Training zones

Ergon uses five zones for both heart rate and power, with the same names in both systems:

Heart-rate zones

Anchored on your max heart rate (Settings → Training zones). Boundaries follow British Rowing-informed percentages of max HR:

Z1 below 60% · Z2 60–72% · Z3 72–82% · Z4 82–89% · Z5 89% and up.

No max HR set means HR zones can't resolve, and HR-based metrics stay empty.

Power zones

Anchored on your 2K reference watts — the average watts of a 2,000m test. Boundaries as a share of that number, grounded in published rowing-coaching norms (Terry O'Neill and the Wolverine Plan both put UT2 at roughly 50–60% of 2K watts):

Z1 below 50% · Z2 50–60% · Z3 60–70% · Z4 70–80% · Z5 80% and up.

If you haven't entered reference watts, Ergon estimates the anchor from your fastest 2K, and refines a per-machine estimate (eFTP) as you train. Your own entry always wins over the estimate. Anchors never cross machines — RowErg watts don't set BikeErg zones.

Custom boundaries

Settings → Training zones. Turn off Auto-calculate my ranges to edit the lower bound of each zone directly. Bounds must increase from Recovery up to TR. Reset to defaults returns to the derived boundaries.

Two honest limits worth knowing. %maxHR is not %HR-reserve — boundaries as a fraction of max HR ignore resting heart rate, so they run slightly high for very fit athletes; lab-tested users should set exact boundaries here. And the defaults are population starting points, not a physiological test result — a good place to begin, and yours to correct.

Editing anchors doesn't rewrite history

Workouts are scored against the anchors in effect when you rowed them. Raising your max HR today doesn't re-color last winter. If an anchor was simply wrong — a mistyped max HR, stale 2K watts — use Settings → Recompute my history to rescore everything against your current settings.