Is it possible to track an indoor rowing machine session?

[jakewho]

Is it possible to track an indoor rowing machine session? If so, what are the best ways to do this?

[Parzival]

Waterrower does have a 'Bluetooth Commodule' (their name) that plugs into the back of the Series 4 version 2 monitor, that is supposed to allow connection with 'apps'. The problem might be the age of your rower machine. They had an earlier version of the S4, version 1, and it has a round DIN connector on the back, which they dropped. There are also a bunch of S3 (Series 3) monitors out there, and they are also not compatible with the Bluetooth shim.

Their S3 to S4 upgrade is $250.00, and the S4 V1 to V2 upgrade is $150.00. The Commodule is listing for ~$79.99.

(There is a $75.00 refund for the old S4 monitor).

[Jane]

Hello @noxious1010 

Even on a "dumb" rower that doesn't connect to an App, you should be able to record at a minimum your elpased time and heart rate data.  Check out this article on how to record indoor activities on Strava.

[Jane · Accepted solution]

Hi @jakewho 

Thanks for posting about this.  The short answer is Yes, it is possible to upload rowing activity data to Strava, but it depends on what kind of equipment you're using.  There are many rowers that do offer an integration with Strava.  For example if you're using a Concept2 rower, they explain on their site how to sync that data to Strava.

If you're using another brand, you can check in with the Manufacturer to get instructions or if you let us know what kind of rower you're using, I'll be happy to check into that.

A couple of links I would encourage you to check out:

General info on uploading activity data to Strava

List of third party Apps that integration with Strava

[jakewho]

I am using a WaterRower brand rower, but unfortunately it is not one of the ones with their SmartRow feature, so all of the data would have to come from my Apple Watch and not directly from the rower.

[Jane]

Hi @jakewho ,

Rowing is supported on the Strava App for Apple Watch.  

[jakewho]

I tried the rowing option on the AppleWatch Strava app yesterday and unfortunately it seems to be geared towards outdoor rowing and not indoor rowing, e.g., it doesn't try to count strokes or approximate distance rowed. Tomorrow I am going to try the AppleWatch exercise app to see if it does a better job and provides any additional data.

[noxious1010]

Yup, I am facing the same problem. Would really like to switch to Strava for my rowing machine sessions. And my machine is a dumb one, so no data auto-upload is passible…