SkiErg

The SkiErg is a standing cardio machine that mimics cross-country skiing poleing. It mainly trains your lats, triceps, core, and cardiovascular system, with extra help from your glutes, hamstrings, hips, legs, and shoulders.

Set up facing the machine with your feet about hip-width apart or slightly wider, knees soft, and chest up. Grip the handles with your palms facing down and start with your arms straight overhead, shoulders settled, and a light brace through your midsection.

Begin each stroke by hinging at the hips and bending your knees a little. Drive the handles straight down past your hips, pulling with your lats and triceps while your legs and glutes add power. Finish with your arms extended near your thighs, then raise the handles back up under control, stand tall, and repeat in a smooth rhythm.

Breathe steadily throughout. A simple pattern is to exhale as you drive down and inhale as you return. Keep your core lightly braced. To make it easier, slow your tempo or shorten the work period. To make it harder, keep each stroke long and add a little more speed while staying in control.

Fault: You bend and pull only with your arms. Fix: Hinge from the hips, don't just pull with arms. Let your legs and core share the work so your arms don't tire first.

Fault: Your strokes are short and choppy. Fix: Drive the handles down past the hips and prioritize long powerful strokes over fast short ones.

Fault: You go all-out from the start and gas out. Fix: Keep a sustainable pace per 500m. Settle into a rhythm you can maintain rather than sprinting every stroke.

Fault: Your shoulders shrug or you reach too far overhead. Fix: Keep your shoulders down and controlled. Because this movement involves overhead-shoulder repetitive strain, stay in a comfortable range and ease up if you feel irritation.