- Welcome back.
Today is part three of our back health series on the rower
and today we are simply discussing
how do I recover better
after I get done with a rowing workout.
Simple as that.
Now, do I go through every stretch known to man?
No probably not.
Are there a few key stretches that will be helpful
for you in the future?
Yeah absolutely.
So we're going to talk about what those stretches are,
what those recovery pieces are
that will help you feel better
after every single rowing workout that you do.
Stay tuned, we're going to walk through all of those pieces.
Now one of the first things that starts to tighten up
on people when they are rowing
is in general, the posterior chain.
Everything from down here all the way up my back.
And what that can result in is a feeling of pain in the back
because things are so tight that it starts to pull
it starts to give us sensations
that we're not comfortable with and we're not familiar with.
We translate that into back pain.
Sometimes it's not back pain,
sometimes it's just back tightness or back soreness.
I get this question all the time.
"Is my back supposed to feel tight while I'm rowing?"
The answer is yeah, your back definitely has to work
when you are rowing to support you.
If your back isn't feeling any tension,
meaning if you're not bracing here
when you go to push through the machine,
well you're not using your back.
And honestly you want to strengthen your back
when you're rowing, not just let it be lax.
So yes, your back will get tight per say
sometimes when you're rowing.
But you shouldn't feel pain.
And there's a big distinction between those two.
So when we're talking about what we can do after a piece
to help us recover better,
to help us really come back feeling good about our row,
we want to be thinking about,
what are the kind of passive things
I can do to cool my body down.
And really it's twofold on this.
Number one is make sure that when you're done rowing
you don't just step off after a hot and heavy piece
and just-
you don't just go about your day.
You need to spend some time really thinking about
how do I cool down?
And a cool down really is just a two to five minute spin.
Light and easy where you're just cruising.
And that cruising does amazing stuff
for just flushing the legs, flushing the system,
making sure that you give some blood flow back to the body
and to the areas that were working
when you were really putting in the intensity level.
So doing that, we are making sure that we help
provide recovery to the rest of the body
because blood flow is an amazing way to deliver nutrients
and oxygen to those areas of the body.
So that's number one.
Number two, I love stretching and I think that
stretching is a nice passive recovery piece.
Now is stretching the end-all, cure-all for back pain?
Absolutely not, don't get me wrong.
However, after a row it can be very beneficial
to give those muscles, which were working so hard,
a little bit of passive stretching.
And so what we're going to go through today
are three of my favorite stretches
to help you get done with your row.
Stretch number one is going to be a
simple seated forward fold.
And I want you to hang out in each of these stretches
for about a minute to three minutes.
Whatever feels good at the time.
Now, think about this from a passive standpoint.
I don't want you engaging and pulling
yourself into a forward fold.
I just want you to hang.
Allow your body to relax and almost drape.
And that drape is a feeling of letting the muscles
just turn off, turn off, turn off,
so with every breath I want you to think,
(exhales) okay, with that one I let one layer of stress go.
(exhales) with that breath I'm going deeper
into the next layer of stress release.
And so on and so forth.
So in three minutes don't breathe fast,
breathe very slow and with intention,
and with every intentional breath I'm letting the stress go.
The second stretch is going to be a butterfly.
And why I like the butterfly is because it creates
a little gaping in the SI joints
by allowing my knees to splay out,
and so I get a little bit of stretch
through the SI joints and the surrounding hip area.
It's not exactly my erectors,
which is what I'm getting with a forward fold.
When I splay my legs out I get a nice deep stretch
which kind of revolves around that lumbar spine,
and I'm a huge fan of the release that I can get
when I passively stretch there.
Again, I'm not looking to push the knees out,
I'm not looking to pull myself in,
I'm just looking for a nice, passive
hanging stretch in a butterfly.
Again, spending one to four minutes there,
however long feels good.
And what you'll find is that you can almost
fall asleep in this position.
And I want you to think about it that way.
Try to just hang out so long that you just
get super relaxed and super relaxed and kind of Gumby-ish.
Right, that Gumby is what I'm looking for,
that you just feel really chilled out in that space,
and you'll also start to find that your mind calms down,
and your breathing slows down,
and your heart rate slows down.
So again, that is my favorite stretch number two.
And number three comes down to my hip flexors.
These guys, right?
There's going to be a decent amount of hip flexor work
that happens because when you close the hips
those hip flexors and quads do need to work
to get your hips closed.
So, I want to actually work on opening up that line,
that front line from the hip down to the knee.
And for that I'm going to go into a kneeling lunge.
Again, passively.
And I'm going to basically allow my trail leg,
the back leg, the leg with the knee on the floor,
I'm going to allow that leg to
just kind of drift open, open, open,
and I'm going to lunge further and further forward
as I feel that stretch in the back leg and the hip.
Again, anywhere from one to four minutes.
That's what I'm thinking about as I get into that stretch.
Guys, thanks for tuning in.
This has been your back health series.
I'm really stoked that you guys hung out with this
for these three videos.
These things are going to be immensely helpful
for you to make sure that your back is healthy
so that you can do this as long as you want.
Really, at the end of the day that's what I care about,
that you can move pain-free,
and that you can move pain-free to create
a healthier, happier life, and that's what this is about.
It's not about the rowing,
it's about how can you live a healthier life.
And use the rowing machine as a tool to get there.
That's what we care about.
Guys, thanks for tuning in,
this has been another episode with Dark Horse Rowing.
As always, make sure you head over
to our website, darkhorserowing.com,
where we have programs for you as athletes.
If you are wanting to get workouts in, we got you covered.
Coaches, we got you covered too.
We have our Dark Horse Academy, which is all about
teaching you how to use the rower as a
training tool for your athletes.
Also if you want to find us elsewhere,
check us out on the socials at Dark Horse Rowing.
Guys, have a great day, we will see you
on the other side.
(soft electronic music)