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.....