Your Absolute Top Choices Of Strength Training For Making You Faster On The Concept 2.

[milansanremo]

I'm not interested in trying to weed through all the "false prophets" on YouTube. You guys are the experts so I would like to ask you.
Let's make this simple. If you could only choose two strength exercises for your upper body and two for below the waist, which ones would result in the absolute maximum benefit to being faster on the Concept 2.
Nothing is "off-limits".... log throwing, tractor pulling, pull-ups with 100lb weight belt on, 90° quad isometric stance with back against the wall and two women on your knees...LOL
During my time as a professional cyclist I can say that I know of no one that experienced any benefit of trying a scientific based strength training program.
Obviously, rowing is a different animal and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the correct strength training program added to pure erg training would result in a very positive benefit.

Thanks

[jcross485]

Lower Body: Some kind of loaded hinge (deadlift, heavy 2-handed kettlebell swing) and higher rep walking lunges.

My anthropometrics are such that squatting just beats me up more than I would like, but I can do heavy hinging just about daily with no problem. If I could squat without being beat up, I would either front squat or safety bar squat.

Upper Body: Some kind of heavy pull (pendlay row, weighted pull-up) and some kind of press (push-ups or dips).

Pendlay rows seem to help my deadlift quite a bit and if done correctly will strengthen your position on the erg (IMO). I have a weighted pull-up goal I am trying to hit so those have taken priority in my strength work. I was doing a lot of push-ups with my feet slightly elevated and with push up handles to keep my body more parallel to the ground but those weren't all that heavy, more about maintaining good rigidity through the body and adding in a bit of pressing. I've recently added a dip station to my garage so those have taken priority (plus doing weighted pull-ups and weighted dips with the same weight is just convenient).

---

Right now, I am training for a few specific goals - a 500m row (I have a time in mind), a deadlift (I have a specific weight in mind), and a weighted pull-up (again, a specific weight in mind).

2 out of my weekly 3 strength sessions right now look like this:

Full body warm up for ~10 mins to get blood moving and a slight sweat

Deadlift / Deadlift Variation: A couple of sets building to my top working weight, then 5 sets at the prescribed reps and prescribed percentage

"Weight Vest Circuit": 10+ rounds of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 walking lunges (per leg) with a weight vest

---

My third weekly strength session right now looks like this:

Full body warm up for ~10 mins to get blood moving and a slight sweat

Deadlift / Deadlift Variation: A couple of sets building to my top working weight, then 5 sets at the prescribed reps and prescribed percentage

Heavy Weighted Pull-Ups and Heavy Weighted Dips: A couple of sets building to my top working weight, then 5 sets at the prescribed reps and prescribed percentage

[milansanremo]

Lower Body: Some kind of loaded hinge (deadlift, heavy 2-handed kettlebell swing) and higher rep walking lunges.

My anthropometrics are such that squatting just beats me up more than I would like, but I can do heavy hinging just about daily with no problem. If I could squat without being beat up, I would either front squat or safety bar squat.

Upper Body: Some kind of heavy pull (pendlay row, weighted pull-up) and some kind of press (push-ups or dips).

Pendlay rows seem to help my deadlift quite a bit and if done correctly will strengthen your position on the erg (IMO). I have a weighted pull-up goal I am trying to hit so those have taken priority in my strength work. I was doing a lot of push-ups with my feet slightly elevated and with push up handles to keep my body more parallel to the ground but those weren't all that heavy, more about maintaining good rigidity through the body and adding in a bit of pressing. I've recently added a dip station to my garage so those have taken priority (plus doing weighted pull-ups and weighted dips with the same weight is just convenient).

---

Right now, I am training for a few specific goals - a 500m row (I have a time in mind), a deadlift (I have a specific weight in mind), and a weighted pull-up (again, a specific weight in mind).

2 out of my weekly 3 strength sessions right now look like this:

Full body warm up for ~10 mins to get blood moving and a slight sweat

Deadlift / Deadlift Variation: A couple of sets building to my top working weight, then 5 sets at the prescribed reps and prescribed percentage

"Weight Vest Circuit": 10+ rounds of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, and 15 walking lunges (per leg) with a weight vest

---

My third weekly strength session right now looks like this:

Full body warm up for ~10 mins to get blood moving and a slight sweat

Deadlift / Deadlift Variation: A couple of sets building to my top working weight, then 5 sets at the prescribed reps and prescribed percentage

Heavy Weighted Pull-Ups and Heavy Weighted Dips: A couple of sets building to my top working weight, then 5 sets at the prescribed reps and prescribed percentage

That's awesome... virtually everything that you mentioned were right at the top of my "mental" list. I will need to "look up" pendlay row as I've never heard of that.
My thoughts for lower were squats and deadlifts... with both being the objective of establishing max PR's (low reps..low sets.. going heavy). At 47 I was doing 10 reps x7 sets of full squats (free weights) between 380-420lbs at 166 lb bodyweight so I'm very familiar with that.
For upper I was thinking dips and pull-ups (both with weighted vest,).. again concentrating on low reps/max strength.
Before I started rowing in January I was doing 7-8 sets of 10 pull-ups alternating hand positions every day.... so I could incorporate a weight vest concentrate on adding weight in lieu of reps/sets.
Am I correct in thinking that this type of regimen would have maximum benefit up to "say 2000m timed distance"...?
Do world class 2000m specialists "of any age class" incorporate something along these lines (in addition to their Erg workouts) in their overall program?

[alex9026]

That's awesome... virtually everything that you mentioned were right at the top of my "mental" list. I will need to "look up" pendlay row as I've never heard of that.
My thoughts for lower were squats and deadlifts... with both being the objective of establishing max PR's (low reps..low sets.. going heavy). At 47 I was doing 10 reps x7 sets of full squats (free weights) between 380-420lbs at 166 lb bodyweight so I'm very familiar with that.
For upper I was thinking dips and pull-ups (both with weighted vest,).. again concentrating on low reps/max strength.
Before I started rowing in January I was doing 7-8 sets of 10 pull-ups alternating hand positions every day.... so I could incorporate a weight vest concentrate on adding weight in lieu of reps/sets.
Am I correct in thinking that this type of regimen would have maximum benefit up to "say 2000m timed distance"...?
Do world class 2000m specialists "of any age class" incorporate something along these lines (in addition to their Erg workouts) in their overall program?

Can't really add anything to jcross suggestions, bodyweight exercises definitely have their place. Just a word on pendlay rows, not to be mistaken for the classic bent over row... think power and explosiveness, they do take a fair bit of practice (ime anyway, I struggled with the bar path in keeping my knees out the way).

There's a recent discussion on the 'What training have you done today' thread re strength training.

Your squat numbers, I don't intend to question them, but ... 7x10 at well over two times bodyweight? You may want to consider pursuing another sport!

[Sakly]

I am an advocate of higher rep ranges in strength training and think they have a much better carry over to rowing than the low rep ranges for max strength. Latter one helps for the short stuff, I am sure, but as soon as you need to push out hundreds of strokes, max strength will not help that much.
I often did some kind of 100x50, 80x80, 70x90 for squats (rest and split into sets as needed) and this is giving you some similar stimulus on a higher load. I found that much more helpful than the lower rep range stuff with higher weights.

[jcross485]

That's awesome... virtually everything that you mentioned were right at the top of my "mental" list. I will need to "look up" pendlay row as I've never heard of that.
My thoughts for lower were squats and deadlifts... with both being the objective of establishing max PR's (low reps..low sets.. going heavy). At 47 I was doing 10 reps x7 sets of full squats (free weights) between 380-420lbs at 166 lb bodyweight so I'm very familiar with that.
For upper I was thinking dips and pull-ups (both with weighted vest,).. again concentrating on low reps/max strength.
Before I started rowing in January I was doing 7-8 sets of 10 pull-ups alternating hand positions every day.... so I could incorporate a weight vest concentrate on adding weight in lieu of reps/sets.
Am I correct in thinking that this type of regimen would have maximum benefit up to "say 2000m timed distance"...?
Do world class 2000m specialists "of any age class" incorporate something along these lines (in addition to their Erg workouts) in their overall program?

The Pendlay Row is more of an explosive row with each rep starting from a dead stop on the ground. They're just a personal preference of mine.

With squats, I would 100% agree that those and deadlifts should be the bread and butter of lower body work. The way I'm built and with my proportions, I've never found a way to squat that doesn't really beat me up. I hit some decent numbers on the squat when all I did was strength work but it came with a cost that I don't want to pay anymore; I've finally accepted that and have leaned into what I can do with relatively high frequencies, volumes, and intensities if I want, and that is deadlifting or hinging.

As an aside, there was a big uptick in interest in the Bulgarian Method or Squat Everyday of strength training a while back and it still seems to come up from time to time in the strength world. I like many others gave it a go. I just couldn't make it work mainly because of my wrists, elbows, and adductors. Most people when talking about the Bulgarian Method / Squat Everyday talk about how deadlifting should largely be avoided except for some lighter technique work, and that the squat will drive up the deadlift. I've found the complete opposite for me - I went down the road of the Bulgarian Method / Deadlift Everyday for a while and it really, really suited me well.

With the upper body work, I do believe benching or overhead pressing could also be good options if they're things you enjoy. I don't have a bench in my garage and with where my rack is mounted and the ceiling storage racks we have, I would have to walk a few steps each time I un-racked and re-racked weights to overhead press, so I just opt to not do it. If your shoulders can tolerate dips, I would recommend them - I've only recently added them in but there's something about moving your body through space that just makes sense to me.

With the strength work, I could very well be in the minority, but I tend to prefer the majority of my work being quite far from failure with a focus on speed, power, and explosiveness / acceleration through the lift. Think Prilepin's Chart type set / rep / percentage schemes (sometimes higher volumes through more sets), StrongFirst principles, Wendler principles, etc. I don't generally train with very many reps per set (aside from push-ups because they're relatively light compared to a max push-up) and walking lunges (again, very light compared to a max lunge). I prefer to drive up volume through doing more lower rep sets than higher rep sets and/or pushing closer to failure. Again, this is my personal preference. I let the strength work in the gym drive up strength for the most part and let the erg work take care of erg specific performance.

Would it have max benefit for a 2k? I genuinely don't know but I don't see how it would hamper a 2k. Do any world class 2k rowers do this? I genuinely don't know. I am very, very far from a world class rower. I am just a soon to be 40 dad of two who loves to strength train but knows that cardiovascular / endurance work is very good for him and opt to use the rower as the modality.

I am an advocate of higher rep ranges in strength training and think they have a much better carry over to rowing than the low rep ranges for max strength. Latter one helps for the short stuff, I am sure, but as soon as you need to push out hundreds of strokes, max strength will not help that much.
I often did some kind of 100x50, 80x80, 70x90 for squats (rest and split into sets as needed) and this is giving you some similar stimulus on a higher load. I found that much more helpful than the lower rep range stuff with higher weights.

I've personally not done much in the way of higher rep strength or barbell work but I think there is a lot of merit in doing kind of higher rep, higher volume work like this. My personal preference has been through higher rep / volume walking lunges as it checks off the unilateral leg work box that a lot of us don't necessarily get.

[Dutch]

All I would add here is sometimes consider an all body session once a week and swap deads and squats fortnightly if you really want to go heavy and recover. Do the squats or deads in a separate session form the body session.
I would use wendler principles on squats and deadlifts. I personally use 6 to 8 reps on whole body and just 2 or 3 sets, with lots of dumb bells where possible, using a dorian yates approach of HIT.
I personally prefer sumo to conventional deads, just the way i am built. I use front squats in the body session and yates row. I used to pendlay row but did not really like it.

[Dangerscouse]

The only thing I'd add is the benefits of doing antagonist exercises, eg, press ups (narrow and diamond to target triceps) and reverse table top planks (to open up the shoulders and the hips. I do these after virtually every session now.

[milansanremo]

That's awesome... virtually everything that you mentioned were right at the top of my "mental" list. I will need to "look up" pendlay row as I've never heard of that.
My thoughts for lower were squats and deadlifts... with both being the objective of establishing max PR's (low reps..low sets.. going heavy). At 47 I was doing 10 reps x7 sets of full squats (free weights) between 380-420lbs at 166 lb bodyweight so I'm very familiar with that.
For upper I was thinking dips and pull-ups (both with weighted vest,).. again concentrating on low reps/max strength.
Before I started rowing in January I was doing 7-8 sets of 10 pull-ups alternating hand positions every day.... so I could incorporate a weight vest concentrate on adding weight in lieu of reps/sets.
Am I correct in thinking that this type of regimen would have maximum benefit up to "say 2000m timed distance"...?
Do world class 2000m specialists "of any age class" incorporate something along these lines (in addition to their Erg workouts) in their overall program?

Can't really add anything to jcross suggestions, bodyweight exercises definitely have their place. Just a word on pendlay rows, not to be mistaken for the classic bent over row... think power and explosiveness, they do take a fair bit of practice (ime anyway, I struggled with the bar path in keeping my knees out the way).

There's a recent discussion on the 'What training have you done today' thread re strength training.

Your squat numbers, I don't intend to question them, but ... 7x10 at well over two times bodyweight? You may want to consider pursuing another sport!

I decided to see if a winter of squats would have any effect on a 10 mile cycling time trial record I was attempting to break. It had no effect (maybe a few seconds). Without squats my time was 18:50....after a winter of squats...18:47.

[milansanremo]

I am an advocate of higher rep ranges in strength training and think they have a much better carry over to rowing than the low rep ranges for max strength. Latter one helps for the short stuff, I am sure, but as soon as you need to push out hundreds of strokes, max strength will not help that much.
I often did some kind of 100x50, 80x80, 70x90 for squats (rest and split into sets as needed) and this is giving you some similar stimulus on a higher load. I found that much more helpful than the lower rep range stuff with higher weights.

Thanks... that makes sense to me... sounds very logical for 2k and above times.

[milansanremo]

That's awesome... virtually everything that you mentioned were right at the top of my "mental" list. I will need to "look up" pendlay row as I've never heard of that.
My thoughts for lower were squats and deadlifts... with both being the objective of establishing max PR's (low reps..low sets.. going heavy). At 47 I was doing 10 reps x7 sets of full squats (free weights) between 380-420lbs at 166 lb bodyweight so I'm very familiar with that.
For upper I was thinking dips and pull-ups (both with weighted vest,).. again concentrating on low reps/max strength.
Before I started rowing in January I was doing 7-8 sets of 10 pull-ups alternating hand positions every day.... so I could incorporate a weight vest concentrate on adding weight in lieu of reps/sets.
Am I correct in thinking that this type of regimen would have maximum benefit up to "say 2000m timed distance"...?
Do world class 2000m specialists "of any age class" incorporate something along these lines (in addition to their Erg workouts) in their overall program?

The Pendlay Row is more of an explosive row with each rep starting from a dead stop on the ground. They're just a personal preference of mine.

With squats, I would 100% agree that those and deadlifts should be the bread and butter of lower body work. The way I'm built and with my proportions, I've never found a way to squat that doesn't really beat me up. I hit some decent numbers on the squat when all I did was strength work but it came with a cost that I don't want to pay anymore; I've finally accepted that and have leaned into what I can do with relatively high frequencies, volumes, and intensities if I want, and that is deadlifting or hinging.

As an aside, there was a big uptick in interest in the Bulgarian Method or Squat Everyday of strength training a while back and it still seems to come up from time to time in the strength world. I like many others gave it a go. I just couldn't make it work mainly because of my wrists, elbows, and adductors. Most people when talking about the Bulgarian Method / Squat Everyday talk about how deadlifting should largely be avoided except for some lighter technique work, and that the squat will drive up the deadlift. I've found the complete opposite for me - I went down the road of the Bulgarian Method / Deadlift Everyday for a while and it really, really suited me well.

With the upper body work, I do believe benching or overhead pressing could also be good options if they're things you enjoy. I don't have a bench in my garage and with where my rack is mounted and the ceiling storage racks we have, I would have to walk a few steps each time I un-racked and re-racked weights to overhead press, so I just opt to not do it. If your shoulders can tolerate dips, I would recommend them - I've only recently added them in but there's something about moving your body through space that just makes sense to me.

With the strength work, I could very well be in the minority, but I tend to prefer the majority of my work being quite far from failure with a focus on speed, power, and explosiveness / acceleration through the lift. Think Prilepin's Chart type set / rep / percentage schemes (sometimes higher volumes through more sets), StrongFirst principles, Wendler principles, etc. I don't generally train with very many reps per set (aside from push-ups because they're relatively light compared to a max push-up) and walking lunges (again, very light compared to a max lunge). I prefer to drive up volume through doing more lower rep sets than higher rep sets and/or pushing closer to failure. Again, this is my personal preference. I let the strength work in the gym drive up strength for the most part and let the erg work take care of erg specific performance.

Would it have max benefit for a 2k? I genuinely don't know but I don't see how it would hamper a 2k. Do any world class 2k rowers do this? I genuinely don't know. I am very, very far from a world class rower. I am just a soon to be 40 dad of two who loves to strength train but knows that cardiovascular / endurance work is very good for him and opt to use the rower as the modality.

I am an advocate of higher rep ranges in strength training and think they have a much better carry over to rowing than the low rep ranges for max strength. Latter one helps for the short stuff, I am sure, but as soon as you need to push out hundreds of strokes, max strength will not help that much.
I often did some kind of 100x50, 80x80, 70x90 for squats (rest and split into sets as needed) and this is giving you some similar stimulus on a higher load. I found that much more helpful than the lower rep range stuff with higher weights.

I've personally not done much in the way of higher rep strength or barbell work but I think there is a lot of merit in doing kind of higher rep, higher volume work like this. My personal preference has been through higher rep / volume walking lunges as it checks off the unilateral leg work box that a lot of us don't necessarily get.

A lot of great information...thank you for taking the time to do that...John

[milansanremo]

The only thing I'd add is the benefits of doing antagonist exercises, eg, press ups (narrow and diamond to target triceps) and reverse table top planks (to open up the shoulders and the hips. I do these after virtually every session now.

Thanks...I was thinking that doing some strength training immediately after rowing would be a good way to tip toe into this.