Training with a sore back

[11starboard]

I'm a 15 year old girl, I've been rowing competitively in fours for about 6 months and I just got an erg of my own last week. I haven't been doing any erg training or rowing for about a month. 4 days ago I did a 15 min steady state, and 3 days ago i did a 20 min piece, about 4.5k. YEsterday I woke up with a very sore lower back, and today it still hurts and feels as if it's been over-arched. I want to keep training throughout the fall and winter in preparation for the spring season without breaking my back... what should I do to warm up/stretch to stop it from hurting? does anyone else get this soreness from erging?

Thanks

[enrage]

My middle part of my back tends to get sore the most. I'm sure most of the replys that will
Follow mine will post the importance of good form and technique.
What I usually do to get the soreness and knots out of my back is to get a chair back
massage. I usually have to get one after rowing a half or full marathon. Stretching helps but I need an elbow in my back to get that muscle loose and free of knots. There's a guy at the mall in my city that does really deep tissue massage for a decent price. He always ask what I do since I don't yelp when he's workin on my back and I tell him its from rowing. He just says Ahhhh, that makes sense then.

[Gramps]

I get muscle spasms in the right middle of my back. Tentatively, I thought maybe I need a massage therapist. Thanks for confirming, Mr. enrage.

[Rockin Roland]

I'm a 15 year old girl, I've been rowing competitively in fours for about 6 months and I just got an erg of my own last week. I haven't been doing any erg training or rowing for about a month. 4 days ago I did a 15 min steady state, and 3 days ago i did a 20 min piece, about 4.5k. YEsterday I woke up with a very sore lower back, and today it still hurts and feels as if it's been over-arched. I want to keep training throughout the fall and winter in preparation for the spring season without breaking my back... what should I do to warm up/stretch to stop it from hurting? does anyone else get this soreness from erging?

Thanks

It's the erg.
C2 ergs are notorious for destroying peoples' backs. At the age of 15 and back pains already, that's not a good thing. At the very least you should put some slides under it. Not only will they save your back but will also prevent you from taking all the bad technique habits that you'll develop on the static C2 erg into the boat.

Alternatively, if your parents have the cash get rid of the C2 and get an erg that's better designed for your purposes eg. Oartec Slider or Rowperfect indoor sculler.

[KevJGK]

It's the erg.

It’s pathetic how you continually use Concept 2’s forum to criticise their product.

Granted - some people report back problems after using the erg, but plenty of others employ it extensively with no back issues whatsoever.

Maybe it’s a technique issue?

@11starboard

My advice would be to have a knowledgeable person check out your erging technique and to build your metres and intensity very slowly.

Drag factor could be an issue as well.

Best of luck.

[Yakky Doodle]

I'm a 54-year-old out-of-shape couch potato who alternates between not rowing for months to rowing 20K every day for weeks on end -- which is to say that I am not physically fit or particularly strong -- and I have never had any back problems as a result of using the C2. Rather the opposite. Rowing tends to stretch and loosen the muscles in my lower back (in a good way), and strengthen my abdominal muscles.

I would suggest the same things that KevJGK mentioned. It sounds like you need to have someone look at your technique and your settings. Stretching and warmups are not going to help if you're doing something that is structurally unsound for your back. Same problem if you have your drag set too high. The C2 should be good for your body provided you're using it right.

[Rockin Roland]

It's the erg.

It’s pathetic how you continually use Concept 2’s forum to criticise their product.

Granted - some people report back problems after using the erg, but plenty of others employ it extensively with no back issues whatsoever.

Maybe it’s a technique issue?

C2 product could be a whole lot better than what it is at the moment. If you extensively used products of other erg manufacturers then you would know that. For many years C2 was the world leader in erg design. However, this is no longer the case as they have fallen behind (I'm refering to design technology and not sales/marketing here) other manufacturers.

One only has to look at the numerous posts over the years, on this forum, about back problems to realize that there is an issue with the erg relating to this matter. Or alternatively, venture down to any rowing club that uses C2 ergs and have a chat with it's members to confirm this. If you've never had back problems then consider yourself lucky because plenty of others have.

Good technique and low drag will mask the problem but will certainly not prevent back injuries on a static C2 erg.

As this is a forum people should have the right to voice their views to keep the less experienced informed. Unlike the C2 UK forum that sensors such posts and has an unbalanced one dimensional view of it's products.

[NavigationHazard]

At the risk of being helpful.... it's important to stretch out/relax the lower back muscles after you erg or row. There are various ways to do this: you might ask your coach(es) to show you specific floor or bar stretches. One simple one you can do without leaving the erg: put the handle down and lean back towards horizontal with your legs flat and your feet strapped in. As your trunk straightens out you should be able to feel your lower back muscles losing their tightness.

You may also benefit from doing core exercises to build up your abdominal muscles. The basic idea is that skeletal muscles generally work in pairs: one (the "agonist") generates the movement, the other (the "antagonist") returns things to their initial position. The more balanced their relation to each other the less risk of injury (among other things). Thus a stronger 'front' should help your back.

[sheehc]

Just as an addendum to the many good suggestions that have been posted, go onto YouTube and search out video of top female scullers rowing. Watch that video and try to emulate the general stroke motion you see. Next, take video of yourself and compare it against the strokes you see the top level rowers using (do not post video of yourself online though, there is no need for someone your age to be doing so). Be honest with yourself about what you are doing well and what you can improve on. Remember to be positive while doing this, it takes years to get really good at the stroke, so every improvement you make is something to be proud of.

While the top level scullers do have some idiosyncrasies you probably shouldn't copy; the general stroke will be a solid template to base your own movements off of. Particularly, look at side shots where you can see how they use their bodies in the early part of the drive. The body's tend to be reasonably still, while the legs do the work. The bodies are used to connect the legs to the handles, rather than to specifically drive the boat. The following link has a decent shot of what I'm talking about between 1:10 seconds in and about 1:40. If you keep watching, you can see the eventual winner (ekaterina karsten) also rows with a solid connection between the legs and the handles, without opening the body early and is the better option for you to be modeling at the moment (she is much more relaxed through the upper body and second half of the drive). A decent shot of Ekaterina is seen from 5:00 to the end when she is pushing through some rough water and finally sprinting (but still pretty darn relaxed all things considered).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfTAsFlTEB0

As a suggestion, the following women have all won medals at the World Championships and/or Olympics. They each row a bit differently, but can give you some ideas to think about: Ekaterina Karsten, Mirka Knapkova, Katrin Rutschow-Stomprowski, Rumyana Neykova.

[Rockin Roland]

Before you do what Sheehc suggests make sure you have some slides underneath your erg. Otherwise no point trying to emulate top technical scullers on a piece of equipment that belongs back in the dark ages and makes for a very poor rowing simulator. You'll never get the feel of the correct movement and be able to develop the relative body syncronization on a static C2 erg.

Sorry, having gone throught it myself and later experienced better, I cringe every time I see or hear of a young person trying to learn to row on a static C2 erg. In this day and age there are now far better ways in achieving this.