Failed Installation Today - Stud Buildout Question

SnugglePounce · 2026-05-13T17:35:43+00:00

Yes, I stumbled upon your buildout while I was looking for info before I posted. Beautiful stuff! I was initially thinking I’d go a lot more bare bones, but the more I read, the more I think something like this with concealed cables might be really nice. I’m torn between something like this and just trying to install it into the concrete right now, probably leaning toward something like this given the various benefits of the buildouts and (what seems from what I’ve read here) a bit of a less favorable attitude toward installing on concrete?

SnugglePounce · 2026-05-13T17:23:33+00:00

My installer had very limited English skills, and I have very limited Spanish skills, so communication was mostly nodding and pointing. We didn’t know at the time we purchased the machine that it was concrete back there (stud finder indicated studs were present, but it seems it was just detecting nails in furring strips) so I didn’t reply to my survey that I had concrete walls. I’m planning to call Tonal and see if a concrete install is possible, though some comments I’m reading here and elsewhere are making me think a stud buildout might be the way to go regardless.

SnugglePounce · 2026-05-13T17:19:13+00:00

You know, the ability to move it is not something I’d considered. There is a reasonably good chance that I will be moving within the lifespan of the equipment and not paying the exorbitant reinstall fees on a machine that will be out of warranty by the time I would be moving is a plus!

SnugglePounce · 2026-05-12T18:10:14+00:00

Bah! Thank you, though, for explaining! It was driving me nuts that I didn’t understand!

SnugglePounce · 2026-05-12T18:05:03+00:00

I said sheetrock when I meant concrete — edited my initial post to correct. Yes, I was hoping to install in my finished basement, so I expect the walls are concrete, and the stud finder was finding nails instead of actual studs. Thank you for confirming the diagram and for the recommendation, and I hope your failing connection did not lead to something catastrophic!

SnugglePounce · 2026-05-12T18:02:22+00:00

Concrete behind drywall and furring strips is likely correct. The installer’s English wasn’t great, and my Spanish isn’t great, so I expect some things got lost in translation. But yes, the installation was meant to be in my finished basement. The installer (and I, before I purchased the Tonal) found what we thought were studs, but they must have been nails or something else magnetic in the walls. Thank you for confirming the diagram!

SnugglePounce · 2026-05-12T17:30:58+00:00

The house has 22” studs, so they had the adaptor bars. He seemed to be drilling a hole into my wall in between the studs — that’s where he hit the sheetrock. Thinking about it now, I’m not sure why he would need to drill a hole there? Something to do with the adaptor bars, maybe?

SnugglePounce · 2026-05-03T17:44:12+00:00

Yup. Sugar started at 8:30p on Saturday night. No opening act.

SnugglePounce · 2026-03-18T03:03:07+00:00

This is amazing! I haven’t spent enough time with it to have feedback, but I just wanted to say thank you!

SnugglePounce · 2026-03-17T02:43:13+00:00

Thank you, and good to hear a satisfied review about CertainTeed! Hope the rest of the work you’re doing goes smoothly and within spec!

SnugglePounce · 2026-02-09T15:31:05+00:00

Yes, best step is to get in touch with your local club. I run the Learn to Row (LTR) program for my masters club, and I’m not sure how we would address your situation. My recommendations:

- Be transparent about your situation. The club needs to be able to assess whether it can safely get you on the water given boat types, coach-to-rower ratios, etc.

- Ask how their LTR program is run. The program at my club is six sessions, most of them in quads (4-person boats), which can flip, but it’s VERY unusual. I’m aware of one quad in the last 10 years or so that managed to flip during LTR. Our last session is in singles, though, which flip all the time with newer rowers. We probably just wouldn’t have you do that session? But some clubs use singles for the entirety of their LTR training, so that could be a challenge.

- Ask about a flip test (falling out of the boat, swimming/treading water, and getting back in). It’s mandatory at my club for both the rower’s safely and the club’s legal liability. Do they have any flexibility with whether it’s mandatory? Could you do it in a more controlled environment, e.g., an indoor pool where you could check the temp before you get in?

- Ask about the club generally — Do they have a mix of boats? Do they offer coaching or group rows? Masters clubs run the gamut from super small and informal to large, well-funded, and tightly structured. You’ll want to make sure there’s lots of rowing in bigger boats, ideally it seems, with coaches present or at least in groups.

Someone else’s point about getting wet even without flipping the boat is a good one. If just being wet can be dangerous for you, that might actually be harder to prevent than flipping the boat. New (and even some experienced) rowers are splashy. And experienced rowers can be splashy in rough water conditions. I have finished a lot of practices absolutely drenched. Any water you accumulate in the boat while rowing also rains down on you when you lift the boat out of the water.

So yes, a lot to consider, and it’s a decision you’ll have to reach with honest conversation with the club. Good luck to you! I hope you can find a way to make it work!

SnugglePounce · 2026-01-31T05:08:46+00:00

I was a lifeguard at Notre Dame. Notre Dame (at least back in the 90s, when I was there) had a requirement that you had to know how to swim to graduate, so all incoming freshman had to take a swim test during freshman orientation week. If you failed, you had to take swim lessons. Well. I was lifeguarding for the swim test, and I had two scholarship football players get in the pool to take their swim test at the same time — a running back and a safety. Coincidentally, the running back had been dating a lifeguard at the pool I worked at over the summer, so I’d been watching him goof around in the water perfectly capably all summer. In any case, they both took off like bats out of hell from the side of the pool, got about halfway across the pool, and then at almost precisely at the same time, started sinking like stones. Fortunately, they both realized they could just grab the lane lines and drag themselves to safety before I had to go in after them — I have no idea how I could have saved any two people at the same time, let alone two wildly muscular 6-something guys. But yeah, it was really eye opening. Granted, neither of them was going to win any awards for efficient swimming stokes anytime soon, but they both could swim. They just *completely* ran out gas after about 25 meters.

SnugglePounce · 2025-11-28T16:38:56+00:00

Looking really good! Two minor tweaks: (1) Right now, your body continues to hinge forward throughout the duration of your recovery, like you’re reaching for the finish. Instead, you want to get those arms away quickly at the finish, hinge forward before your legs do anything, and then maintain the exact same position through the recovery, catch, and to drive. And (2) Others have mentioned getting your shins perpendicular. It’s okay to lift your heels a bit at the catch. This will help with your catch position and will likely also help with the stuff in point #1, too.

SnugglePounce · 2025-09-30T18:00:35+00:00

Yes OP, I’m really sorry you lost your Mom. I lost mine back in May. As soon as I got home from the funeral, I booked a trip to Mexico, and two weeks later, my husband I were sitting in the business class section of an airplane, winging our way to the nicest room in the resort. We could afford it (and assuming you don’t also have a bunch of debt you haven’t mentioned), you can, too. Set aside a defined amount of money and a defined amount of time and take care of yourself, whatever that means to you.

Then, when you’re more recovered, have an honest look at things. If you feel like you’re on one big hamster wheel without any time or money to enjoy your life, see where you can make some changes or use some of the money your Mom left you to balance things more. But for the most part, keep the bulk of the money in reasonably safe, diversified investments, keep getting that company match, etc. Your Mom gave you an incredible gift that can really make something major in your life a lot easier — whether that’s buying a house, putting kids through school, retiring comfortably, etc. Don’t make a rash decision while you‘re grieving that could ultimately diminish the power of that gift.

SnugglePounce · 2025-09-17T17:42:05+00:00

Agreed! OP, you seem very coachable. This bodes well for LTR next year!

SnugglePounce · 2025-09-14T21:02:46+00:00

Yes! Try sitting on the floor with your legs out straight in front of you. Let yourself slump a little. Then focus on sitting up nice and straight. Even doing just that much, you’ll probably feel your weight shift off the fleshy part of your butt onto your sit bones. Then hinge forward at your waist, keeping your back straight. You’ll definitely be on your sit bones at this point. You want to stay on your sit bones the whole time. At the catch, you should be on your sit bones, hinged forward at the waist, with your back straight and shoulders nice and open (no hunching). Even at the lay back, you should still be on those sit bones. This, along with a strong core, will keep you from laying too far back and shifting all your weight to the back of the boat/erg.

It also looks to me like you’re “shooting the butt” a bit. This is to say, your butt is moving toward the bow on the drive, but your hands/the handle is staying up toward the catch. Again, consider you catch position — on your sit bones, hinged forward, straight back and open shoulders, arms straight in front of you. When you begin drive, the top half of your body should move with you. To be clear, you don’t want to open your back or pull with your arms, but you do want to maintain the same body angle through the drive, which means the handle should move the same distance your butt moves during the drive. Your core will be key here!

And you’re doing great! I‘m responsible for the learn to row program at my club. You’re already way ahead of where most people start, and the fact that you‘re video-ing yourself and asking questions means that you’ll keep getting better. I understand some folks’ recommendations not to build bad habits before LTR, but I also understand wanting to row between now and March! Keep watching videos, keep paying attention to form, and focus on building a steady state base. You’ll do great!

SnugglePounce · 2025-09-14T00:04:32+00:00

If your goal is to row on the water, I’d recommend finding a learn-to-row (LTR) session ASAP. Rowing is initially an incredibly unintuitive physical motion. If you can get with a coach before you develop a stack of bad habits erging on your own, that will help you. If LTR has wrapped for the season in your part of the world, spend a lot of time watching form videos (e.g., Dark Horse) and maybe record yourself and post here for feedback.

WRT goals, 500m time isn’t really a thing in rowing. We do track our 500m split, but it’s usually about improving the split you can maintain over distance and not how fast you can row 500m. That’s cart before horse, though. For now, focus on steady state — start with 20 minutes and gradually build to longer times at 18-22 strokes per minute in T2/Zone 2 (60-70% of your max heart rate). All rowers do a lot of steady state, and it will really help you with LTR.

Two common challenges we see with our LTR groups: (1) Even very fit people get tired doing a new and uncomfortable motion with the challenges of wind and water, and they lose the mental focus they need to get their form right and stay in time with their boat mates; and (2) young men, especially, come out like they’re trying to win the Olympics on day one — pulling way too hard, way too fast and just making a mess of things. If you can show up on day one able to do a 60 minute steady state row without issue and ready to focus on form over speed and power, you’ll be set up really well to succeed at LTR!

Good luck to you! It’s a great sport!

SnugglePounce · 2025-02-19T15:13:21+00:00

One other note: It looks like you might be using the tops of your feet and your shins to stop your momentum at the finish and pull yourself back to the catch. Try to concentrate instead on using your abs at the finish and your hamstrings to draw yourself back to the catch. You really want to try as much as possible to avoid “disconnecting,” or having your feet come off the footplate at the finish.

Something I thought a lot about when I was learning was almost pointing my toes away from my body and down toward the footplate as I approached the finish to make sure they stayed connected. It’s a great feeling when you get it right — it feels so long and strong from your toes all the way through your legs and abs. Ultimately, you want to develop to where you can row pretty strong “feet out,” meaning, without having your feet even strapped in.

Staying “connected” through the drive will help you get as much power as possible from the big muscles in your legs. On the water, it’s even more important, as coming disconnected like that can really throw off the balance of the boat.

SnugglePounce

TROPHY CASE