Ski Erg: What the Machine Actually Trains, and How to Use It

What is a ski erg?

The ski erg is a cardio machine that mimics the double-poling motion of cross-country skiing. You grab two handles overhead, pull them down along your body, then let them come back up. The movement is short, repetitive, and it punishes sloppy form.

The benchmark model is the Concept2 SkiErg. It uses the same flywheel as the brand's rower, mounted vertically. Air resistance is self-regulating: the harder you pull, the more the air fights back. There's no weight to set — your own power output decides the intensity.

The skierg either mounts to a wall with a bracket or sits on a free-standing floor stand. It takes up roughly 50 cm of width and stands a little over 2 m tall. It's one of the rare machines driven primarily by the upper body.

On a ski erg, a trained athlete rarely holds maximum intensity for more than 4 minutes. The cardio system isn't the first thing to give out — it's the forearms and the back.

What does the ski erg work?

This is the question that comes up most, and the answer covers more ground than people expect. The ski erg is a repeated vertical pull, so it's mainly back and arm work, but the lower body contributes on every stroke.

Upper body first

• Lats: the main engine of the pulling phase
• Triceps and forearms: elbow extension and grip on the handles
• Lower chest, at the end of the push
• Abs and obliques, transferring the effort through the middle

Lower body and core

The legs are anything but passive. They absorb the descent, bend to roughly 30 degrees, then drive the torso back up. Glutes and hamstrings work eccentrically then concentrically, at a fast turnover. On English-language forums the question usually shows up as what muscles of the body does the SkiErg work: the honest answer is a full-body effort, dominated by the upper half.

As for energy systems, it depends entirely on the format. Sets of 250 m tap anaerobic power. A continuous 20-minute block builds endurance and general conditioning. If you want to see how to fit both registers into the same week, our ready-to-follow training programs lay out the alternation.

Ski erg technique: the stroke in four parts

Technique decides everything here. A beginner in a bad position pulls with the arms alone and is cooked in 60 seconds. Someone with decent form uses the whole chain and keeps the stroke smooth.

• Top position: arms extended overhead, handles at forehead height, torso slightly forward
• Catch: the torso hinges forward, hips travel back, back stays flat
• Pull: hands travel down past the thighs, elbows finish behind the body
• Recovery: legs drive you back up, arms rise with no resistance

The key point: don't pull with your arms only. The cross-country skiing motion starts from the trunk. You want to pull hard through the first 30 centimetres, then let it run. Skiers call this double poling, and that's exactly where their efficiency comes from.

Common mistakes

Three faults show up constantly. A rounded back at the end of the pull, which loads the lower back. Heels permanently off the floor, which kills the leg drive. And too high a stroke rate, around 60 strokes per minute, which feels like effort without producing any watts.

Concept2 SkiErg: specs and monitor

The PM5 monitor is what separates this machine from cheap copies. It displays your 500 m pace, power in watts, distance, stroke rate and calories. Everything gets recorded and can be exported.

The damper — the dial on the side — goes from 1 to 10. It doesn't change how hard the workout is, only how it feels: a low setting gives a quick, light stroke, a high setting gives a heavier pull. Most athletes sit between 5 and 7.

With or without the floor stand

There are two options. The wall-mounted version needs a load-bearing wall and six anchors, and takes up no floor space at all. The floor-stand version is free-standing and rolls on wheels, but adds about 1.20 m of footprint in front of the machine. In a gym setting, the stand is almost always the right call.

Connectivity

The PM5 talks over Bluetooth and ANT+. It pairs with the ErgData app, Concept2's online logbook and plenty of watches: some Garmin models have a dedicated ski erg activity profile. Zwift, on the other hand, doesn't support this kind of erg the way it does cycling.

Ski erg in Hyrox and CrossFit: the formats that matter

The ski erg's recent popularity comes straight from competition. In Hyrox, the first station after the opening kilometre of running is a 1000 m ski erg. An average finisher covers it in 4 to 5 minutes; the best are around 3:20.

In CrossFit, the machine mostly shows up in short intervals: 15 or 20 calories between two strength movements. It has a genuine edge over the rower in that context — you're on and off in two seconds, with no foot straps to adjust.

These formats demand pacing. Going out too hard on a 1000 m is expensive: the forearms flood around the 400 m mark and your pace falls apart. Better to hold a steady pace at a stroke rate of 38 to 42 per minute.

Buying a ski erg: new, used, alternatives

A new Concept2 SkiErg runs around €1,000 to €1,200 depending on the version and mount. Used, expect €700 to €900 for a recent unit with a PM5; these machines hold their value well because they barely wear out. Be wary of listings without the PM5 monitor — you lose most of the point.

Plenty of people go looking for a ski erg at Decathlon: the chain sells rowers and bikes, but nothing directly equivalent so far. The other brands in this space are CrossFit-oriented equipment makers.

With no machine available, your best substitute is alternating lat pulldowns and burpees in short blocks. The cardio demand isn't identical, but the muscular load gets close. You'll find every movement on video, with its variations, in our 1,800 detailed exercises.

A machine is no substitute for a plan. If you want to know what to do with the 30 minutes after your ski erg, build the full session instead of improvising it.

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Three sample workouts to build on

Scale the numbers to your current fitness. These formats work just as well for a regular gym-goer as for athletes prepping a race.

• Endurance: 3 blocks of 8 minutes at conversational pace, 2 minutes recovery
• Threshold: 6 x 500 m at race pace, 90 seconds rest
• Power: 10 x 20 seconds all-out, 40 seconds full rest

Two sessions a week is enough to move your 1000 m time. Add heavy pulling work in the gym the rest of the week: back strength is usually what caps you, not your cardio. Our subscription plans include progress tracking for exactly this kind of testing.