RipRow: Tired lower back plus leaning in turns

Hey Lee,

I’ve done a several “big” workouts on the RipRow™ now. They usual consist of 60-90 minutes of Trainer / Rip Row — swapping 5 minutes on trainer at Threshold, then 5 minutes on Rip Row, set to 3, wash, rince, repeat. Usually 10 minutes of warm up and cool down as well.  When I do these bigger sessions I find that my lower back is pretty tight and a little sore the next day. Not to the point that I can’t function. Really just feels like I spent 4-5 hours moutainbiking the day before. I’m wondering if this is normal, or the result of bad form, or just my back trying to make up for a weak core?

The second question is with the cornering rows. I don’t feel very coordinated when I do these, and they feel super awkward. I guess my biggest question is, are you leaning the RipRow™ with your upper body? I think part of my is wanting to try and weight my outside foot, which makes the machine rock in the opposite direction of the actual corner, which makes the balancing feel awkward. Curious to hear your thoughts on it.

Thanks for making an awesome machine! It’s great to be able to do an indoor workout that makes me feel like I’ve had a big day on my mountain bike when mixed with the road bike trainer.

Really looking forward to having the trails dry out, so I can see how the bike feels after RipRowing. I haven’t ridden on dirt since I got back from New Zealand! 🙁

Gerrit

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