ABOUT ERG ARMY
Why we exist. What we stand for.
Introducing Jane Erbacher.
Ever had a dream that you actually turned into a reality? But then that reality was nothing like you’d dreamed it would be? Erg Army isn’t a story of smooth sailing ‘overnight’ success, instead it’s a story of perseverance and drive. Two of my core values.
7 years ago, I opened my first gym in Melbourne’s inner north. I remember standing in the warehouse before I turned it into my dream training space and thinking: “This is it.” I remember feeling a sense of completion. A deep confidence that I was where I needed to be. This very space was where I would spend my days and years. It’s where I would build my community and it’s where I would live out my purpose – to have a positive impact on people through fitness.
3 years later I walked out for the last time. Heartbroken. The business relationship I’d been in wasn’t working and carrying on together was not an option.
I had failed. Or at least I thought so.
I upskilled. Then I upskilled some more. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do with all of the education and training but I knew when I figured it out that I would be prepared.
For years I’ve known my purpose – my why. I am here to build confidence in people. To show them what they’re really capable of. So that they don’t just reach their goals in a training environment but they reach their goals out there (in the real world) too because they learn with me that they can’t just do that thing in the gym that they’ve been working towards, but they can do that other thing out there that they didn’t think they could do too.
My transition to the world of Ergs happened through random perfection. A course I was doing (Gym Jones) required me to perform on them in order to gain certification. So I did what I knew how to do best and I sought out the best rowing coaches from all over the world. In this venture I realised that there was very little collaboration between the ‘rowing on water world’ and the ‘only rowing in the gym world’. In other words I saw that rowing ergs were in nearly every gym worldwide yet barely anyone knew how to use them. Technique seemed to be reserved for ‘actual rowers.’
What if I became that connector? What if I took rowing to fitness? And that’s what I did. Introducing Project Row…
Project Ski – my certification program surrounding the Skierg – came about in a similar, but also completely different fashion…
At Gym Jones I had to also complete a 2000m skierg in less than 8 minutes to gain my certification. The difference between this challenge and rowing a sub 8 minute 2k was that I couldn’t find one Skierg coach IN THE WORLD. Not knowing how it worked and trying to copy the (much bigger and stronger – have you seen the people at GJ??) people around me at the course, I failed. And I ended up HATING the Skierg. I didn’t get it. I failed in front of a room full of people and it made me feel like sh#t.
I vowed after failing that standard (and having to do a totally additional and completely brutal test to gaim my GJ Certification) that I would never use the Ski again. Nordic skiers could keep it.
Because of this (stubbornness), Project Ski was a little behind Project Row. Then one day a gym owner (who I respect the hell out of – Matt Murphy) told me straight after a Project Row seminar in his gym that I just had to run a Skierg seminar for his members and he wouldn’t take no for an answer.
What ensued was the next research project – the bloody skierg. Former nemesis of mine, turned total obsession.
What I created with Project Ski came from my perception that not everyone needed to use it like a Nordic Skier would. Just like rowing on the erg has differences for on-water rowers, the skierg would have differences for on-snow skiers and you know us regular people…
Project Ski developed a whole new movement scheme and language around the skierg that had never previously been used and I am beyond proud that it has not only been backed by biomechanists and performance coaches worldwide but by the results of the more than 6000 people that have done my ‘Projects’.
I am obsessed with coaching. I am obsessed with not only having people move correctly and well but enjoying it. I genuinely want you to succeed so badly and I will never stop learning more effective ways to help you do that. Erg Army isn’t just workshops, programs, workouts or fitness, it’s the community, environment, education and means for you to progress, build, further yourself and above all enjoy the process and journey of training and life.
We’re here to show you what you’re capable of. Are you with us?