RowingChat

The risks of abrupt changes of your training and surprising outcomes from practice lineups, rigging, and winter to summer transitions with guest Marlene Royle.
Timestamps
00:45 The effect of abrupt changes
Marlene sees these as a red flag for masters rowers. Her experience as a coach when racing season comes around was a trend from mid-summer on where their season got derailed. All were caused by quick changes, unfamiliar boats and doing a training session from another coach on top of their normal training.
These are all avoidable.
04:00 Transition from winter to summer
Let your muscles and tendons adapt to different stresses like moving from an indoor rower to a boat. The difference between a sculling erg and a sweep boat is clear in movement patterns.
All these abrupt changes resulted in injury to tendons or muscle strain.
Rule of thumb for moving onto the water is to start at 50% volume in week one and build up to full training in the new mode over 4 weeks. You won't get as fit on the water initially as you did on the rowing machine so use this time for technique.
07:00 Three injury scenarios
- An athlete with mild tennis elbow changed the grips on her scull handles. The new grips were a different size and it flared her tendonitis. Be aware of any pain (it may be a very small thing).
- Another had a glute / sacrum tendon tenderness and while somewhat fatigued did a practice with another club member and the following day was in a quad doing a race simulation. The boat was rigged high for her and she rowed the quad two days in a row doing another race simulation. This pushed the ligament strain and stopped her rowing for a month.
- Two athletes visited another club for a quad outing and found the rigging/boat changes led to a hamstring strain and the consequent race was "cautious" and not full power.
A soft tissue injury takes 6-8 weeks to heal, at best, with physical therapy.
19:00 When in an wobbly boat
The temptation is to stop rowing your normal pattern and instead to "flex" and go with what you feel in the boat. This is an abrupt change in technique and not conducive to protecting your body.
If you have a sensitive low back, then an unstable boat can cause a flare up.
Common sense - think before you do. Common sense is not very common.
For equipment make gradual changes.

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Join Santiago Fuentes to discuss
- the growth in masters rowing in South America (country by country differences)
- the main rowing events in the region - long distance head races and sprint.
— What you hope will happen next in the future

Ways to adjust your stroke to match the boat hull speed.
Timestamps
00:45 The boat velocity changes through the rowing stroke cycle and you can feel these changes as you row.
01:30 Efficiency is key
This is a measure of the difference between a skilful crew and less experienced athletes. When watching crews in a race you can see some crews just inch ahead of the others. Efficiency is a key to why the best crews do well - they use their power efficiently; they help the boat hull to move through the water with greater efficiency - how do they do this? They manage their body mass well.
Body mass is resistance to changes in velocity.
This matters because the entire boat is moving forwards all the time (even though you may think you go backwards and forwards on the slide).
Because of the sliding seat, the boat hull doesn't travel level, the bow moves up and down through the stroke cycle.
03:40 Maximum Boat Speed
Diagram of boat speed through the water (credit British Rowing)
https://fastermastersrowing.com/getting-ahead-or-behind-the-boat-speed/
Maximum boat speed DOES NOT happen in the power phase. The point of maximum velocity is after the oars have come out of the water. [NOTE: not maximum acceleration as said in the video.] At this point you are transitioning onto the recovery (arms away / body rock forwards).
On a video filmed square off 90 degrees to the rowing boat - when the bow ball is at its highest point is when the athletes have moved closest to the stern (on the recovery) and the point of maximum acceleration is when the bow ball is lower and when the athlete is transitioning from the power phase onto the recovery phase.
The diagram shows the boat at low and high rates (right hand side). At higher rates the point of maximum acceleration is nearer to the catch on the recovery.
The boat moves differently at high stroke rates from low stroke rates.
Understanding and noticing the boat acceleration feeling and how your body moves are two things you can control. If you can learn how to feel the boat movements you can make refined adjustments to how you are rowing at race pace compared to steady lower rates.
07:30 Low rate endurance rowing
We get good at efficiency at low rates because rowers do a lot of endurance training. Yet athletes who race want the effect of efficiency at race rates. Can we improve our agility and how we are moving with the hull and practice in training?
Periodised training plans do not include a lot of high rate work. What we can do to keep the boat skills of handling the oars and body mass at low and high rates?
08:45 Agility Drills
These are key to learning the skills. Ways to move quickly and keep the handle speed in time with the boat. These can be spliced into endurance rows for short periods of time. This doesn't upset the physiological training effect.
Try doing agility drills for 1 minute in every 10 minutes low rate rowing.
- Half Slide rowing - go from stroke rate 20 down to half slide the rate will change to around 26-28. This forces you to prepare the handle earlier for the catch, to move with more precision around the finish - you have less time on the recovery.
- Half Slide Up Twos -
- Double quick hands round the recovery -
- Pause drills - choose where you pause for example quarter slide or weight on the feet. Look for the moment when the boat glide begins on the slide and the athlete body is relaxed.
- Double quick hands and pause at weight on the feet.
Learn how to feel whether you are getting ahead or behind the boat hull speed is key to going really fast when you are racing.

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Hear Becky Wilson for an in-depth review of the considerations for the masters athlete in terms of cardiac health.

- Understanding your cardiac risk profile
- New to rowing or returning after a long break?
- How training for sport changes as we age from a cardiac health perspective.
- A common mistake many masters athletes make with their training.
- Age related adjustments to heart rate with respect to training in UT2, UT1 etc.
- Understand and use the Karvonen Method for finding Heart Rate Zones.
- Beta Blocked athletes need to do this with their calculation
- Is it safe to train/compete after a cardiac event or a diagnosis of a cardiac condition?

Download the slides
https://fastermastersrowing.com/cardiac-health-and-rowing/

Improve your rowing ratio while lifting in the gym.
Timestamps
00:45 Rowing can be improved by strength training
Lifting heavy has lots of benefits - today we'll talk about ratio. The contrast between the power phase and recovery phase. How to use this concept of ratio in strength training.
02:00 Improve range of movement
As we age we find our muscles and tendons don't have the same range and so our stride gets shorter. Strength training can help improve or maintain RoM.
Weight lifting works in two planes - when you lift the weight and when you return it to the start point.
Concentric muscle movements are shortening the muscle (as you lift).
Eccentric muscle movements are lengthening the muscle (as you return the weight to the start).
Eccentric muscle work can help improve your range of movement. Working on this part of the strength lift can use the rowing ratio as part of the movement.
03:45 Ratio in strength training
The braking effect that you use as you control the weight in the eccentric lengthening muscle phase as you lower the weight down can enable you to have greater force production.
When lifting heavy for few repetitions or using small muscles e.g. doing chin-ups against your body weight you may find the difference between the last successful lift and when you fail is large.
Do your first chin up
One way to improve your strength and do your first chin up is to start at the top of the lift with your chin over the bar (you may need a chair to step or jump up there). Then slowly lower yourself by straightening your arms doing just the eccentric part of the lift. You will gain strength more quickly by doing this slowly muscle lengthening under load. When you've done this a few times, try doing one chin up - you probably can lift yourself up.
Use approximately a 3:1 ratio in your lifting. The more ratio you can manage the more you will be working the braking effect on the eccentric lift.
06:45 Improve range of movement
Consider a difficult lift like a squat using an olympic bar. Getting a deeper squat - to 90 degrees or to a deep squat position is challenging.
08:00 6 week challenge to improve your ROM.
3x per week for 6 weeks.
Start each lift with an ultra-light load. This helps refamiliarise your muscles with the movement. Then add weight so that you keep good form. Try to do 3-5 sets of each lift each time you go to the gym.
Do 6 sessions on power - increase the load you can lift. Position a bench behind you so you squat down to just touching your bum on the bench. Goal is 90 degrees. For a deep squat choose a lower block to sit down to. Start with 5-8 reps on power - increase load.
Do 6 sessions on range of movement - lower the bench. You may need to reduce the load in order to do this. Have someone spotting for you and checking your movements.
Do 6 sessions on speed - lower for 3 and push up fast for 1. So build your ratio into these sessions.
11:30 Take your ratio training from the gym back into the boat. Can you push the oar faster through the water so that you can take longer on the slide recovery? You may be able to increase your ratio thanks to your work in the gym.