Are you headed up or down with your weight? Or are you right where you want to be? Two of the most common questions I get from high school rowers concern weight loss and gain. No matter what your level of rowing is, monitoring your body composition is a great idea. more
Posture is a culmination of life’s activities and tendencies. At the same time, our posture inevitably reflects our effort and commitment to improving it, or in some cases not. more
Rowing has its share of overuse injuries. Careful planning and learning to listen to your body’s signals are essential to minimizing the impact of overuse injuries. more
Rowing is one of the most demanding of all endurance sports. While most of the energy contribution comes from aerobic metabolism, anaerobic qualities such as muscular strength and power are also key predictive qualities leading to overall rowing success. more
Do you use momentum to get the last few inches of reach as you approach the catch? Or do you get there with freedom and ease? Your body, like all physical objects, follows the path of least resistance. Your catch length -- the distance your hips and shoulders travel into the stern -- can vary based on your flexibility and strength. more
The body is composed of 50-70% water (norm = 60%), and maintaining this balance is critical in regulating body temperature and cellular stasis. For endurance sports athletes, proper hydration is a key factor in effective training and race performance. more
Rowing, like all sports, involves acceleration and deceleration of the body. Endurance training tends to focus primarily on improving our engines and fuel – rightly so. However, the flip-side of this kind of conditioning is that we often neglect our shock absorbers. And weakness in the shock absorbers can then result in injuries to the frame. more
Do you take dietary protein supplements to enhance your training recovery? While much research has been done to examine how different whole food supplements affect muscle protein balance -- muscle protein synthesis (MPS) vs. muscle protein breakdown (MPB) -- after sessions of resistance training, one conclusion is clear... more
Have you ever complained that your hamstrings always feel tight? No matter how much you stretch your hamstrings, they never seem to become more flexible? more
Do you feel the need to try and balance out your rowing program by cross-training? You can create your own 20-minute balancing program by doing some strengthening exercises that target the opposing (antagonist) muscles to those which are used on the drive of the rowing stroke. more
Can your strength training regime also help improve your flexibility? Many athletes use passive stretching as a way to increase their flexibility which can help improve their training results, however recent research demonstrated that strength training alone was another way to increase joint range of motion. more
The sport of rowing inherently places great stresses on the entire body and being conditioned to such stresses can mean the difference between rowing all season or simply recovering on the injured list. Conditioning for the rowing movement is essential for injury prevention, maintenance of fitness level and peak performance in competition. more
The heart of January is the heart of winter erg training, and what better way honor the erg than with an interview with Mike Cavistion. Mike is inventor, teacher, and practitioner of the Wolverine Plan, one of the most intense training plans in the sport. more
It's intuitive that masters rowers need to mitigate the effects of aging. Loss of muscle mass is a symptom of growing older. This writer has included 2 to 3 gym workouts every week... until the year just ended. more
The on-water season is well underway - now is the time to maximize your base by taking it up one level-and delivering some muscle to those foot stretchers. more