Concept2 Forum

ies wrote:I just started rowing to get fit, and I've started on the Pete Plan (http://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/beginner-training/) today. When I start to do something i get really eager and keen, so, I decided to do two sets of 5000m and focus on technique instead of speed. Everyone tells me it's all legs, and I've watched countless videos on technique; however, when I was rowing, my legs didn't hurt at all. at the end of the sets, it was my arms that were burnt out. The first set, my arms were numb-ish and at the end of the second, they hurt a lot -- but, my legs were totally fine.

I have really strong legs, so it makes sense that they weren't exhausted.

Do you guys have any plans for training arms?

--snip--

It really then depends on what the problem is that you're having with the leg drive. In order to complete the diagnosis you need to understand the concept of connection. When you are in the drive phase of the stroke, you are basically attached to the machine by two points: your hands and your feet. Your body forms a linkage between the two. The instant this strong linkage is destroyed, you will no longer be getting power out of your leg muscles effectively into the handle.

You need to feel this connection all the way through the drive therefore.

--snip--However far more likely is that you are not getting connected. A few ideas:

Use a length of rope wrapped round the handle and chain guard (vertical bit below the monitor) to fix the handle at the catch. Then push with your legs to lift your bum about an inch off the seat (no more). Now hold the position for up to a minute. Do not let your bum rise any higher, or let your bum move backwards away from your heels. This is what being connected feels like. Leave your arms straight - if you bend your arms you will sit back down.

Then put the damper right up on 10 and row at quite a low rate ( 16-18 ). Don't hurry out of frontstops. Try and get the feeling of being light on your seat before you let the seat move away from your heels. You'll need to time the change of direction quite well to do this. Don't worry about being quick through the drive - it's not important.

Then drop the damper back to 3-4 and try and row without using any muscular effort at all. Just hook your weight onto the handle and then let your bodyweight take you backwards. As an extension to this, when you get to 2/3 of the drive done, just put a tiny blip of muscular force in to accelerate the legs and back through to the finish of the stroke together.

Then just build it up from there, but always keep connecting first! No matter how fast you're going (other than a 100m sprint!) it's very rare that you see people coming out of frontstops too slowly.

Mel Harbour

ranger wrote:What is your age and weight?

What drag are you rowing at?

And what pace and rate are you rowing for 5K?

That will tell the story.

ranger

ies wrote:

ranger wrote:What is your age and weight?

What drag are you rowing at?

And what pace and rate are you rowing for 5K?

That will tell the story.

ranger

I am 18 years old and weigh 193 (although I used to weigh 220 a 2 months ago) and I have a genetically big (both in muscle and fat) build. I had the damper at 10 and was rowing pretty slowly and steadily at 3:00/500m and focusing on technique (I want to get the muscle memory right before I really push), so I don't get stuck doing the wrong movement.

ThatMoos3Guy wrote:

ies wrote:I just started rowing to get fit, and I've started on the Pete Plan (http://thepeteplan.wordpress.com/beginner-training/) today. When I start to do something i get really eager and keen, so, I decided to do two sets of 5000m and focus on technique instead of speed. Everyone tells me it's all legs, and I've watched countless videos on technique; however, when I was rowing, my legs didn't hurt at all. at the end of the sets, it was my arms that were burnt out. The first set, my arms were numb-ish and at the end of the second, they hurt a lot -- but, my legs were totally fine.

I have really strong legs, so it makes sense that they weren't exhausted.

Do you guys have any plans for training arms?

If your arms are getting more tired than your legs, then you're simply not rowing with good technique. Rowing utilizes the upper body, but it gets a good 70% of the power courtesy of your legs. Take a look at some videos of people erging, here's a pretty decent one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqVmMd7FdAA

If your arms are getting tired it could mean a couple of things. You might be "shooting your slide" this is when you push with your legs, but the handle doesn't move much and you just push your butt backwards and then swing with your upper body. Another possibility is that you're breaking your arms too early, make sure that they stay locked out until your legs have finished pushing and your back has swung backwards. Then you can finish off the drive with your arms.

The best thing to do would be to try and find a coach or rower who can take a look at your technique. If you can't do that you could try and upload a video for members of this forum to analyze. Good luck, I hope you keep it up!

ies wrote:Thanks for the advice hjs,

I'll change the damper to 4 or 5 next time, and work my way down to at least 2:00 in the next few weeks. I knew I was going really slowly, and I wanted to go faster, but the Pete plan told me not to, ahaha. Also, I guess the fact my arms were tired was because I was gripping the handle pretty hard (I ended up with blisters), and I pulled with my arms before I leaned back.

Although, if I did want to work on my arms more to balance out my legs, do you have any advice? ThatMoos3Guy said 70% comes from the legs, but I still want to train my upper body too keep up the other 30%.