Concept2 Forum

Hi all,

I just found this forum, and has been absorbing lots of information from previous posts.

My son has been rowing with school club for 1.5 year (since freshmen year in high school). He is Sophomore now, and he is in love with the sport and enjoy the team environment.
He is 6'4" and 165 lbs. He has 2k time of 7:12 in the spring, and 5k time of 18:45 in the fall.

His goal is to reduce the Erg time so we can attend some selected summer programs next year.

We live in metro area of Boston. Now we want to use the winter time to improve his Erg time. Besides the winter training with the team, we are wondering if private coach will be beneficial.
We prefer to have private coach with in person training, but just could not find one yet in our area.

I do see some people recommend Xeno's training. There is no questions on Xeno's skills and experience. But my concern is he only offer online training, and I am not sure how effective it is (plus the price is quite high on the monthly basics).

Any thoughts and recommendations will be much appreciated.
Thanks all!

Hi there!

I've had really good results from a combination of customized online programming (Cameron Buchan, yamsquad.com) plus real-time, daily technique feedback from a coach in a launch.

At your son's height and weight, I would imagine that a combination of eating a lot plus strength training would also be a good use of the off-season.

Check out CRI (https://www.communityrowing.org/) - they have programs but also private coaching options as well. Another option is to reach out to the local clubs in the area (Gentle Giant Rowing Club, Riverside Boat Club depending on where you are in the metro area ...btw I'm Boston based) and see if any of their directors can connect you with one of their coaches for off-season erg training. Many of these local clubs run erg training sessions at their boathouses as well. DM me if you want more Boston-based resources. Good luck!

Probably don’t need a private coach.

If you have a decent coach for his team, ask them for advice.

If you don’t, I would think that lots of steady state work (70% of max heart rate - ignore rowing splits, just keep a steady heart rate) would greatly benefit him. This will be a significant time investment - plan on an hour or 2x 45 minute sessions a day.

Lifting weights - something like StrongLifts 5x5 would be perfect for him. Squat, deadlift, bench, overhead press and pull-ups are key.

Eating - he needs to eat such that he is gaining a half pound to a pound a week for a while (this assumes he is lifting with a progressive overload program). Eating the correct number of calories is probably the hardest thing for most people to do. An inexpensive digital food scale and a tracking app will make this much easier.

If he can get up to around 200 lbs with a great aerobic base from the steady state work with tons of new strength, he should be a monster in a year or so.

This would take incredible dedication. He had better want it more than you do.