Concept2 PM5 Monitor, ErgData and the Logbook: What You Get Free

The five screens. Each button on the right switches to one: All Data, the Force Curve (a graph of each stroke, the best technique coach on the machine), a PaceBoat to race, a Bar Chart and Large Print for when you can't see straight. The number that matters most is your pace per 500 meters, the "split". Learn what yours is on an easy row and on a hard one, and you can read every workout from it.

Workouts. Just Row starts the moment you pull. Beyond that you can set a distance, a time or a calorie target, build intervals (up to 50 of them, by time, distance or calories, with rests), or pick one of the five standard pieces: 2,000 meters, 5,000, 10,000, 30 minutes, or 500 meters with a minute's rest. It stores more than 1,000 workouts.

The games. There's a Fish Game, Darts and Target Training, all based on holding your pace or power. They're surprisingly good for teaching kids, and for teaching yourself to row at an even pace.

Heart rate. The PM5 connects to Bluetooth and ANT+ heart rate straps and shows your heart rate on any screen. Concept2 sells the Polar Verity armband ($104.95), the Polar H10 strap ($105) and the Garmin HRM 200 ($79.99), but most straps you already own will work.

What it adds. Every row saves to your online Logbook automatically, and from there to Strava or Garmin Connect if you connect them. It makes programming complicated interval workouts easy and saves your favourites. It shows your workout in bigger, clearer layouts, with a pace graph and a virtual boat on a course (the Real Time Loop). Afterwards you get a breakdown of every interval, your stroke graphs and your heart rate zones.

My favourite part: the Workout of the Day. One tap and today's session loads, with a leaderboard of everyone else who rowed it. On the days I have no plan, that's my plan, and it's the nearest thing a Concept2 has to a class.

World rankings. Each season (1 May to 30 April) you can rank on standard distances and times, from 100 meters to a marathon, 1 minute to 60, against people your age, gender and weight. Pieces from ErgData count as verified automatically. You don't have to be fast to enjoy it; seeing yourself move up the list for your age group is motivation enough.

The Million Meter Club. Certificates at 1, 5, 10 million meters and beyond. It sounds silly until you're 40,000 meters short and find yourself rowing on a Sunday.

Challenges. Concept2 runs them all year, and you don't sign up; logged meters just count. The big one is the Holiday Challenge: row 100,000 meters (or 200,000) between American Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. This year it runs from 26 November to 24 December, and more than 15,000 people finished the 100k last year. There are team challenges too, in January, March to April and September to October.

What Concept2 recommends: start at 3 to 5. That's where I row nearly everything. Higher settings make each stroke more of a strength effort and tire your back faster, which is why everybody who cranks it to 10 on day one (I did) ends up sore.

Drag factor is the number serious rowers use instead. It measures how quickly the flywheel slows down between strokes, which depends on the damper, but also on the temperature, the altitude and how much dust is in the flywheel housing. That's why a 5 on one machine can feel different from a 5 on another. To see it on the PM5, go to More Options, then Display Drag Factor, and take a few strokes. On a new RowErg at sea level, damper 1 gives about 90 and damper 10 about 200 or more.

Concept2 doesn't publish an official target, but when it asked Olympic rowers what they use, the answers were mostly between about 110 and 140. If you want to compare your rows fairly over time, pick a drag factor in that range that feels comfortable and set it the same way every session.