Bad Bad Habit

dutchcan · Post by **dutchcan** » May 17th, 2006, 11:36 am

Just got back from the gym, a little worse for wear. While erging, I tend to watch the tv which is situated up and a bit to my left. Now it seems I've developed a nasty habit of favouring or however you want to put it, my left shoulder. It seems to cramp and if I'm not mistaken, I'd even say it appears somewhat larger than my right.

The specific area I'm talking about is the part of the shoulder that meets the neck. I'm thinking this is a direct result of my gazing off to the left, hence turning my neck. Has anyone else had this problem, and any exercises/stretches I can do to get my shoulder back to normal?

RowtheRockies · Post by **RowtheRockies** » May 17th, 2006, 11:51 am

dutchcan,

Move the erg so that the TV is now on your right side for a while until things even out

but seriously, if you have access to some dumb bells, you could try doing some shrugs on the right side but not the left to try to balance out your traps. Hold a dumbell in your left hand also to keep the weigt balanced but just do shrugs with the right.

Rich

ancho · Post by **ancho** » May 17th, 2006, 1:10 pm

Go OTW and sweep as "board"! (sweep on your right side)

mcj22 · Post by **mcj22** » May 17th, 2006, 1:17 pm

speaking of sweep rowing on the erg - anyone know of a way that you can practice the sweep motion off the water? I find that erging can lead to some bad habits that come out when you get back otw.

I'd be surprised if no one had developed a machine that simulates this.

ehagberg · Post by **ehagberg** » May 17th, 2006, 1:24 pm

mcj22 wrote:speaking of sweep rowing on the erg - anyone know of a way that you can practice the sweep motion off the water? I find that erging can lead to some bad habits that come out when you get back otw.

I'd be surprised if no one had developed a machine that simulates this.

There's always the big blue gamut erg - they are configured for port or starboard sweep rowing simulation.

B00MER · Post by **B00MER** » May 17th, 2006, 3:23 pm

Yeah but the gamut erg is pretty old and clunky, my boathouse has some dock boxes which we use. It's basically a box fixed with a slide, seat, footboards, and a rigger (port or starboard). You then just put the dock box next to the water and you can practice your stroke without going anywhere or having to worry about set. Only problem is that if you pull to hard then you can move the dock box around if you don't have it tightly secured to the ground, we semi-fixed this problem by taking a really old beat up oar and cutting a big hole into the middle of it to make it not as powerfull.

ancho · Post by **ancho** » May 17th, 2006, 6:52 pm

mcj22 wrote:speaking of sweep rowing on the erg - anyone know of a way that you can practice the sweep motion off the water? I find that erging can lead to some bad habits that come out when you get back otw.

I'd be surprised if no one had developed a machine that simulates this.

I don't see how sculling/erging can lead to bad habits when sweeping, perhaps the other way round...

mcj22 · Post by **mcj22** » May 17th, 2006, 9:11 pm

Good point - I guess I meant mostly getting a decent reach at the catch which involves some pivot at the compression point. A lot of time off the water and I find my stroke is effectively shorter.

While I'm on this point, it would also be cool to have a handle on the erg that somehow allowed you to practice timing on your roll-up to the catch. I've rowed on the water just less than a year and find that I still roll up too late and screw up my catch or catch late/flip-catch about 10% of the time.