RowingCoach

I’ve been using this app for 3 years now and have logged 688 hrs on it, mostly on the water. I use it with an Apple Watch and iPhone X. It tracks my distance, time & strokes accurately. My only complaint was that sometimes it would take a minute to pinpoint my starting location via GPS, which would make it look like I’d started rowing in the road, about a mile from the starting dock. I have worked around this by starting my row in the app while I'm on the dock but a couple minutes before I enter my boat, then ending that short “row” and starting a new session when I actually start rowing. The first session seems to give the app time to pinpoint my location. I later go back and delete the “false” 2-minute workout, and the real workout shows the proper starting location on the map.

RowingCoach fills a real need for those of us wanting to log indoor rowing sessions via Apple HealthKit, especially when using an older machine lacking network or even Bluetooth connectivity. The key is taking full advantage of the Apple Watch, in detecting strokes and monitoring HR, and then integrating that with a mirrored display on the iPhone, to better monitor session parameters in real time and enable pausing as needed. Mark0Mark is correct that full, long strokes will optimize the accurate counting of strokes and hence stroke rate, although this may mean that variations in stroke rate, implemented by shorter strokes, may be harder to track accurately. Data output to HealthKit includes HR, active calories, and time duration, allowing compilation with other activities such as cycling, running, walking, etc. Session history includes rowing-specific parameters such as stroke count, pace and estimate of distance traveled. Let me add too that the developer is amazingly responsive to questions and suggestions, a real plus.

Sadly, my new FDF fluidrower doesn’t connect to anything, so this app was my answer to log workouts into Strava. The ability to manually edit distance for an indoor row is fantastic (still wont import the distance into Strava though. It just shows up as an “activity” with time and heart rate.” I’ve noticed, however, that the SPM has been way off as of late. I’m moving deliberately and my Apple Watch is recording the row, but end of workout it said in 8,000 meters I took 579 strokes at 19spm... when in fact I was averaging 28spm (manually counted for two minutes even)... which is more like 840 strokes. 19 SPM would be PAINFULLY slow... Is there a way to recalibrate the app on my watch? I’m not moving subtlety and the back & forth of indoor strokes should be an easy thing to keep accurate with the accelerometer.