What Was Your Work Out Today?

Lietchi wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Since this was intentionally a non-intense effort (that breakfast!), I decided to focus on technique. Reviewing basics is always good, and I tend to rotate through tech focuses over the Winter - things that apply to both boats and machines. For some reason (heh), it seemed interesting to focus on aspects of good technique that I've learned protect the back and shoulders. Usually, good technique (technique that makes us faster) is consonant with safe technique (things that avoid injury), fortunately.

I'm about to geek out on good technique features that also protect back/shoulders, feeling like I have a little tiny permission, but I'll hide it in a spoiler to make it easy to ignore for people who don't care.

IMO, there are two main areas of concern in shoulders/upper back, when it comes to rowing technique:

1. Rotator cuff, and the associated connective tissues. Partly that risk comes from imbalance, since rowing is only upper body pull. (Smart people do some upper body push exercises to balance stresses.) Part of the risk comes from suboptimal technique.

2. Spine, generally. Back troubles are easy to create.

For me, protecting shoulders and back means focusing on: (A) Prep out of the finish, and (B) creating structure to transfer power during the drive, distinguishing which muscles create structure vs. generate power, in different parts of the stroke.

All of the arm extension and forward body angle happen right after the finish. My arms have accelerated the last fraction of the drive, almost a snap. They immediately move away from my body at that same speed: Quick in, smooth turn, quick out. (If someone has a tendency to pause at the so-called finish, a quicker arms-away on the rowing machine will tend to drop split a second or two, almost for free. It lets the flywheel keep spinning fast.)

Length is important for better splits, so it's tempting to extend the arms away from the armpits/shoulders to get more upper body length: Not a good idea. That stresses the small muscles/tendons, which can't contribute much to power. Instead, I want my shoulders packed – stabilized – pulled down and arms connected to the torso. One of my coaches talked about imagining squeezing a tennis ball between the shoulder blades, really full lat engagement.

Forward body swing happens next, smoothly, after the arms-away - as if the arms (still packed at shoulder!) pull the torso forward. The body swing isn't bending the spine, it's coming from the big hip joints. (What I tell new rowers, and remind myself, is to think of those bird toys that sit on the edge of a water glass, dip their beak in the water, swing back up on an axle, then down again. The hips are where that axle is.) My torso should be a firm unit, core engaged 360 degrees to maintain the straight back: It’s the angle of back to legs that changes.

What I want is upper body engagement: My shoulders not forward of the torso, but linked to it firmly with the lats. Upper shoulders down.

Me, I loooove to over-use the upper body. IME, that seems somewhat more common in male new rowers than female ones as a fault, but I need to have all the faults, it seems like. Part of that is a temptation is to use the upper traps, because they're kind of big. Raising the shoulders makes it feel like the upper body is working more. It's not helpful, because it’s not useful (powerful) work.

After the forward (recovery) arms-away and body swing, the slide’s tilt, plus relaxation, carry me up to the catch, shins vertical. Then all that body set-up, described above, starts to do work, during the drive phase.

During the legs & swing part of the drive, my upper body’s job is to create/maintain structure. The structure’s job is to transfer power from the big leg muscles. I want to suspend my body weight between the handle and the foot-stretchers. In the first phase of the drive, I need to augment that raw weight with a strong push (almost like a jump, but smooth) from the legs. The arms are just cables, the shoulders and back structure help transfer power through the body. Upper body is not doing power generation, at this phase.

My first coach would say “don’t be a taco!” Bending the back into a c-shape (taco) is hard on the back. The spine is weak, moved by small muscles, not powerful. The core (all the way around) is more important, and the glutes/hamstrings do a lot of the power work in the body swing part of the drive.

Ideally, the glutes are not pinned, as one might assume, by pressure against the seat. I mentioned suspending weight between handles and foot-stretcher: I want that suspension to continue all the way from the catch to the finish. There won’t be airspace between butt and seat (or the seat will escape), but there can/should be a slight unweighting or decompression of butt on seat all the way through the drive. The drive is over when that can’t be sustained.

So. TL;DR: The major points are that I want shoulders down, lats firm. Until the arms part at the end of the drive, my arms just transfer power. An engaged upper body makes that power transfer work, and protects the shoulders. I strive to suspend my body weight to allow glutes/hamstrings to do the body swing. The body swing is primarily a pivot-like movement in the hip joints. During the whole rowing stroke, the torso is a single core-engaged straight unit, protecting the spine.

Interesting, thanks!
I'm going to pay more attention next time I row. It's not a rotator cuff issue, I think. More spine/posture related, perhaps I'm holding my back too straight (if that's even possible) or perhaps my back muscle are simply a bit weak. But I'll hopefully have a better idea next time I row, based on your explanations.

Lietchi wrote: »

Lietchi wrote: »

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Since this was intentionally a non-intense effort (that breakfast!), I decided to focus on technique. Reviewing basics is always good, and I tend to rotate through tech focuses over the Winter - things that apply to both boats and machines. For some reason (heh), it seemed interesting to focus on aspects of good technique that I've learned protect the back and shoulders. Usually, good technique (technique that makes us faster) is consonant with safe technique (things that avoid injury), fortunately.

I'm about to geek out on good technique features that also protect back/shoulders, feeling like I have a little tiny permission, but I'll hide it in a spoiler to make it easy to ignore for people who don't care.

IMO, there are two main areas of concern in shoulders/upper back, when it comes to rowing technique:

1. Rotator cuff, and the associated connective tissues. Partly that risk comes from imbalance, since rowing is only upper body pull. (Smart people do some upper body push exercises to balance stresses.) Part of the risk comes from suboptimal technique.

2. Spine, generally. Back troubles are easy to create.

For me, protecting shoulders and back means focusing on: (A) Prep out of the finish, and (B) creating structure to transfer power during the drive, distinguishing which muscles create structure vs. generate power, in different parts of the stroke.

All of the arm extension and forward body angle happen right after the finish. My arms have accelerated the last fraction of the drive, almost a snap. They immediately move away from my body at that same speed: Quick in, smooth turn, quick out. (If someone has a tendency to pause at the so-called finish, a quicker arms-away on the rowing machine will tend to drop split a second or two, almost for free. It lets the flywheel keep spinning fast.)

Length is important for better splits, so it's tempting to extend the arms away from the armpits/shoulders to get more upper body length: Not a good idea. That stresses the small muscles/tendons, which can't contribute much to power. Instead, I want my shoulders packed – stabilized – pulled down and arms connected to the torso. One of my coaches talked about imagining squeezing a tennis ball between the shoulder blades, really full lat engagement.

Forward body swing happens next, smoothly, after the arms-away - as if the arms (still packed at shoulder!) pull the torso forward. The body swing isn't bending the spine, it's coming from the big hip joints. (What I tell new rowers, and remind myself, is to think of those bird toys that sit on the edge of a water glass, dip their beak in the water, swing back up on an axle, then down again. The hips are where that axle is.) My torso should be a firm unit, core engaged 360 degrees to maintain the straight back: It’s the angle of back to legs that changes.

What I want is upper body engagement: My shoulders not forward of the torso, but linked to it firmly with the lats. Upper shoulders down.

Me, I loooove to over-use the upper body. IME, that seems somewhat more common in male new rowers than female ones as a fault, but I need to have all the faults, it seems like. Part of that is a temptation is to use the upper traps, because they're kind of big. Raising the shoulders makes it feel like the upper body is working more. It's not helpful, because it’s not useful (powerful) work.

After the forward (recovery) arms-away and body swing, the slide’s tilt, plus relaxation, carry me up to the catch, shins vertical. Then all that body set-up, described above, starts to do work, during the drive phase.

During the legs & swing part of the drive, my upper body’s job is to create/maintain structure. The structure’s job is to transfer power from the big leg muscles. I want to suspend my body weight between the handle and the foot-stretchers. In the first phase of the drive, I need to augment that raw weight with a strong push (almost like a jump, but smooth) from the legs. The arms are just cables, the shoulders and back structure help transfer power through the body. Upper body is not doing power generation, at this phase.

My first coach would say “don’t be a taco!” Bending the back into a c-shape (taco) is hard on the back. The spine is weak, moved by small muscles, not powerful. The core (all the way around) is more important, and the glutes/hamstrings do a lot of the power work in the body swing part of the drive.

Ideally, the glutes are not pinned, as one might assume, by pressure against the seat. I mentioned suspending weight between handles and foot-stretcher: I want that suspension to continue all the way from the catch to the finish. There won’t be airspace between butt and seat (or the seat will escape), but there can/should be a slight unweighting or decompression of butt on seat all the way through the drive. The drive is over when that can’t be sustained.

So. TL;DR: The major points are that I want shoulders down, lats firm. Until the arms part at the end of the drive, my arms just transfer power. An engaged upper body makes that power transfer work, and protects the shoulders. I strive to suspend my body weight to allow glutes/hamstrings to do the body swing. The body swing is primarily a pivot-like movement in the hip joints. During the whole rowing stroke, the torso is a single core-engaged straight unit, protecting the spine.

Interesting, thanks!
I'm going to pay more attention next time I row. It's not a rotator cuff issue, I think. More spine/posture related, perhaps I'm holding my back too straight (if that's even possible) or perhaps my back muscle are simply a bit weak. But I'll hopefully have a better idea next time I row, based on your explanations.

So today I did a rowing session: 6714m in 35 minutes - 65% in Z3 and the rest in Z2 or lower.

I paid attention to my technique. That suspending weight thing (slight lift-off of butt) is tricky, not sure if I got that right but my butt cheeks were definitely feeling the burn 😁
As for the upper body, still discomfort in the back after a while (just below bra strap height), the only thing that seems to help is bending forward/relaxing the back just a bit (for the whole movement, not any particular phase) so perhaps I was overextending when I thought I was keeping my back straight.