- What's up, dark horses?
And welcome to another Dark Horse Rowing machine workout
of the day.
Today is all about the mechanics.
How technical can you get?
Welcome to Dark Horse Rowing where you are
the hero of your own story and we are the guide
that helps you get to where you want to go.
Now, on with the show.
This is going to be a 10-minute, drill-based workout.
The sole objective here is to get you confident
moving better on this machine.
Think of this more as a technical approach
than an aerobic workout.
My goal is that you walk away feeling really good
about the progress you make on this machine
with your mechanics and the way that you're moving today.
So, consider this a one-on-one of rowing machine usage.
That is what this should be for.
If that's you, if you are feeling like you need a refresher,
a one-on-one session, that's what this video is going to be.
I highly encourage you to bookmark this,
share it with your friends, share it with the people
that are your training partners
and work through this together
because today is gonna be all about rock solid drills
for 10 minutes, that's it.
Nice, quick, easy and they're gonna be rolling drills.
So you're gonna find out what the drills are as we go.
We're gonna set 10 minutes on the clock,
but I'm only gonna announce the drills as we change them.
So, you gotta stay tuned to make sure
you're getting the most out of this 10 minutes.
Now because today is a technical workout,
we're not gonna be too interested
in setting anything complicated on our monitors
which is gonna do well as a machine agnostic workout today.
Almost every machine will allow you to set at least time,
and that's all we're gonna do.
So you're gonna set 10 minutes.
I'm gonna walk you through how to do it
on the concept 2 monitor.
If you've got a different machine, totally cool.
Just do it your way on your machine.
Now, from the main menu on a concept 2
you are gonna select workout,
new workout, single time, and you're gonna hit,
right now it should flashing three zero.
You're gonna hit the minus button twice.
For hearing impaired, that would be the C button.
So, one, two, that gives me 10 minutes.
From there I'm going to hit the check mark,
that would be the E button, I'm gonna hit that
and I have 10 minutes on my screen ready to go
for rolling drills so that I can make sure
I am staying to my time
and getting you guys through a healthy amount of drills,
so get your machine set up, get warmed up,
and then come meet me back
on this machine when you're ready to go.
All right, couple of house-cleaning notes for today,
make sure you have two monitors as always.
One to watch the video,
one to be tracking the data coming from your machine.
Two, have any water handy, towels handy, things like that
that you're gonna need midway through
or, if you would like to be listening to music,
which I wouldn't suggest in this particular video
mostly because you should be listening to me
and letting me coach you through this.
With that being said, that's our house cleaning.
So go ahead and hit the check mark, get warmed up,
jump onto your machine and let's get ready to go.
All right, I'm strapped in.
I am ready to go, you should be too.
Hit that check mark,
have your machine up, 10 minutes getting ready to go
and let's just hit this thing.
We're gonna start with one of my favorite
and one of the most common drills
that come from the world of rowing
that we take and we transfer to you guys
to learn on this machine
and those are called pick drills.
Basically we are picking the stroke apart into it's pieces
and then learning certain elements of the stroke
and then bringing them back together to complete the stroke.
So, grab your handles.
We're gonna start at what's called the release position.
That's the backside of the stroke.
So go ahead and join me there
and that will start our timer, 10 minute is rolling.
We're gonna start with arms-only rowing.
So I want you to just join me
keeping this handle level,
moving straight in and out to the sternum.
That's your target point,
thinking about drawing those elbows all the way through.
Notice my body is not moving.
My trunk is staying in place,
my knees are staying extended, my hands are relaxed,
I have no stopping point front or back of the handle.
I am letting this handle establish a nice rhythm in and out,
making sure never to stop, it's always in motion.
Okay, we're gonna add in the next element of the drill.
This is gonna add in the hip swing.
Go ahead and join me.
So now we're rowing arms and body only.
Notice that the legs are staying straight.
That means that I'm pushing the hands away,
starting to work on order of operations of the stroke.
I wanna move the hands away from the body
before the hips close.
Okay?
Arms away, then the hips close, then hips open,
then the arms draw the handle into the body.
I'm settling into this rhythm,
teaching my body how to separate each element from the next.
Also learning how to rock the hips forward
while maintaining posture, not rounding my back.
I'm reaching only 11 to one,
finding some tug in my hamstrings.
We're gonna go at this for another 30 seconds,
stay with me here.
Still finding rhythm, arms away first, then the hips close.
I'm catching that tension with the body
and the lats engaged,
then the handle draws into that sternum.
Still, keeping the hands relaxed,
nice and wide on the handle.
Okay, now we're gonna add in the legs up
to a full stroke, here we go.
Notice how patient I am with the legs now,
the arms get away, the body closes, then the knees bend.
That is probably the most important sequence you can learn
and yet it's often the hardest for people to learn.
So we're gonna approach this
from the other end of things now,
and we're gonna start to tackle it with reverse pick drills.
So on this one we're gonna drop the arms and the body,
and it's gonna be the legs only.
So now what I'm doing is training my body
to brace, hang off of the handle,
and I'm teaching myself how to drive through the legs
to establish tension instead of pulling with the arms
or instead of leading away with the shoulders.
This is going to be huge for helping you improve that catch.
If you have troubles finding tension on the machine,
if you often don't feel like you're able to deliver force,
that is where this drill comes in handy.
I'm gonna shut up and we're gonna do it
for about 15 more seconds together.
Press through the whole foot,
push that machine away.
Okay, now I'm actually gonna shut up.
Okay, now we're gonna add in the hip swing,
keeping the arms straight still, here we go.
So now I'm rocking those hips open
after the legs have pushed,
rocking the hips open and then closed again.
Here it is again.
We're gonna work on order of operations.
I'm learning to brace my body, I'm learning to sequence.
Leg drive and then hip swing.
Close the hips and then bend the knees.
Everything serves a purpose.
We're very specific with where the body goes
because it orchestrates this poetry in motion
of the rowing stroke.
We're gonna do this for another 30 second or so.
Stay with me, match my stroke.
Okay, we're gonna go up to the full stroke in two seconds.
On this one, taking that full stroke again.
Feel what it's like now to have the whole stroke be able
to put together, working on that sequence
in both directions.
Legs hits arms, arms hits legs.
People often say it, legs hits arms, arms hits legs,
but nobody ever slows it down to teach you how to do it.
That's what this is, this is teaching you why we do that.
Don't just do it because I tell you to,
I better be able to explain the why.
That part is hugely important.
You should feel really smooth right now,
you should feel the value of those drills,
going into play with you here.
Feel how much better your body's connecting,
feel how it allows you to relax.
Do the recovery.
20 seconds, we're gonna keep going at this
and then we're gonna move
onto another fun drill called pause drills.
We do exactly what it sounds like.
We pause at various points in the stroke.
The first pause is going to be at the release, arms away.
You'll see what that looks like right now.
And go.
So what I'm doing right now
is adding in this pause to allow me to focus
on letting the arms release from the body
without the desire for my hips to pull me forward
or my toes to pull me forward.
Instead, I am just learning to isolate
the push of the arms away from the rest of the movement.
This is a huge learning moment for a lot of people.
Oh, this always feels nice.
It forces you to be patient, it forces you to relax.
Okay, up next we're gonna change the pause position
to arms and body over.
That means we're just gonna close the hips
on this next stroke.
So now we're gonna pause, arms away then close the hips.
11 o'clock, that's our pause position now.
Notice I'm training you to get confident
with the sequence of events.
In just 10 minutes you are learning
how to take the rowing stroke,
something that's really hard to find.
Often when we're coaching this,
so many of us get so in our heads think we need
to over complicate the stroke
when really we just need to slow it down for you.
Get those arms away and then the hips over,
feel that tug in the hamstrings.
Never be in a rush to get back to the next stroke,
but always be in a rush to move through it.
Okay, and we're gonna drop the pause last minute.
We're gonna end putting it together
with that close live stroke again, feel confident.
You just made a huge jump
from the way that you move on this machine.
Just treat it with patience,
just treat it with kindness, be forgiving to yourself.
Every stroke is an opportunity to improve.
So if you don't get it one stroke, that's okay.
Rededicate your efforts to the next stroke.
This is meant to help you make
a small step forward today,
learn some new movements, re-pattern your behaviors.
Results are simply in a way that you're gonna move.
Guys, that was a fast 10 minutes.
I don't know about you, but that felt good.
The whole point of this, the debrief here,
what are we learning, is to reach a sequence of events
that creates an effective movement pattern for you
and that is the kicker here.
You need to learn how to sequence your body.
I said this before, but the rowing stroke
is not a natural movement.
In the thousands of people that I have personally coached,
I have never once seen somebody
do it right the first time sitting down on their own.
It's not a natural movement,
it's a learned behavior, it's a learned movement.
You have to do things like this
to understand and to learn
what the movement pattern and sequence is.
Once that order of events becomes apparent
to you and clear to your body, fantastic.
Now we're making some gains, okay?
Now we're going to progress
and that's what I really want out of this for you
is that you are able to discover
what does this movement look like?
Why do I do it?
Why is it important
that I focus on mechanics, which aren't sexy,
we know this is not the sexy part of it, right?
It's the sweaty, heaping pile on the floor
that everybody wants to get to.
This is going to lay the foundation
to allow us to do what we want with this
when we want it, not that every time we get on it,
we're a slave to just the black hole
of energy that this can become,
and I want you to be successful with this machine
for you, for yourself, for the dark horse.
That is who you are, you are the dark horse, not me.
All right, so, with that being said,
thank you for joining me today, guys.
This has been a fun one.
I've been missing being able to put this out to you.
I've been working on the workouts
because people have been asking for 'em,
but I think a lot of people are asking for this too,
and so if you enjoy this please let me know
in the comments below.
I wanna know what you liked about this.
If you'd like to see more,
teach me what I can be teaching you
and we will create
this beautiful, symbiotic relationship together.
So, if you guys enjoyed this,
if you enjoyed the message and you're still here
and you're like, yes, that is me.
I feel it here in the soul, then you are a dark house.
If you are setting your path, your own journey
and you are working towards that
because you know that you can
and nobody else has a say in that,
then guess what, you're a dark horse.
And if that's you, hit that subscribe button
and the little bell next to it
because I want you become apart
of this community with all of us
that are here supporting each other, growing for each other
and nudging everywhere along the way.
We support in the comments, we support through video,
but we do it for each other, cool.
Guys, I love you all, I mean it from the bottom of my heart
and, as always, I'll see you on the other side.
Hey guys and thanks for watching.
If you enjoyed this and you want more,
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