What Was Your Work Out Today?
Replies
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Pull Day in the weight room:
Pulldowns, high machine row, low machine row, T-bar row, DB shrugs, DB side-bends, preacher curls1 -
MikePfirrman wrote: »@AnnPT77 Quick question... it feels like my legs need to be longer to get a decent pull... will it feel less awkward when I get the back and arms technique more sorted?
The sequence of rowing is not very easy to master. Legs, body, hands (on the drive) and then hands (quickly returning), body and legs on the return.
One trick that's kind of will tell you really quickly if you're getting it is rowing unstrapped. You have to be very careful with doing that. Perhaps with your feet loose in the straps at first. If you're rowing the correct sequence, you will not fall off the back of the rower! It takes time to get right.
When I first started rowing, I rowed strapped in always. Then, I learned about doing it unstrapped and quickly made all my easy days unstrapped. I got away from it for a while and my form suffered -- too much momentum at the back, using the straps to pull myself back on the recovery (which can hurt your feet) -- this is all wasted effort and incorrect.
My legs are shorter. It is hard to really feel the leg drive until you get the sequence down. Once you do, it's easier to feel. Another mistake most make is a rounded back (big no no) and pulling with the arms first -- your arms should be straight, fingers hooked around handle on the drive, all legs to start, body tucked, back nearly straight. Like a deadlift.
Another thing to watch is overextending/reaching so your knees are too far over your feet. I use a bungee strap on my rower to make sure I don't overreach/extend. It helps train the mind where to stop and when to start the drive.
Dark Horse, that Ann mentioned, has some great instructional videos. So does a lady named Cassi Neimann. Hers are outstanding. She's a Concept2 Master instructor. There's also an app called asensei (I think). It's the only one with real world class over the water rowers teaching not only training programs, but technique.
@TicTacToo, good advice from Mike.
If you're feeling like your legs aren't long enough to get a good leg push, then there's probably a problem somewhere in the overall stroke sequence. I know some great rowers who're very short, put up good times on the rower by using good mechanics. Short legs work.
I can say it, but you have to feel it: On the drive, keep your arms fully extended, and keep your forward body swing until your legs are very nearly flat (don't lock your knees). It's as if you're making a wedge shape with your body (angle of that straight back to the line of the slide), then driving that wedge back up the slide with leg power. Bring the handle with you when you apply that leg force (vs. letting your butt speed backwards faster than the handle). Your arms are like cables, just transferring the leg force into the handle, flat wrists, relaxed but strong, connected through your lats.
When your legs are almost flat, swing the body open from the hip joint (still straight back) and again bring the handle along with you, arms still cables. When your body is nearly swung open "enough", only then do you add the arm pull, letting the elbows come out to your sides in a relaxed way. Maybe add a bit of acceleration on the arm phase with the pull, if you can.
On the recovery, you reverse that in a very structured way . . . and getting the recovery right is surprisingly important. Overall, the stroke sequence is like coiling (loading) and uncoiling your body (to apply power in sequence). The recovery is the coiling/loading.
I wrote more about the details, some of which you already know, because I can't help myself. Might be some useful info in there, for someone who cares, but it's long, so I'm putting most of it in a spoiler.First, make sure your arms go out from your body at the same speed they came into your body during the end of the drive, no mini-pause at the so-called finish. This lets the flywheel (or water mechanism) keep spinning at the highest speed possible. Keep your shoulders back and down, lats engaged, chest open. Then, when the body is almost at your full forward swing, follow with swinging your upper body forward from the hip joint (straight back still), also quite swiftly (flywheel keeps moving). Have your whole correct arms and body configuration almost done before you release your knees.
Relax to let the slope of the slide bring you back to the catch again. You don't need to - shouldn't - pull yourself up the slide in any way, just relax and let it happen. Unless racing, I usually row on a 4 count, with the slide muuuuuch longer. The count is "in, out, 3, 4, in" - even time intervals. The drive sets the interval length. "In" is the catch, "out" is the finish, then 3, 4 are equal intervals, with another equal interval before the next "in". As your drive gets more powerful (faster), the intervals can shorten, and your strokes per minute can come up. In general, artificially increasing strokes per minute (by rushing recovery) isn't helpful (and in a boat, it's super counterproductive). There are some wrinkles to this for race pace, but it's a good way to think about practice IMO.
Note that I'm saying "almost" a lot in there, when talking about when to start each next phase. You want the parts to be as separate as possible (legs-body-arms-arms-body-legs) while still being smooth. "Almost" is enough overlap between the parts to make the sequence smooth, no more.
At first, it can be OK to be a little robotic about the separate pieces, then work to smooth them out into a flow. That's a good drill, at first. Go at really low strokes per minute (low teens at most), and that's a time when (if rowing C2), it can make sense to set the damper at 10 so you feel it more. But learn to use each part in its place. Letting each body part apply its strength separately, in an accelerating way, lets the flywheel be powered as long as possible.
A drill we do sometimes is to start with arms-only rowing (for maybe 10 strokes), then arms+body, then add quarter slide, half slide, finally go to full slide rowing. You can also do it in the opposite direction, i.e., start with legs only (upper body and arms don't change at all), then legs+ body, etc.
Push with your whole foot, not your heels or your toes. If you need to let your heels rise a bit at the finish to get to vertical shins, that's OK, but if so be sure that your heels come down first, so the full force of your leg drive is using the full foot on the foot-stretcher.
I admit, Mike's stronger on the importance of rowing unstrapped than I feel (I think it's a good drill, and valuable, but it looms larger in his practice it seems than in does in mine . . . not a criticism, we all have our individual tricks or drills that have been instrumental).
How much layback (how far to swing back/forward) is really individual. It depends on being able to keep your back straight and move smoothly through the swing, so core strength. (Your core will improve as you keep rowing, may be able to increase swing angle.) Eleven o'clock to one o'clock is fine, to start. You can get a hint by sitting tall on the machine and doing the swing slowly. As you open (swing back), at some point the seat will scoot forward under you. Don't swing that far when you row. 😉 If you swing to a certain point, can't keep a straight spine (sit tall), don't swing that far.
What you're trying to do on the drive is suspend your body weight between the foot-stretcher and the handle, and augment that bodyweight with the sequence of muscle power starting with the biggest muscles (legs), then back, and finally the weaker of the 3, the arms. (A lot of people try to overuse their arms. Keep your shoulders relaxed, connect your lats to your back and arms.) Eventually, you can feel your butt unweight from the seat on every stroke, and you want to feel it from the time your heels go down on the drive, to when your arms come back to your ribcage area at the end of the drive.
If you're rowing a Concept 2, the Force Curve display is excellent for assessing your transitions. (https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/training/tips-and-general-info/using-the-force-curve).
I'm yammering on way too long as usual when I get going about rowing - apologies. I'm going to add one drill-like thing that I think is very useful. Not a thing you need to do often, but once in a while to reinforce that "suspend" idea.
You need a willing helper. You sit at the catch (i.e., start of drive position). Your helper leans (braces) over the flywheel, and leans forward to holds the handle with both their hands, between yours. Do not hurt them in the next step! Very slowly and smoothly, begin to apply your leg power (no back or arms, just legs). Your partner should not let the handle move. As your legs push backwards (slowly!), you should feel your weight come off the seat. That's the only thing that can happen, if you keep your upper body wedge, and they don't let the handle move.
That's "suspending your bodyweight between the handle and footstretcher". Long run, you want a flavor of that feeling from the time your heels go down, until just before you start the arms-away motion. Every rowing coach I've known so far and seen coaching new rowers has used that demo.
Do that drill too roughly, and you'll need to find a different helper next time you do it (bad!). If you do it slowly and carefully, though, they need not be bigger than you, or super-strong. I wouldn't ask a frail person, but an average normal active person should be fine.
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Loooong work day, so not a lot of time for a workout. Perfect time for a speed run.
Started at 8.8kph, increasing by 0.5 kph every 5 minutes.
Result: 5k in 29min56. A new personal best, more than 2 minutes better than my previous best!4 -
Supersets this AM. Snapped my 140 lb resistance band in two. That's why I never, ever use bands with metal on them -- those are super dangerous. Ordered another one. Finished without being able to do too many deadlifts, so just replaced with heavy squats and heavy (70 lb) KB swings.
Was hot today at lunch and it's my hard interval rowing day too. So did 8 X 500m/one minute recovery. Got to two and figured out I didn't have any water outside in the garage (not good when it's like 92 and humid here). Got my water but got late back to the rower for the start of the 3rd interval and tried to play catch up to bring the average on that one down below 2:00. I spent a lot of energy and nearly quit after that, but suffered through.
Ended up with a 1:58.5 average. Had it not been for that 3rd interval, I'm pretty sure I would have gotten sub 1:58 average, which would have been my best recent workout on this particular set.
Finished with a light 15 minutes cooldown on the Assault Bike.2 -
21.4 mile bike ride, which wrapped up at 5:20PM.
Grabbed a quick snack (cheese, prune, Kind Bar mini), washed off some sweat, applied more sunscreen, changed clothes, and made it to the rowing club (15-20 minutes away) before 6PM (whew!).
Nice flat water, so I put the racing single in the water and rowed 10k (plus 3m! 😆) during the Tuesday night coached row.
Now, I can feel that I have quads. 🤣
I also have plenty of calories to cover dinner, since that snack (plus an ounce of crispy broad beans on the bike ride) was my only lunch.2 -
Push Day at the gym:
Cable rotations, bench press, incline DB press, decline cable fly, cable woodchoppers, standing overhead press, lying EZ-bar extensions
Somehow when I hit the snooze button this morning, I actually turned my alarm OFF completely. Fortunately (or unfortunately on the weekends) my cats let me know it was breakfast time, but I got up 20 minutes later than I wanted, which thanks to traffic turned into 45 minutes later to work thanks to being stuck in rush-hour instead of driving before it.1 -
Getting better at discipline for the steady state days. I tried to set a hardline today at 135 HR (70% max) and just barely broke over it once.
Did 30 minutes on the rower, then a bit over 25 on the LateralX. Felt like it should -- a recovery day.1 -
C25K, Week 6 Day 1… Check!
Ran a little faster today which was odd, I’m usually horribly slow and today was just slow. Ended up having to extend my route around the block, my usual 2.3 miles turned into 2.5 somehow.
So far so good!2 -
30 min swim. Got distracted in a backstroke lap and didn't count six strokes past the flags... thwacked my head into the wall and hurt my neck. That'll learn me :-(2
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C25K, Week 6 Day 1… Check!
Ran a little faster today which was odd, I’m usually horribly slow and today was just slow. Ended up having to extend my route around the block, my usual 2.3 miles turned into 2.5 somehow.
So far so good!
Awesome! Segways have a speed dial marked "turtle" and "hare". So nice to move beyond turtle!0 -
Yoga and a 7K run2
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Roughly7k row in bow of the double, with some power 10s thrown in this morning. This evening, easy pace short group bike ride on paved country roads, little over 9 miles, 10.6mph average moving speed.
For your amusement, this is the kind of heart rate graph I can get when I forget to bring my heart rate chest belt transmitter to the river - wrist HRM loses contact because of arm flexion when rowing. Yep, it thinks my heart rate was 30-some bpm for quite a stretch there. 🤣 Based on this, device estimates 93 calories for a 7k row. I don't think so. 🤣
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I did a 45 minute glute session. Then 15 minutes of core and then I went for a 30 minute walk.3
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2km on rowing machine while mentally reciting "legs, back, arms", then 45min strength training
@AnnPT77 The friendly surf lifesaver/Masters rowing dude I met a few days ago is going to coach me through the basics next Tuesday :-)
If he knows what he's doing, that'll be great.
(Note that in rowing, "masters" just means old people, post-collegiate basically, age 21+.
I was a masters rower from the day I first started rowing, because I didn't start until I was in my 40s. Though it sounds bizarre in words, there are masters novices. (Novice = first year of rowing). https://usrowing.org/sports/2016/6/28/6126_132107073803837238.aspx)1 -
Cardio Thursday, so 5km on the elliptical doing hill work.3
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I was fairly stiff and sore after Sunday's race, so Monday and Tuesday were rest and PT days. Last night we did another very nice open water swim. Flat calm water, still very comfortable for swimming without a wetsuit. My training partner has another race this fall, so he went 3500yds, while I took a leisurely 2000 yd swim. I'll plan to get out on the bike tonight for an hour or so.2
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Stress level 15 out of 10 today at work. My first instinct was to do a treadmill run to vent my stress. But having not done any strength training the last 12 days, I forced myself to do some today before preparing dinner instead of running.
2 sets of each:
Dumbbell bench press
Assisted pull-ups
Dumbbell shoulder press
Barbell rack pulls
Dip bar leg raises
Didn't help my stress level like running does, but doing a recomp isn't really going to work if I only strength train every 2 weeks 🙄2 -
Normally, I've been doing an easy cardio day on Thursday, but Golf season ended last week (which was Thursday night). Since I haven't been to the gym in like, well, forever, I thought I'd switch out my golf night for a gym night away from home -- I work from home so I'm always at home!
The issue is, I keep my lifting and hard cardio days the same, so even though I did a harder cardio session on Tuesday, did another today. With all that going through my head, I programmed the interval workout wrong -- I put in 4 X 2K with only one minute rest (not 3 like it's supposed to be). Just said heck with it and went with it. Ended up finishing with a 2:11 average. Not bad considering the last round, with three minute recoveries was only 2:10. Brutal cardio workout!
Going to do a bit heavier weights tonight. Been doing tons of reps of lighter to middle of the road weights. Will take advantage of the gym to go heavier now. Although we're still members at Planet Fitness -- not a fan. Very, very hard to even get a dumbbell in the one I go to, much less any free weight benches -- they are never, ever open. The two or three they have always have someone planted in them for the entire duration of the time that I go, so I'm relegated to mostly machines.
Might have to break down this year and get some heavier equipment at home. I have really heavy KBs and Adjustable Dumbbells up to 55 lbs each, but nothing like a heavy barbell for benches, squats or deadlifts (or a rack/cage). I'd like a Landmine setup because they are so versatile.1 -
Very short bike ride today, mostly because of poor time management (late start, when I had to go supervise open rowing at 6pm). So, just a bit under 11 miles at 10.8mph moving average.
Then off to open rowing. Often, when I supervise (which mostly means help others carry boats and stuff), I don't row. But with a meters goal for the week, I decided to take out a recreational (wider) single, and row short oblongs (maybe 1250m x river width) in the vicinity of the boathouse, so I could keep an eye on things in case someone arrived late. Thanks - probably - to a steady light rain, there were no latecomers, just the 2 guys who were on time.
Ended up accumulating a little over 7500m, with rain during the first hour at temps in mid-70s F (not unpleasant, once you're rowing). Then it stopped for the 2nd almost-hour. There's been debris (boards) in the river from a bridge repair project (accidental drops, I think) - very annoying. I missed them all, fortunately. You don't want to hit stuff like this in these boats, and they're hard to see in amongst duckweed and such. One of the other rowers flipped his racing single - something he's done repeatedly, unfortunately - but without help from the debris . . . some kind of technical issue. 🤷♀️
More total volume than usual this week so far; HRrest suggests I'm not overdoing CV-wise, but I can tell my legs are starting to accumulate some fatigue.1 -
Went to the gym last night. Enjoyed it for a nice change of pace.
A few things I missed -- inner/outer leg machines, leg press, incline situp bench. And the benches (at least in the dumbbell section) were mostly open, so that was a pleasant surprise. Sore this AM, moreso in my shoulders and chest/arms. Did a lot of heavier flies, probably why. Looking forward to an easy cardio day today.2 -
@MikePfirrman - I'm missing the gym at the moment, too. I usually take a 12 week pause over the summer during vacation and race season. But now that the break is almost over, I'm ready to see my trainer and itching to get back to it in September.
I took a solo ride from the house last night. Just an hour route along the Farmington River. Didn't push too hard, except during my favorite 3 mile stretch, a wooded rolling slight downhill with just enough turns to make it exciting. 17 miles done.
Hope to get back to my running progression work tonight if the weather holds.2 -
C25K: Week 6 Day 2… CHECK!
Sunday should be fun. 22 min run no stops.😳. Bring it on!3 -
Didn't help my stress level like running does...
Really? Personally I find it VERY therapeutic to toss around heavy pieces of iron, grunting the entire time, lol.
Speaking of which, today was full-body-Friday:
Deadlifts
Hack Squats
DB Press & DB Row
DB Shoulder Triset (Front, Side, Rear)
DB Curls & Lying DB Extends2 -
Back on the river for the 5th day in a row, this time rowing bow in the double for the just slightly under 7k.
We kept it pretty-easy steady state, because on top of leg fatigue I slept abysmally last night (worse than my usual terrible sleep, even) and was feeling that; my double partner had spent 6 hours driving yesterday, so was in favor of gentle-ish work, too. Harmony (and moderate pace) prevailed.
That'll be it for formal exercise today, I'm thinking. River again tomorrow should put me well over the 40k on water I was hoping to get in this week, and I'm betting there'll be at least one quad with people who want to do power pieces.2 -
I ran 5K this morning. I was planning on going to a spin class but I'm feeling really tired. I think I need to rest 😊3
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Diversity makes the world interesting, I guess? I sure think it does: It would be tedious if we all thought the same things, y'know?
Not only does tossing around heavy pieces of iron not seem therapeutic psychologically to me, it actively kind of irritates me, definitely bores me . . . even though doing it is good for me and I'd never deny that.
I do try, sometimes, and it lasts for a while, but . . . ugh. 🤣
Sincerely, I'm glad you found your happy activity - I wish that for everyone. (Bonus for sure if both CV and strength boxes get ticked in the process, absolutely.)2 -
Maybe that's my issue, I don't grunt enough 😁
Much better stress relief today for me: a 12km treadmill run in 1h22. Mostly a steady pace, but accelerating the final 10 minutes or so, for the simple reason that I wanted to finish my run before our pizza arrived 😆
I've had more days without exercise this week than planned. Not sure if I'll hit my intended mileage this week: still at least
13km - preferably 17km - left to run on Saturday and Sunday (and Saturday I'm spending most of the day with my parents). We'll see!2 -
Was looking forward to an easy cardio day with the first half on the rower. Started out and something didn't feel quite right in my left arm/shoulder. I've always had some problems on that side because I had a misdiagnosed broken collarbone that never healed correctly from high school football. Likely due to the heavy flies I did last night.
Anyway, after five minutes on the rower, just decided to do LateralX and Assault Bike for an hour, super easy. Enjoyed the change of pace and didn't sweat missing rowing. Nothing major, I'll be back at rowing on Sunday.2 -
Just an easy spin session on my Kaiser2
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