Benefits of Training With the Concept2 SkiErg

You don’t have to be an elite cross-country skier to take advantage of the grueling workout the Concept2 SkiErg provides. 

With its low impact and high-intensity focus on your upper body, legs, and core, it’s the perfect tool to mix up your cardiovascular training and amplify your muscular endurance.

This article covers everything you need to know about the Concept2 SkiErg, its benefits, how it works the different muscle groups in your body, and where you can buy your own for your home gym.

What is the Concept2 SkiErg?

Nordic Skiing has long been renowned as a physically demanding sport that is a powerhouse for building cardiovascular and muscular endurance. The Concept2 SkiErg translates the same movement patterns and physical demands and packages them into a machine you can use year-round indoors.

The SkiErg uses a similar flywheel-based resistance design as indoor rowing machines but is attached to a tall base with handles and cables at the top to give you the natural pulling motion that mimics outdoor Nordic skiing. 

And what you get is a low impact exercise providing you with the variability to use for long endurance training sessions or short, powerful bouts of high-intensity interval training.

Benefits of Indoor Skiing Machines

The SkiErg’s ability to supply varying degrees of resistance and an exercise that engages the entire body comes with an excellent list of benefits. From the cardiovascular benefits of low-and-slow training to HIIT sessions that boost your V02 max, you can check all the boxes on your training with an indoor ski ergometer.

Here are some of the top benefits of the SkiErg:

1. Functional Full Body Workout
2. Low Impact
3. Low-High Intensity Training Variability
4. Improves Cardiovascular Endurance
5. Improves Muscular Endurance
6. Creates Strong Posture
7. Excellent Warmup for Full Body Activation

Since most of its benefits stem from its ability to supply you with a versatile full-body workout, let’s go through the different muscle groups you use at the different phases of the exercise.

Muscles Worked Using the SkiErg

The SkiErg, when used with the correct form, provides an intense workout that activates nearly the entire body throughout its four pull phases. 

While there are similarities to the full array of muscles activated by using an indoor rowing machine, the rowing machine’s full-body activation focuses more on the lower-body muscle groups. While it does also leverage the muscles of the legs, you’ll find that the SkiErg targets more of your upper body. Which makes them two fantastic tools to use at different times throughout your training design.

All four phases of the SkiErg’s movement combined works the following major muscle groups:

Let’s break down the four phases of the SkiErg pull and which muscles you activate during each motion of the exercise.

Phases and Technique of The SkiErg Pull

The proper technique of the SkiErg pull is comprised of four different phases:

1. The Start
2. The Pull
3. The Finish
4. The Return

During each of these four phases, your body is targeting activation from different muscle groups. 

1.) The Start

The start begins with your feet shoulder-width apart with open hips and your hands above your head firmly gripping the handles.

The primary muscles engaged during the start phase are your triceps, traps, delts, lats, and calves. And the secondary muscles are your back extensors, abdominals, glutes, hamstrings, and quads.

2.)The Pull

Continuing from the stable position of the start, you initiate the pull by driving the handles in a downward motion using your triceps, allowing for a right angle bend in your arms. Then in one motion, activate the core, hinge at the hips, and bend your knees to allow for energy to transfer from the lower body muscle groups activated in the movement.

The primary muscles engaged during the pull phase are your triceps, lats, abdominals, hip flexors, quads, and shins. And the secondary muscles are your back extensors, glutes, hamstrings, and calves.

3.) The Finish

With your knees slightly bent, finish the drive by maintaining forward lean, closing the hips, and extending your arms down alongside your thighs.

The primary muscles engaged during the finish phase are your triceps, abdominals, hip flexors, quads, and shins. And the secondary muscles are your back extensors, glutes, hamstrings, and calves.

4.) The Return

The return is a controlled motion to recover your arms back to the starting position. Just like the transfer of energy experienced in a kettlebell swing, straighten your body upwards and extend your arms back to the top of the tower in a fluid motion.

The primary muscles engaged during the return are your back extensors, glutes, hamstrings, quads, front deltoids, upper trapezius, pectorals, and calves. And the secondary muscles are your hip flexors, shins, and abdominals.

Best Ways to Incorporate the SkiErg Into Your Workout

Mixing up your styles of training helps round out your overall development as an athlete. While consistency is a powerful ally in making continual progress, you also risk developing muscle imbalances if you use the same movement patterns over a long period of time.

Tools like the SkiErg help you balance out the muscle groups you use during your cardio or HIIT sessions and ultimately assist you in maintaining functional muscle movement throughout your body.

For cardiovascular endurance training, you can program your workouts to cover long distances or maintain a specific heart rate for a pre-determined time.

For muscular strength and endurance training, you can leverage HIIT-style sessions with an indoor skiing machine. Because of the convenience of the SkiErg, it makes it incredibly straightforward to program in sets in between traditional bodyweight and weighted exercises. 

You can even use the SkiErg as an excellent warmup before your workout or as a cool-down tool to boost circulation and jumpstart recovery after your training is complete.

How to Buy and Assemble a Concept2 SkiErg

Where To Buy a SkiErg:

Because of the power of the internet, you can simplify your buying process and purchase a Concept2 SkiErg from Amazon and have it shipped directly to your doorstep.

Since Amazon updates its prices regularly, check out the most recent price with the link below. Also, Mobility Athlete is reader-supported. So if you want to add a SkiErg to your home gym and use one of our links, we can get a small commission (at no additional cost to you!) So if you appreciate the work we do and the information we provide in articles like this, it helps keep the lights on here at Mobility Athlete!

How to Assemble Your SkiErg

Assembling your SkiErg is incredibly straightforward. There’s only a total of twelve screws, and it includes all of the tools and instructions you need to have it set up in no-time.

There are also two different packages you can get for mounting options. You can either set it up with its own free-standing platform or get a wall-mounted solution that you can attach to any 16″ wooden stud wall to save space.

Here’s a video from Concept2 detailing all the steps for how to assemble your SkiErg.

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