywhere from 40 to 65 strokes per minute and that's normal.
That's not out of range.
I would say if you're down at a 30,
that's actually abnormally low.
If you're up at a 70, you're obviously turning over
a lot faster than you need.
Shoot for somewhere between a 45 to 60
and you'll be in a generally good range
for stroke rate on the SkiErg.
And what else did I miss?
I'm sure there are plenty of questions.
If I didn't address it, drop it in the comments below
because I wanna know what you wanna know,
'cause then I can help you know
and then I'll know and you'll know
and we'll all know together.
And there you have it!
The technique for SkiErg is really not that hard
but just like the rower, it's a learned behavior.
It's not a natural movement.
You just have to learn how to put yourself in space and time
at the right place at the right time
to make this handle move that flywheel.
So if you enjoyed this video
and you found that the message made sense for you
and you wanna be the hero of your own story
and you're looking for a guide in a community
to help you get there, then that's us,
that's the Dark Horse community.
Hit that subscribe button to join the community
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And as always, guys, I love you all
from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you for tuning in
and we will see you on the other side!
(techno pop music)
Hey, thanks for watching the video.
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(techno pop music)