Skierg Complementary Exercises?

[hand]

I recently read a nice NYT interview with Olympic Rower Esther Lofgren: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/1 ... pian/?_r=0

Among other topics, she discusses the importance of using weights to balance out her rowing specific muscle development and reduce injuries.

Does anyone have a good reference or suggestions for exercises complementary to SkiErg?

My sense is that rowing would be a good compliment, but unfortunately a hip injury means this does not work for me, so particularly interested in complements that don't place load on the hips. Also worth mentioning that my stretch goal is 1M meters on the SkiErg this year, so quite a bit shy of Olympic level fitness - just looking for suggestions to thoughtfully add to my workouts.

Thanks for any input!

[floatingbones]

My sense is that rowing would be a good compliment, but unfortunately a hip injury means this does not work for me, so particularly interested in complements that don't place load on the hips. Also worth mentioning that my stretch goal is 1M meters on the SkiErg this year, so quite a bit shy of Olympic level fitness - just looking for suggestions to thoughtfully add to my workouts.

Thanks for any input!

I am quite fond of rolling ropes. Rolling ropes is patterns of movement with a jump rope -- but without jumping. The DVD teaches four patterns of movement: overhand, underhand, sideways, and the sneak. I'm competent in the first two, am developing my overhand, and haven't started on the sneak. I started a month ago with a half-inch rope and am getting a beaded rope this week. Once I feel very comfortable with all four moves, I'm planning to get a 1-inch rope — 4x the mass of the half-inch rope. I'm intrigued by their monster 3-inch rope segment (GSL), but have no immediate plans to try one.

What I like about rolling ropes:

1. It's one of the best ways to exercise the spiraling lines in the body: arms, torso, pelvis, and legs.
2. The exercise is highly portable: all you need is a rope or two.
3. The sideways roll develops an open and balanced shoulder girdle — a healthy antidote to scrunching up the shoulder posture when rowing/skierging/typing. This will be challenging at first and there will be some soreness for a few weeks.
4. The sideways roll is very good training to relax the QL and psoas. It's not possible to perform those movements until you learn to relax those muscles on alternating movements.
5. It's a good exercise for grip strength. I especially like the rolled handles on BOSU's half-inch rope.
6. There are 4 basic patterns, but the interesting thing is the transition between those patterns. The "Around the Horn" set of exercises and transitions is really cool. It teaches nice fluid movement. Again, this is a good antidote to the highly-repetitive movement on a skierg or rower.

BOSU sells ropes and an instruction DVD. There are a fair number of YT videos around, but it's nice to have all the instruction in one place. You could use any jump rope; BOSU recommends training with a variety of rope weights.

[hand]

Thank you for the suggestion - not something I was familiar with, so I'll have to take a look / give it a try.