low pull?

[yahooyellow]

i keep seeing "low pull" in in threads. what exactly is a low pull?

[NavigationHazard]

It's the lowest split for 1 stroke you can make appear on your monitor screen.

IMO it's totally useless as a predictor of anything, not least because many people (usually male) 'achieve' it through short-slide erg trickery rather than full-slide, normal-technique stroking. I should add that yanking the handle severely at max DF in pursuit of a stonking low pull is a very good way to injure yourself.

If you really want a measure of raw erging strength, something like the best two-stroke average from the middle of a 100m sprint will serve you better with much less risk.

[yahooyellow]

oh okay, thank you, i was just always curious what it meant

[WingedFoot]

IMO it's totally useless as a predictor of anything, not least because many people (usually male) 'achieve' it through short-slide erg trickery rather than full-slide, normal-technique stroking.

Meanwhile you proudly display your 1:09 LP!!

[NavigationHazard]

A full-slide stroke, it was, and it had company as part of a longer, supervised power-test protocol. So yes, I'm proud of it

[nnn]

hey how do i improve my low pull? i think improvements at shorter distances will lead to similar improvents at longer distance. my pb are lp:1:26, 200m at 1:32, 1k at 1:43, 5k at 1:55.5 i've read Pete's plan and find it most logical but i am not yet at the stage to follow it completely. instead i just alternate between interval and steady state sessions. and in the following month i will not have any access to rowing at all but then i plan to return to it.

so what are your thoughts on the following methods of training:
1) deadlift
2) clean&jerk
3) pullups
4) rowing very short intervals, i.e. 100m or 200m, in both cases active recovery is 2-3 the work time and when tired can make it even longer.

also when i do 200m or less my spm is 40, when 1k it is 32, 2k it is 30 and 5k it is 26(thats how i find it most comfortable)

mainly i was wondering if improvements in the above 3 would decrease low pull or #4 is much more effective? btw my numbers are-weight 70kg, deadlift-130kg, clean-70kg, #pullups-20.

also what do u think would be the LP of a professional weightlifter, someone who can clean 200kg? thanks

[NavigationHazard]

Cheers, absolute strength (e.g. a 1-rep result, such as a low pull) is never going to mean all that much on an erg unless it can be translated into sustainable power. The reason is that it takes a lot more than one stroke to cover the standard 2k competition distance. At 32 spm, for example, a 7-minute 2k will require 224 strokes. Longer distances require even more strokes.

Few weight-training programs I'm aware of reflect this reality. Thus it's possible to find empirical physiological studies suggesting that weights really don't help rowers much. I could supply references if I looked through my files or if I logged into Pub-Med. OTOH such studies don't necessarily reflect weight-training methods that make rowing-specific sense.

In my opinion, there's a great deal to be said for high-repetition resistance training that mimics stroke motions at moderate loads rather than high loads. In practical terms this means moving comparatively low amounts of weight lots of times rather than comparatively high amounts of weight a few times. I personally don't think it's a good idea to be doing a lot of free-weight deadlifts this way as the possibility of injury is quite high. However I think a mixture of leg presses, toe raises, back extensions, seated rows, and perhaps curls is a good idea. Moreover, it's always a good idea to strengthen the core muscles used in rowing (abs, hip flexors) since they're what support you as you slide back and forth. How many reps are we talking? I've been known to do things like 50 x 20 x 450-lb leg-press sessions, 30" between sets, but that's undoubtably way at the extreme end of the scale. Many more than the 20 or 30 reps that typically constitute a 'volume' weight session, though.

Having said this, I personally think that most people will do better to do rowing-specific strength-training workouts on the erg (or in a boat) rather than in the weight room. Over on the British C2 site, multiple-time Olympic coach Terry O'Neill recommends one-minute on/one-minute off pieces at low rating for strength training. A much more developed version of this sort of thing can be found at http://www.mycustomworkout.com/Fitness-Articles/?p=257. I think it very good advice indeed. The only caveat -- it's imperative to try to maintain good stroking technique. You want to increase your ability to sustain power without developing bad habits (e.g. pausing at the finish).

Good luck with it.

ps. Forgot to add -- I would imagine that anyone in the finals of the Olympic powerlifting events, or the shot, hammer or discus from the field events, would be pretty formidable for a stroke or even a short sprint given some training on the erg. World's Strongest Man competitor Magnus Samuelson supposedly has done a 500m piece in 1:15 or so as a one-off. I think Britain's Rob Smith has documented monitor splits of 1:00 during his recent 100m WR erg but I'd have to check the UK forum (or ask Rob) to be sure. I rather imagine that someone like Pavel Shurmei or Thorsten Engermann (monster rowers) could be in that league if they bothered to work at it a bit.

EDIT: Rob got down to 1:03 splits.

[PaulS]

hey how do i improve my low pull?

Raise your standards. (Ooops, this is the USA forum rather than the GBR)

[philrow]

hey how do i improve my low pull?

Raise your standards. (Ooops, this is the USA forum rather than the GBR)