Concept2 Forum

I'll admit that I have puny arms while my legs are fairly reasonable -- I like bicycling. But I know to "hang from the bar" and still at the end of a workout the muscle that feels most tired is my biceps.

Is there likely something wrong with my technique that leads to this? I can't help but think that my times are being limited by my arms.

1. Damper too high.
2. Not enough legs.

Same subject was discussed here: http://www.concept2.co.uk/forum/viewtop ... =4&t=19576

I've always rowed with a low damper. What do you mean by "not enough legs?"

gcanyon wrote:I've always rowed with a low damper. What do you mean by "not enough legs?"

You're slide shooting, you're not driving with the legs which should be 60-70% of the stroke.

http://www.concept2.co.uk/training/faults_corrections

I've had arms as a bottleneck before. From my experience it just comes and goes. Sometimes It's happened when truely my legs are tired and I use my arms to make up the pace I want. I've interpreted this as meaning I really had not earned that pace.

I had the same problem my novice year and most of my junior year, but then as I lifted alot and built up my biceps and fore-arms, I didn't feel that numb, empty feeling in my arms that I used to get half way during a piece.

Technique, and arm strength are the key to this. Make sure you are using your legs on the drive and not doing what the poster above me said and shooting the slide, you're scores will better tremendously and it'll give your arms a break.

Tallrower wrote:I lifted alot and built up my biceps and fore-arms.

While lifting is always helpful, your biceps and fore-arms really should not be used all that much in rowing. It indicates gripping too hard. I do some bicep work with weights mainly because I like to strengthen the complimentary muscles, but really for rowing it's triceps and lats that need work. Having said all that, as has been stated focus more on hour legs, then on your core and lastly on your arms. Your legs should be the ones feeling sore after a hard workout.

tdekoekkoek wrote:

Tallrower wrote:I lifted alot and built up my biceps and fore-arms.

While lifting is always helpful, your biceps and fore-arms really should not be used all that much in rowing.

Yes not in rowing, but in erging, holding up that handle can actually be very strenuous when you first start out, its very difficult to hold your arms perfectly straight for a long interval, and although you bring your arms in during the finish, for most of the recovery and drive, your arms are straight, and holding up a handle. That takes alot of strength.

If holding your arms straight (during the recovery) is hard work, that's a good reason for not doing it. Relax and let the chain do the work, as the weight of the oar does afloat.

I too have the problem of sore arms. I get extremely pumped and fatigued forearms. I'm a fitness trainer and haven't really been consistently rowing for a long time. I think the key here is experience. The more you do it the less sore your arms will be.

The reason I say this is because I've noticed the same thing in motorbike riders. They get sore forearms until they've done it for a while, then it goes away.

By the way, technique is not always an issue, although it can be. I row short pieces with a damper of 10 and longer ones on about 4-5. I really use my legs a lot and they get fairly fatigued. Basically your forearms are expected to get tired at first but your biceps shouldn't.

Despite sore forearms I'm proud of my most recent achievement, 500 metres in 1:25.5 but my 2000 is seriously lacking and this is probably due to lack of grip endurance.

jamesg wrote:If holding your arms straight (during the recovery) is hard work, that's a good reason for not doing it. Relax and let the chain do the work, as the weight of the oar does afloat.

But it's always a good idea to practice on the erg, and collapsing the arms during the recovery is bad technique, producing bad habits on the erg and OTW, so I think he should always keep his arms straight during the recovery, it increases length also.

Sore biceps:

Most likely you're breaking your elbows a bit as you catch. Your arms can be nearly straight, but pulling just a bit with your arms early in the stroke will mean you are holding tension in your biceps against the strength of your legs in the first half of the drive. "Hanging from the handle" means no arm muscles pulling. I personally have this problem from time to time and often don't notice till a coach or experienced rower tells me it's snuck back.

Sore forearms:

There's some training effect to help here as you get conditioned, but most likely you need to loosen your grip. The grip on an erg handle (or an oar) should be nothing like a motorcycle grip. On an erg, you should be able to row with your thumbs never touching the handle -- you can touch if you want, but there should be no pressure and it should not effect your stroke to keep the thumbs just hanging down. Your hand is a hook, meaning only your 4 fingers matter, not thumb. This will relax your forearm and indeed everything from hand to upper back & shoulders.