- What's up guys and welcome back to another
two minute Tuesday, Q and A addition!
Last week we covered a lot of your most popular questions
I would say, that I pulled from the comments.
Questions that you guys have and I figured you know what,
how can I answer those quickly, and this week is episode two
because there were so many questions,
we figured let's cut it into two videos so you're not
here for 25, 30 minutes with me just answering questions
cause Lord knows I'm not that entertaining.
Anyways, I wanna give a quick shout out by the way,
I just read this book, Jeremiah Brown the Four Yeah Olympian
very fascinating story by the way,
those of you who are interested in the rowing world
and are looking for a good read, check this out,
the Four Year Olympian.
Athlete basically Jeremiah Brown goes from not knowing
anything about the sport of rowing to the Olympics
in a four year window.
So, for those of you who are here thinking man this journey
just seems so insurmountable, know that somebody else
has taken that journey too and in fact ended up at the
Olympics which is pretty darn cool in my opinion
so anyways, let's get in to the questions!
("Mission Start" by The Brothers Records)
So as with all two minute Tuesday videos,
it's time for us to put that number up on the clock
and see how little I can actually keep to that time.
Ready, boop!
Let's go.
Why does rowing feel easy?
I don't even feel like I'm getting a workout on 10.
There's a very logical explantation for that and it's
something that a lot of people struggle with when they're
first on the machine.
Unlike an elliptical, a bike or a treadmill that guides you
through the movement, you have to place yourself in the
right place at the right time with the right body mechanics
in order to make this machine work for you.
And that lack of feeling comes from not establishing
tension on the chain, and that is what, by fixing that,
you will begin to feel a workout and it will begin to feel
challenging for you and that's
exactly what we're looking for.
What setting, I assume damper setting is what you mean,
should I use when I start?
Very, very common question.
There's one place where I tend to start a lot of my athletes
and that is at drive factor 117.
Easy way of finding that, you're gonna go from your monitor
on a concept two, you're gonna go to more options,
and display drag factor.
From there it says row to display drag factor.
On the right hand side, the plastic adjustable wheel,
the plastic adjustable damper setting,
is what it is,
you're going to adjust that up and down until the number
on your screen reads 117.
Remember damper setting is not a unit of measurement,
drag factor is and that number on your screen is going
to be the answer for where you should start,
or what number you should start on.
I like 117 for all my athletes to start at,
as you get better, you can pick your own numbers and
vary it up and down.
Number seven, can you demonstrate your ski technique?
Sure.
Just kidding, I'll actually talk about my techniques.
So, there are really two schools of thought at this point
in time, there is the taller version
verus the traditional ski version.
So let me just talk about the two.
Let's start with the traditional ski version,
this would be a typical pulling method where you would
imagine that you're actually skiing which means that you're
not, you can't overreach when you're actually skiing because
the poles are only so tall so you have a much shorter
technique and it's a little bit crisper,
you aren't taking the handles or driving them down
as deep you're really just ending with the handles
at the pockets and you're only
coming up to about head height.
If you took a look at cross country ski poles,
they are a little bit taller than alpine ski poles
which means that that's really the height at which
you would start the catch position or the pulling position.
That's where you would plant and then drive down,
hands would only pass by the pockets.
Now, the second technique is going to be the taller
and what I would consider refined for the
skier technique,
meaning they are trying to take advantage of the mechanics
of the machine, so they are less going after traditional
technique and simply trying to optimize the way that you
interact with the machine.
In this technique, you're reaching a little bit taller
and as a byproduct of getting taller,
you end up with a longer stroke and those poles start
as close to the pulleys as possible,
getting yourself tall but in a bit of a hollow position
and then you're going to end up with a little bit lower
follow through, hands passing about by the knees,
so there's a lot more leg involvement.
Definitely a little bit more taxing,
so the school of thought is the maximize the machine
technique or traditional skiing technique.
Question eight, what about breathing during the stroke?
That is a very common, and also a great question.
The way that I like to explain it is,
let whatever breathing rhythm happens naturally, occur.
Try not to force an inhale at a certain point,
or an exhale at a certain point
and where I go from there is that once you've established
that you know what your natural breathing pattern is,
you need to maintain that rhythm and use that rhythm
to help you set pacing.
Meaning, if you want to establish a low stroke rate,
you're still going to breathe at the same points during
the stroke, you're just going to make it longer and slower,
if you need to take the stroke rate up,
you're going to make it shorter and more crisp
but you will keep the same breathing rhythm
and that rhythm helps you stay consistent and find
efficiency on the machine.
So again, what I really want you to think about is that
as you are taking your stroke, you are simply paying
attention to and learning from your breathing pattern.
Now, to start, you're going to want to just be aware.
Now, I know that sounds a little free if you will.
But really, all you wanna do is row as you normally
and comfortably row and all you do is listen to what
your breathing naturally wants to do.
Don't try to force it, don't try to do anything specific,
just let a natural rhythm happen.
Then once you figure that out,
then you can begin to use that as a rhythmic pace setter
for your body.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you my
breathing pattern and I'm going to make it overly loud
so that you can hear it and that you understand how I use it
when I adjust my stroke rate if you will.
So, I'm gonna take my stroke rate up and down,
audibly breathing so that you can hear how it would adjust
based off of the stroke rate.
(exhaling rhythmically)
So those are your basic questions,
again I kinda enjoy doing this so if you guys keep asking
questions, we'll keep answering em
and maybe we'll throw another one of these
Q and As in another time soon if you guys really love
this video, and as always guys thank you for joining us,
if you really love this video I'd appreciate it
if you subscribed.
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And as always thank you for tuning in,
we will see you on the other side.
("Josna Bilash" by Jahangie Sarkar and Zannat)
What shoes should I wear when rowing?
Well, you have a few different options.
My personal preference is going to be an innovate shoe.