A rower should become an "athlete"

As a rower you should be able to do more than just row. You should learn how to become an athlete. What I mean by this is to have respect for and enjoy other athletic sports. Getting to a high level in every sport requires huge amounts of training. In my opinion rowers tend to have a bit of a snobby view of their sport. I think this is partly due to everyone thinking rowing is an easy sport in the first place.

Due to the nature of our sport we tend to do a lot of cross training. So we have to chance to experience and get good at the likes of cycling, running, swimming, cross country skiing( if you go on nice training camps).

To become truly "athletic" the 5 components of fitness should be mastered.

The 5 components of fitness

1. Body composition

   Body fat is necessary for your body to help with hormone production, vitamin absorption and to pad the internal organs but once you go over 5-6% its just adding on weight in the boat you don't need. For Women the minimum needed is about 10 - 11%. This extra weight increases the drag on the boat and makes it heavier.

1. Cardiovascular fitness

   Cardiovascular fitness is the ability of the body to deliver oxygen and nutrients to tissues and to remove wastes.



2. Flexibility

   Flexibility is the ability of the joints in the body to move to their full range of motion.



3. Muscular endurance

   It is the ability of muscles, whether in a group or separated to sustain repeated contractions against resistance for an extended period of time. This is related to muscular strength and cardio-respiratory endurance. If a person can perform more number of repetitions of a particular strength training exercise, then it shows- that person has good muscular endurance.

Muscle strength

The muscular strength is measured by maximum amount of strength a muscle has while lifting or during an exertion. In short, muscular strength is the ability of the muscle to exert strength during a workout or an activity. It is capability of the muscle to lift the weight.

A nice little video on what constitutes a good rower.....

Lower back pain in rowing

Lower back pain is often associated with rowing. Having been a victim of it myself I'm going to go over a few causes and remedies for it.

Why do people get lower back pain? 

Most often the answer is:

1.They have a bad core and glutes which can't support your body position which means you then compensate with other muscles and put your body at risk of injury.

2.Bad flexibility can mean that you end up using putting pressure on the places that shouldn't have pressure. For example, putting strain on your lower back due to not being able to hinge over at your hip joint due to tight hamstrings.

3. Bad technique. (This could be due to not being told what to do properly or either or both of the two points above)


How to relieve pain in your back if its sore?

1. Don't use the erg. 

   Ergs, especially static ergs put pressure on your back. While rowing on the water the boat will normally always sink down into the water(at least some bit) and take some of the pressure off your back. Unless you have a amazing 100% horizontal drive in which case you probably have good technique.



2. Go to a physio.

   A good physio is a must if the pain your feeling has been there for over two to three days. They can find your weaknesses and tell you how to fix them so it wont happen again.



3. Do yoga.

   Speaking from experience yoga was amazing at relieving pain I had in my lower back. I went from not being able to bend over in the slightest to being mobile, and not feeling pain, in the space of an hour class. If only the pain free time lasted longer! Still though yoga is great and I'd recommend it to anyone. Flexibility and core strength are a must for anyone who calls themselves an athlete.



4. Rest your back.

   Don't do anything that hurts your back. Seriously. Its a lot easier said than done too. Some normal mundane things that you take for granted should be avoided if you feel pain doing them for the sake of your back.



Use heat packs 

Heat packs which are widely available in pharmacies are great at re-leaving muscle pain. The heat dilates the blood vessels of the muscles surrounding the lumbar spine. This process increases the flow of oxygen and nutrients to the muscles, helping to heal the damaged tissue. Heat application facilitates the stretching of soft tissues around the spine, including muscles, connective tissue, and adhesions. Consequently, with heat therapy, there will be a decrease in stiffness as well as injury, with an increase in flexibility and overall feeling of comfort. Flexibility is very important for a healthy back.

How to prevent back pain in the future?

1. Develop your core.

   Core strength and control should be emphasised in rowing training largely due to the important role it plays in injury prevention. Core muscles play an important part in holding the trunk firm – control of these muscles allows the athlete to pre-load the abdomen against the reverse loading caused by the leg-drive, reducing backlash in the lumbar spine.



2. Improve your technique rowing in the boat.

   Stretching the arms forwards out of the release and pushing the handles out, against the gates in the final third of the recovery helps the athlete to both push themselves onto the stretcher and stabilise the upper body on the approach to the catch. Gently pushing out against the gate activates the rotator-cuff muscles and latissimus dorsi muscles, pre-loading the shoulder joints and reducing the backlash. The athlete should not feel tense, but they should feel poised and ready to take the force of the leg drive through their pre-loaded core, trunk and arms so that the leg drive is effective right from the moment the blades are locked in the water.



3. Improve your flexibility

   Do exactly that. Stretch everything, all the time. 

Another great resource on lower back pain and how to avoid/ treat



Thanks to inner-rowing for some of the useful information above

inner-rowing.blogspot.com

Top 5 rowing harlem shake videos

Harlem shakes are taking youtube by storm and over the last week everyone who's anyone has been doing their own rendition. Below are some of the best rowing ones out there. I'm sure in a weeks time there'll be hundreds more.

Number 5.

No ergs. Buts lots of crazy dancing girls.....who claim they row.

Number 4.
A bunch of rowers getting their strength work in.... well trying to at least.. 

Number 3.

Best spazzy erg dancing but not much else going on! 

Number 2.

                                Includes the most amount of humping ergs dancing.

Number 1.

One of the first rowing ones uploaded to youtube. Includes oars, ergs, lots of props,great costumes, and a well placed camera to show the mayhem at its best. 

All rowers are human

When racing we tend to think a lot about our own pain and we rarely pause to think that the other competitors are feeling pain too. At the end of the day when two people have trained equally hard, the final decider of who will win is the question of who will put up with the pain the longest, and who will be relentless in their quest to win.

Rowers are not robots!!(even if they act like them)

People are quick to think that those who are better than them will beat them but at the end of the day your opponents get scared, feel pain and worry just like normal people even if they are better than you. They don't know (normally unless you raced the day before and even then things can change) what your capable of. Just because they've won more doesn't mean they cease to worry and feel pain! They can crack under pressure! You just have to keep putting them under pressure. If they are going to win then make them pay for it, hunt them down till you have crossed the line. A race is a fight. A fight with your self and your pain.

Great rowers feel pain too.

The following video is a reminder that all great people feel pain. Even the likes of Steve Redgrave, Mathew Pinsent and co. didn't always enjoy doing erg tests. If you watch the whole series of the oarsome foursome you will see that they cracked under pressure and had to fight their own personal battles every day just like the rest of us. With that in mind, never give up, never stand down, remember all the training you did and take the fight to your opponents.

                                     

Rowing - Video Analysis

Video analysis is great. I don't think its done enough. As a coach I try and get a bit of video each time my crews are out rowing. When your playing back the footage later, you can pause and watch it at a variety of different speeds to see who's doing what, and see if the rowers are doing the correct things at the correct times, as well as checking if they are in time with each other during the stroke.

A lot of crews look good when seen at normal speed but when footage is slowed down, faults begin to appear. So if we use video analysis more often then we can be aware of these issues earlier and take steps to address the faults so they don't become ingrained in the rowers natural rowing movement. An analysis can also be done on people doing erg.

Some things to look for when doing an analysis:

During the drive

Is there a hang off the oar through the drive starting at the catch?
Are the arms kept straight for as long as possible in the drive?
Is the body opening up too early in the drive?
Is the oar drawn into the chest or into the lap?
Is the oar drawn in with the wrist being kept flat?
Are the legs being pressed full down?
Are people driving before the blade is in the water?
Is everyone catching together?
Is everyone taking the oars out of the water together?
Is the boat being driven into the water or is it being driven along the top?

During the recovery

Is the recovery kept under control or is it rushed?

Are people squaring over together?
Are the blades coming out square?
Are the bodies being rocked over (from the hips) before the knees come up?
Are the blades off the water?
Is the back kept straight or are people slouching?
Is the catch slow or fast?
Are peoples heads looking straight ahead?

The examples above are just a few of the many things to look out for as a coach and are things that rowers must be aware of and fix if they are not being done properly. Another point to make would be that you also have to tell people how to fix their problems not jut criticize!

And here is a master video analyzer at work....