TimbukTOO Team Room

[damselfly]

Mine's not so bad, just some twinges. But twinges get to be worse things if you don't pay attention. Swam and rowed a half hour each today instead of pounding some trails. Feels better. I actually think it was due to the half-marathon, and not stretching enough (ahem, ANY) afterwards. I was tight and had a bad calf cramp that night. A few articles said tight calves and hamstrings can bring on knee pain.

So, let that be a lesson to you all!! Don't skip your stretches. I'm hella bad about mine.

(Yes, I did stretch after my row today!)

[Quatroux]

Some of the boys at the gym got my mind right on a few rowing facts. It is time for the rowing community to get with the times. Stretching is crap! I haven't stretched in over a year of rowing. I'm 3" shorter than before, but I look tight!

Always row before and after you lift weights. Rowing alone is not exercise. That's why old people can sit on a rower for hours and all they get is older.

I recommend rowing with the damper setting as high as possible, being early with your back and arms (speed, speed, speed), and rushing that slide (more speed). You can shave a lot of time off your stroke if you engage your arms, back, and legs at the same time. You also want your drive and recovery to be a 1:1 ratio or faster. Be intense! Speed up that recovery and you'll thank me for having the fastest rowing stroke in the gym. You'll know you are doing it right if you have to move the handle up to miss your knees.

Your back, hip flexors, and most of the connective tissue in your body will rebel. Rest assured that this is normal. Be safe. You have to know the proper technique for every exercise you do. That's why it is important to know which body parts should hurt after an exercise. If you row like me, it will ALL hurt. You'll look tight! Oh, so intensely tight!

[damselfly]

Some of the boys at the gym got my mind right on a few rowing facts. It is time for the rowing community to get with the times. Stretching is crap! I haven't stretched in over a year of rowing. I'm 3" shorter than before, but I look tight!

Always row before and after you lift weights. Rowing alone is not exercise. That's why old people can sit on a rower for hours and all they get is older.

I recommend rowing with the damper setting as high as possible, being early with your back and arms (speed, speed, speed), and rushing that slide (more speed). You can shave a lot of time off your stroke if you engage your arms, back, and legs at the same time. You also want your drive and recovery to be a 1:1 ratio or faster. Be intense! Speed up that recovery and you'll thank me for having the fastest rowing stroke in the gym. You'll know you are doing it right if you have to move the handle up to miss your knees.

Your back, hip flexors, and most of the connective tissue in your body will rebel. Rest assured that this is normal. Be safe. You have to know the proper technique for every exercise you do. That's why it is important to know which body parts should hurt after an exercise. If you row like me, it will ALL hurt. You'll look tight! Oh, so intensely tight!

LOL!! I love it!!

[ronmardix]

Some of the boys at the gym got my mind right on a few rowing facts. It is time for the rowing community to get with the times. Stretching is crap! I haven't stretched in over a year of rowing. I'm 3" shorter than before, but I look tight!

Always row before and after you lift weights. Rowing alone is not exercise. That's why old people can sit on a rower for hours and all they get is older.

I recommend rowing with the damper setting as high as possible, being early with your back and arms (speed, speed, speed), and rushing that slide (more speed). You can shave a lot of time off your stroke if you engage your arms, back, and legs at the same time. You also want your drive and recovery to be a 1:1 ratio or faster. Be intense! Speed up that recovery and you'll thank me for having the fastest rowing stroke in the gym. You'll know you are doing it right if you have to move the handle up to miss your knees.

Your back, hip flexors, and most of the connective tissue in your body will rebel. Rest assured that this is normal. Be safe. You have to know the proper technique for every exercise you do. That's why it is important to know which body parts should hurt after an exercise. If you row like me, it will ALL hurt. You'll look tight! Oh, so intensely tight!

Shocked

Confused

Really now!

lolz

[Izzzmeister]

All hands on deck, getting a golden tan! 8 of 36 members (22%) logged 104,662 total meters Sunday!

Milestones achieved: Yisroel H boinked 400K, Gary G gonged 300K while Mark E kerplunked 250K!!
Approaching milestones: Matthew near 450K (-14,529m) with Keith (-14,870m) close behind, while Lisa aims for 300K (-19,117m)!

Posted Meters:
Yisroel H - 31,314 Prep for another marathon…
Mark E - 19,079 Huge!
Gary G - 16,159 Just under 50K in 3 days!
Keith J - 14,033 Recovered from the HM…

Matthew R - 11,249 Keeps piling up those meters…
Lisa H - 6,209 Every other day is great!
Nancy W - 4,109 Solid!
Fred B - 2,510 Three in a row!

[Izzzmeister]

All hands on deck, ready to come to bat for TimbukTOO! 12 of 36 members (33%) logged 122,927 total meters Monday!

Milestones achieved: Lee C blew by 300K!!
Approaching milestones: David amazingly on the cusp of 1.2M (-7,871m), Kyle’s next goal is 700K (-23,138m), Keith (-930m) now leading Matthew (-3,299m) to 450K, Lisa (-16,117m) & Mark (-21,581m) chase 300K, John quite near 200K (-1,035m), Elisa fast approaching 150K (-24,832m) while Rob nears 75K (-9,597m)!

Posted Meters:
David W - 27,230 Tops!
Jim C - 16,000 Another sweet sixteen!
Keith J - 13,940 Nice!
Mark E - 11,699 80K for the week!
Matthew R - 11,230 Another!
Kyle J - 9,235 Great!

Joseph W - 8,686 Follows his wife’s lead…
Lee C - 6,510 Nice milestone!
John S - 6,164 Good going!
Elisa H - 6,007 Fifth row this week!
Rob M - 3,226 Climbing back on…
Lisa H - 3,000 Good consistency…

[Izzzmeister]

Some of the boys at the gym got my mind right on a few rowing facts. It is time for the rowing community to get with the times. Stretching is crap! I haven't stretched in over a year of rowing. I'm 3" shorter than before, but I look tight!

Always row before and after you lift weights. Rowing alone is not exercise. That's why old people can sit on a rower for hours and all they get is older.

I recommend rowing with the damper setting as high as possible, being early with your back and arms (speed, speed, speed), and rushing that slide (more speed). You can shave a lot of time off your stroke if you engage your arms, back, and legs at the same time. You also want your drive and recovery to be a 1:1 ratio or faster. Be intense! Speed up that recovery and you'll thank me for having the fastest rowing stroke in the gym. You'll know you are doing it right if you have to move the handle up to miss your knees.

Your back, hip flexors, and most of the connective tissue in your body will rebel. Rest assured that this is normal. Be safe. You have to know the proper technique for every exercise you do. That's why it is important to know which body parts should hurt after an exercise. If you row like me, it will ALL hurt. You'll look tight! Oh, so intensely tight!

I'm glad you've started listening to the REAL experts! I realized how wise these gym rats were when I heard from them the amazing size fishes they'd caught, the golf shots they'd made, and the staggering weights they'd lifted... in other gyms. I knew they must be telling the truth, because why would they lie? And right there, in a gym locker room, I learned from those pundits two of the most important lessons of life: What women REALLY want, and how they should be treated!
If you follow their advice for treating women, you'll know you're doing it right, because it will ALL hurt, AND you'll find yourself with lots of spare time to row!

[ronmardix]

If you follow their advice for treating women, you'll know you're doing it right, because it will ALL hurt, AND you'll find yourself with lots of spare time to row!

[tobyj1]

That training regime is good!

Worked my pulse rate up to 240 then bench pressed 220kg.

I think I may have blacked out for a minute but I am sure my speech will be back to normal soon

Seriously though did force myself to stretch today .

Keith

[Izzzmeister]

Some of the boys at the gym got my mind right on a few rowing facts. It is time for the rowing community to get with the times. Stretching is crap! I haven't stretched in over a year of rowing. I'm 3" shorter than before, but I look tight!...

While the guys at the gym are usually just below New York City taxi drivers atop the knowledge totem pole, they may have backed into something on this one.
(Admission: I don't stretch before rowing, instead I open my stroke up more and more as I warm up. I will sometimes stretch after rowing, using only a slight 'bounce'. I try to stretch once or twice during the day, sometimes 'static' [holding a stretched position], sometimes 'dynamic' [bouncing back at the end]. I don't do dynamic stretches on things like toe touches, as the extra force of body weight complicates things and sometimes can cause injury. I never hold a stretch position longer than about 20 seconds.)
Yes, stretching is very, very important. It's not as good for a bodybuilder who wants his muscles looking semi-contracted all the time, but it's great for people who want to be able to remain injury-free and back pain-free. (And stretching your back and reach may add an inch to your rowing stroke, giving you more speed and fitness.)
However, the research showing that stretching before exercise prevents injuries during that session is very, very thin. The research showing that STATIC stretching before exercise hurts perfomance is growing. The research showing that the ligaments & tendons attaching 'warm' muscles being stretched tend to get 'pulled' a whole lot less has always been there.
Stretching is an area that is being researched heavily, mainly regarding elite athletes who are trying to shave micro-seconds off their times, and so you would want to watch out for the latest results, as they're trying to correct some earlier "conventional wisdom" that wasn't helpful.
(I can't find the latest study comparing 4 types of pre-exercise stretching - 2 had positive results, 2 negative, but here is at least one article that shows some of the latest thinking. http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_art ... hing_is_bs Just remember Homnick's First Rule of Coaches: "Every great coach has 9 great ideas, and one silly one." The trick is to follow the correct nine, and not follow the silly one. If you don't know the difference, you're better off following all 10 than ignoring the coach.)
Sorry, I gotta go and stretch now...

[damselfly]

I do dymanic stretches before running (more like warm-up exercises that gently stretch at the same time), and static after. No stretches before rowing or swimming. The stretches I'm bad about is the afterwards. The rower is right off the *** DELETE - SPAM *** and I usually am running behind on time so have to hop off the rower and start dinner. I'm easily distracted by things right aft-- SQUIRREL!!!

Hey, Keith, 240 is pretty good, but you should really try to get it up into your anaerobic zone sometimes. I think in your Greenwich-Mean-Time-metric-ometer system that's about 320 BPM.

[ronmardix]

I'm easily distracted by things right aft-- SQUIRREL!!!

[goyo]

Stretching helps increase your range of motion. For inspiration look at the action figure, Stretch Armstrong. He can stretch 4 times his actual size. Why don't they make these anymore?


I've been traveling. My meters are down. It should only be a few more weeks and I will be rowing regularly again.

[Quatroux]

I'm reminded of a story...

I used to work summers for my Dad. People that talk about nepotism always overlook the fact that your family will expect you to do all sorts of things that a normal employee would never agree to. I’d already spent a summer standing in the middle of a field with a giant ruler (that’s a real job). I’d also spent a summer standing in the rain. Seriously, if it rained I’d take some jars out into a field and collect water samples. I was either hot or wet.

The summer after high school, I thought I’d try working in a saw mill. I was bored to tears sanding wood and probably didn’t last 2 weeks. However, I have one memory etched into my mind. The smell of beer sweat.

Beer sweat does exist. You’ve smelled it before. You encounter such a smell cleaning up after a wild party or venturing behind a bar on Sunday morning. Beer doesn’t age well when left out in the open. It turns.

That is exactly what you smell like when you really tie one on and then go stand in a hot and humid sawmill all day. You literally sweat the sins of the night away. I’ll forever remember the smell of those men at the sawmill. It is a smell earned from hours drinking followed by hours sweating. It is a hard odor to forget.

I was reminded of this odor as I mounted the rower this morning. I, myself, tied one on last night and unexpectedly exposed the entire YMCA to some 6am beer sweats... for nearly 2 hours of half marathon beer sweat goodness. Most men would feel bad about this, but I'd like to think that I brought a little bit of that sawmill to the YMCA today.

This row was for the hard working, beer sweating men of America.

[ronmardix]

This row was for the hard working, beer sweating men of America.

Great story.