At home training for rowing

[helpplease]

I won't be using the erg much anymore on the count that training on water is much more efficient for water racing... But is there anything i could do to Increase my erg score (and rowing ability) on land at my house without any exercise equipments at all? Something like wall sit or squat jump plan, or anything really

[Ben Rea]

try this thing called running

[mumbles]

As much stretching and core stability work as possible, you might even want to try pilates. I warn you, it is way tougher than it looks.

Good Luck

Owen

[Ben Rea]

why dont you want to use the erg if you still want to improve your 2k score, it doesnt make sense...

[helpplease]

why dont you want to use the erg if you still want to improve your 2k score, it doesnt make sense...

i would love to use an erg... if only i had one or access to one

I'm don't really care about my 2k now because i have a seat for now and we are only doing seat races now for spots

thanks for advice thus far

[Ben Rea]

ooo, i thought you had an erg, sorry.

[johnlvs2run]

Deadlifts and weights are good, one arm presses, pull ups, and running up hills.

[Ben Rea]

dont listen to him, he's just saying all the things that the next day will make you wish you never had legs!

[gorow9]

I've discovered that pilates is cruel and unusual punishment, however I'll second mumbles, it is a good wourkout, I"m usually shaking like a leaf by the end. (to the extent that people are asking me if I am allright.)

[helpplease]

I've discovered that pilates is cruel and unusual punishment, however I'll second mumbles, it is a good wourkout, I"m usually shaking like a leaf by the end. (to the extent that people are asking me if I am allright.)

ok pilates sounds good on the count of i have no workout stuff... could someone give me a website or something that gives a pilates plan?

[TabbRows]

If you google "pilates video" you'll be inundated with hits.
But it's best to go to a class at a local gym or Y. Check your university's student rec center, they may have classes.

I have a pilates instructor that makes my old boot camp drill sargeent look like a wuz.

Also check out the underground strength coach website for some alternative workouts with sandbags and truck tires etc.

Good luck

[Alissa]

I've discovered that pilates is cruel and unusual punishment, however I'll second mumbles, it is a good wourkout, I"m usually shaking like a leaf by the end. (to the extent that people are asking me if I am allright.)

ok pilates sounds good on the count of i have no workout stuff... could someone give me a website or something that gives a pilates plan?

Congratulations on your decision to try pilates! I’ve been doing pilates for over six years and find it a continuing challenge.

The quality of your experience will largely depend on your teacher. I'd stronly suggest some IRL sessions or classes before you proceed with tapes or DVDs. Pilates has some very subtle issues and you need a teacher who can look at you and help you understand which muscle is moving when it shouldn't and which one that should be moving isn't.

When looking for a teacher, you may want to inquire what his/her background is. There are some teachers who started out as aerobics teachers and simply took a weekend seminar and now they are “pilates” teachers too…that sort of teacher will teach it as if it were weightlifting or aerobics, instead of focusing on the fine muscle control that is the hallmark of the pilates method.

A good pilates teacher will have had several hundred hours of training and apprenticeship before they are certified to teach. Your teacher should be proud to tell you about their training. Some things you might hear from a well trained pilates teacher: (a) what “generation” (away from Joseph Pilates) his/her teachers were (you’ll tend to hear 3rd or 4th), (b) Pilates Method Alliance membership, (c) that they do continuing education on a regular basis, or (d) that they were/are a professional ballet dancer. If your class if a beginning class, they should spend quite a bit of time at the beginning working (1) on placement of your body (neutral spine, etc.) and helping you identify the muscles that should be moving and which shouldn’t be moving (and in what order) so that you can manage that posture, (2) how to breathe in order to support the posture and movement, and (3) building sequences of movement (generally not more than 10-12 repetitions of any single movement) that flow into one another with consideration for the need to rest, and the need to expand and intensify the work of your various muscles.

Once you understand your teacher’s sequences, you will be able to work as hard as you are willing to work—and work with a DVD if that's what you want. Most pilates students don’t sweat to begin with, so they think of the workout as “easy”—it is meditative, but if you focus and work intensely on both the appropriate posture, the muscles which are to be worked and the movement itself, you can—without running a serious risk of injury—work very hard with correspondingly very good results. I typically walk out of a session with a very good sweat—including completely wet hair!

I note that if you don’t have a good pilates teacher, you will end up wondering “what’s all the fuss about pilates…it just seems like yet another kind of calisthenics.” If isn’t and if that’s your experience, I’d encourage you to find another pilates instructor.

A mat class can actually be one of the more difficult things you can do, once it “ramps up” to the full series of exercises put together by Joseph Pilates. In fact, the equipment you may have heard about was intended (with springs, ropes, pulleys and positional resistance) to both assist practitioners who found the mat series too difficult and to provide additional challenges to those who were looking for additional work beyond the mat series.

Even if you intend to take mat classes, I strongly encourage you to consider at least an introductory session and possibly a series of private sessions with a qualified instructor who knows and can use the equipment to assist you in learning pilates principles as you begin your pilates work—it will help you to learn and take better advantage of a mat classes. Upon inquiry about your teacher and his/her qualifications, you may well find that he/she also teaches at a facility with the equipment. (Many mat teachers also teach in a full service pilates studio.)

Finally, here are a couple of web sites you may want to explore:

Balanced Body a company that builds many kind of pilates equipment and also sells tapes & books and provides teacher referrals, and

Pilates Method Alliance can also supply information on certified instructors and how to find them—I also note that PMA is relatively new and there will be many spectacular teachers who are not PMA certified.

I wish you a wonderful experience with pilates.

Alissa

[LJWagner]

Balanced muscle workouts.

For power: bench row, squats, good morning.

Your rowing power muscle areas are thighs and glutes, lats and rear delts, low back and the funny arm muscles that let you do reverse bicep curls. But balance them all. Running helps you balance the lower end. Ab work balances the low back and glutes. Bench press, shoulder presses, and front shoulder lifts help balance the lats and other shoulder and arm muscles. Wrist roll exercises are good, too.

Reverse bicep curls, because your hands are palm down as when rowing. Biceps bring your hand to your shoulder palm up. Looks great, less rowing effect though.

Don't just run hills, at least not slowly. Try hill sprints, too, or run with a weighted jacket or backpack with some weight. Carry your girlfriend piggyback more often. Find a partner in the boat to do alternate piggyback carries jogging.

Above all, avoid injury. Know how to do everything you do so you don't get hurt. Eat well, get good rest.

[zenpharaohs]

There is lots of training you can do without equipment. It's often called bodyweight training. The one that would be the most useful once you can do it, is the pistol squat. Along with other notorious bodyweight exercises, such as handstand pushups, you can develop quite a bit of muscle.

If you have an old knapsack, see if you can fill it with sandbags, or something heavy that won't poke you or shift around a lot. Then do step-ups. This is an incredibly simple exercise that you probably didn't realize had a name. It's what you think it is. You get some sort of stable non-slip step, and then you step up on it. Then you step down. Then step up again. Keep going with the same leg. When you are done? Switch legs. The higher the step the better. In a gym, you would do these with dumbells on a bench or plyo box - which means up to about an 18" step. Keep a good tempo.

If you find these are not enough of a challenge, then combine them. Pistol squats with a fully loaded knapsack for reps? I doubt most of your rowing team can do even one of those.

Then there are one arm pullups. A lot of really strong guys can't do these. Get a resistance band for the pullup-assist trick, and work your way up. Then when they get easy? Add weight.

If you want to get into all the stuff you can do without weights, there are quite a few sites on the internet for people who are into it. Just look up "bodyweight exercise" in a search engine.

[TabbRows]

One word of advice on Pilates. Erg(10-15minutes) or other wise warmup before the class starts. if you get shuttled into an advanced class because of schedule conflicts, DO NOT try to erg after class! You're first 250 will seem like you're flying but you'll really fly and die before you get to 750/1000. Been there. Done that.