Here is a hack that may not come in handy immediately, but when it comes time to start setting up the erg rooms again, it is pretty a slick trick for getting everything placed appropriately: the Erg-Spacing Rope.

It is pretty simple--and no doubt a trick borrowed from some other industry or craft--but you just take a length of rope that can stretch across the front row of ergs, then mark where the center of each erg should go with tape or a simple knot. Once you set the perfect spacing distance that one time, then all you need to do to reset the ergs after they've been moved for one reason or another, is to stretch the rope back out and use the marks to position each machine.

Come to think of it, this trick might be ready made for what is coming next as boathouses and erg spaces re-open: ensuring that ergs are socially distanced to allow for safe workouts. In addition, since this hack can used anywhere, an Erg-Spacing Rope would be perfect if your first "erg space" is an outdoor set-up that needs to torn down and reset daily. Simply adjust the "marks" on the rope to the prescribed safe distance, and you will have the ergs reset properly in no time the next day.

When we originally came across this hack, on a sub-zero training day someplace up north, it was being used in two clever ways: it allowed some pre-planning of the space to maximize how many ergs could fit in the area--avoiding the annoying and awkward side-shuffling that results when you set the first few in the row just a bit too far apart and run out of room before you run out of ergs--and it made quick work of getting the ergs back in place after shifting them to give the floor a good cleaning.

Back then, of course, it was just the daily snow melt residue that needed to get mopped up, but in the coming months, we know that cleanliness will be a priority for high-touch areas—which, as anyone who has witnessed lots of post 2k floor diving knows, should probably include the floor of your erg room as much as the door and erg handles.

Between uses, the rope can just sit, or hang, coiled up and out of the way, ready and waiting to keep you from guess-timating the next time you move the ergs--and that will save you from having to go back and adjust each erg by a few inches when you run out of room at the far end.

Perhaps the best bit about this rope trick is that it means you do not have to put marks or tape on the floor or the wall to remember that perfect spacing. Since nothing permanent is on the floor or walls, the rope trick also allows you to easily adjust the spacing or the configuration of the room if you change the number of ergs--just change the rope!--and you can even use the rope to make temporary well-spaced erg areas in the boatbay or anywhere else you find yourself setting up for a good pull.

Have a great trick for setting things up quickly and well at your place? Share your tips--and hacks--in the comments below.

Have a great rowing hack to suggest for future inclusion here? Send it to us!