The Ultimate How-To: Set Your Monitor

How to… Set your monitor. 

Working with the Concept 2 monitor can guarantee one thing when writing programs for people – lots of questions about how to set the monitor!. So here it is the ultimate guide to setting your monitor for any given workout. 

First things first, let’s ensure you are aware aware of the buttons and where they are located. 

The buttons located on the right hand side of the monitor are identified as A-E from top to bottom. As we look at the monitor image here, if I wanted to look at any previous workouts I had completed for example,  I would turn the monitor on by either pressing the “Menu” button or gently pulling the handle. From here I would press the D button on the right hand side (4th one down) and from there I can choose how I would like to display the workouts. 

If I wanted to just row and not pre-set any workout then I would just press the A button and when I start rowing the monitor starts feeding back the time/distance/cals along with strokes per min and a variety of other metrics I can look at as I continue to row.

With that out of the way, let’s answer some of the most commonly asked questions by those new to the monitor and trying to figure out how to program what their coach has asked. Here we go!!

What if I have a preset distance I want to row? 

PM5’s have all the preset distances programmed in, 2km, 5km, 10km, 30mins and 500m / 1 min work rest intervals, all programmed under the “select workout” (B)

So if your session was 2km you would press (B) → (A) → (A).  

10km a would be (B) → (A) → (C) 

What about custom programmes? 

Once again each PM5 has 5 preset custom programmes loaded in to work through. They are: 30:30work rest, v1:00/1:00r 7, v2000m/3:00r, v1:40/:20r 9 & 42,195m.These are all a little different but each one offers a little more challenge than some of the standard programs. 

So for marathon row 42,195m, you would press (B) → (B) → (E). 

For intervals of :30/:30r (30seccs work:30secs rest) you would press (B) → (B) → (A). 

My coach has written 12 rds of 250m row / 3mins rest, how do I programme this? 

This is a great workout and one we see a lot in many different forms of work to rest intervals. The best way of setting this would be to use the “Custom Program” option on the PM5, followed by “Intervals → Distance”. 

(B) → (D) → (D) → (A).

This will take you to the option to adjust the distance and rest times you want. These can be adjusted using the (B & C) buttons along with the (A & D) buttons to move the flashing cursor. Once your ready you press the checkbox button (E) and you’re good to go. 

What about 5mins work 2 mins rest?
Exactly the same as above only this time we’re going to use “Intervals Time” as your option, 

(B) → (D) → (D) → (B). 

Once again this will allow you to adjust the time and rest you want using the (B & C) buttons along with the (A & D) buttons to move the flashing cursor. Once your ready you press the checkbox button (E) and you’re ready.

How do I programme variable workouts with different distances and rest times? 

Let’s imagine for this one you have 1000m row / 2:00mins rest followed by 500m row / 1:30 rest and finally 250m row.
For this you would select the intervals variable option under the new workout page. Followed by intervals variable. This allows you to choose what distance / time / cals you are rowing for followed by the amount of rest you want and then the next interval you can change rather than having the monitor think you are rowing the same distance with the same rest each round. 

Here’s how:

(B) → (D) → (D) → (D) → (C) This would set time intervals

(B) → (D) → (D) → (D) → (B) Would set intervals Cals

(B) → (D) → (D) → (D) → (D) For intervals time

You then get the same options as previously to adjust which distance/time/cals interval you are planning, followed by the rest you would like using the (B & C) buttons along with the (A & D) buttons to move the flashing cursor. Once your ready you press the checkbox button (E) and the interval will be set. You can then repeat these steps for any following intervals of cals/distance or time and when ready select “no more intervals” to be ready to row. 

Rowing for Calories, how do I programme this if I need to do another exercise in my rest time? 

Just like programming for intervals, you can set the monitor to row a specific number of cals on repeat but also set an undefined rest time (max of 10mins) to allow you to go hit another exercise and then jump back on the rower and rerow the same cals again. 

(B) → (D) → (D) → (C) 

Exactly as before to adjust the cals you want to use by pressing the (B & C) buttons, once this is done you can use the (A & D) buttons to move the flashing cursor. Once the box with “set rest time” is flashing you can then change this using the (B & C) buttons to change to “undefined rest time”. Once your ready you press the checkbox button (E) and you’re ready.

*Note when your rowing with undefined rest times you have to press the (D) button to reset the interval before it starts your next interval. 

The performance monitor (PM), is an incredible piece of kit that provides a whole range of information to both athlete and coach both immediately and post workouts for analysis later. The biggest hurdle is understanding how it all works and not messing up before you start. Take some time to really dig deep into the settings and have a play with some of the other functions like “games” or anything else. The more time you spend with this the easier it is to understand. 

Yours in fitness, education and mastering your monitor. 

Coach John