- What's up Dark Horses, I'm Shane Farmer,
this is Dark Horse and today we're covering rowing
for every body type.
I guarantee you, you fit into one
of all the body types, so stay tuned.
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If you've never been here before,
welcome to Dark Horse rowing where we want to change lives
by giving you and empowering you with healthy habits
and putting you on the path to be your best possible self
by being a Dark Horse.
Something that comes across
through our comments pretty regularly is people wondering,
how do I row with X body type.
I am a pregnant woman, I am an overweight male, I'm 16,
I'm 85, how is it different for me
and that's what this video is all about,
is let's identify a lot of these differences
and talk about what you may be changing or not changing
to accommodate your particular body on the rowing machine
regardless of what machine you may have.
The topics that I plan on covering today are going
to be tall versus short, slimmer versus larger,
male versus female, adaptive, old versus young.
I think that's all of them, oh left versus right-handed,
that too, that one's important.
Let's start with one of probably the more common questions
which is, larger versus slimmer and by this,
I'm mostly referencing the weight loss crowd
because we get a lot of questions
that my belly gets in the way,
how am I supposed to accommodate that
because when I get into the catch position
or the front loaded position,
I find that my belly is getting in the way
and it's making it really hard for me to get
into a full depth catch and so I'm unsure
how I'm supposed to do this.
Do I split my legs to create room
or do I keep my legs in place and row shorter
which doesn't feel as powerful.
What am I supposed to do to accommodate for a belly
that may be in the way.
So how do we answer that question?
How are you supposed to row if your belly is getting
in the way of the way that you move
because this can be a really frustrating,
I wouldn't call it a problem,
but this could be a frustrating movement question
that we have because you're looking at our videos
and seeing all right, well that's the cash position
that Shane says I should have, but I can't accomplish that
so here's the answer.
We always want to prioritize fundamental, good movement
over everything else first and foremost.
Lay a strong foundation that allows you to build on top up.
Now, with that being said,
if my belly or my stomach is getting in the way
of a good, tight catch position,
I want to train the mechanics so that as I lose weight,
I've developed a good habit behind my movement.
If you are splaying your legs out to the side
to get deeper into the catch,
you are essentially robbing Peter to pay Paul.
You're going to rob your body of good position to get length
and the way that I like to, and this comes up
in a lot of different discussions for different body types
but it's that length is only good if it's good length
and what I mean by that is, you can only go as deep
as your body can maintain good position.
Once you pass that threshold,
you become less and less efficient.
It's a diminishing returns curve if you will.
So my suggestion always is to yes, row short
and while that may feel frustrating,
you can still get a really great workout
with a half slide catch.
Executing on good movement principles,
teaching your body how to push the arms away first,
close the hips and then let the knees bend
and cruise into the catch whether it's half, three-quarter
or full slide depth and then explode.
So my suggestion on this is always prioritize good positions
even if your stomach may be in the way,
stick to good position.
Now if you're an absolutely monstrous human being,
just you're six, nine you know, 300 pounds
just because you're that big, well,
your movement may differ slightly,
but for all intents and purposes,
you want to maintain good position, good mechanics
and lay a strong foundation for your movement.
Now, if you're on the slimmer side of things
and you're actually quite skinny, the things
that you may struggle with are finding good engagement
from perhaps a lack of muscular stability in your body.
So things that are going to be important for you
to think about when you get on this machine are
that we should be trying to adapt your body
to develop strength in position and for that,
we want to work perhaps on the slightly higher end
of the drag factor damper setting range
to train your body how to develop good muscular engagement
and add muscle to your body
so that over time you can develop a stronger system
that will allow you to drive more power to the machine
and give you better workouts in the long run.
Next is male versus female.
In all honesty, between male
and female there are no movement differences
that we need to worry about.
The reason I put this one in is because I wanted
to address pregnant women because this is also a question
that comes up frequently is, I'm pregnant,
can I or should I row.
Number one and number two that we have
to address first and foremost,
has your doctor cleared you for movement, if so great,
that's check box number one.
Check box number two is, do you feel good on the machine.
If you do, great let's proceed
to talking about the movement.
If neither of those things or one of those two doesn't fly
then don't consider this movement.
Now, with that being said, if you have a growing being
inside of your stomach and you're trying to figure out
how I row for that, honestly you just have to listen
to the limitations of your body.
I would encourage you to consider the same as I would
with an overweight client where reduce the depth
of your catch as your stomach allows you
that range of motion.
Now, as well, if you can still let your knees glide slightly
around your belly and you can still target your knees
to your armpits, which is what we usually advocate,
then great, you can continue to row
at perhaps a full slide catch.
If not and if it gets uncomfortable to be in that much
of a depth position inside of the catch,
then start to shorten it by going to three-quarter,
half slide and maybe you eventually end up
at arms and body only.
I know when my wife was pregnant,
for about two months, she was okay on the machine
and then she got really uncomfortable.
She just didn't enjoy being on it
and so we cut it out entirely
and that was the right solution for her
just like it should be the right solution for you.
Next would be old versus young
and I really love this discussion mostly
from the standpoint of, it comes back
to rowing is for every body.
Meaning that you can start at any age you want.
I have my two-year-old daughter on the machine
just the other day.
She sat on the slide, not on the seat.
We bumped the foot stretchers all the way up
and she sat there and rode arms and body only.
Guess what, she loved it, she had a great time.
The monitor on many rowing machines have some games to them,
that's a great way to incentivize kids
to get involved with this.
And honestly as long as your feet can fit
in the foot stretchers and your butt can sit on the seat,
you can start as early as you want.
There's no detriment to exercising with some resistance,
especially as you're a younger athlete
and I would encourage all young athletes,
be as diverse as possible.
Explore anything that seems interesting to you.
Play every sport, I did as a kid
and I think it's one of the healthiest ways
of developing a strong, performance based lifestyle is,
try everything, stick with it and just explore.
Find the things that you love by playing
and exploring lots of different things.
Don't get too specialized too soon and too early.
Now on the opposite spectrum of that,
we have elderly clients.
If we're talking, let's just, I'm not classifying 60
as elderly but let's just say 60 and over clients,
the rowing machine in general or the rowing movement
in general is so kind on the body.
The things that we need is we get older are
to maintain bone density as well as coordination,
agility and aerobic capability.
Frankly, these things all suffer as we get older
and as our lifestyles become more and more sedentary,
we have to be far more proactive
to chase down these facets of life if we are going to
and want a healthy, later life segment, if you will.
So rowing does wonderfully on this
because A, it reduces gravity bearing on our body,
meaning we can accomplish a lot of work
that we may not be able to do anymore
through running or cycling.
It also is going to allow us to build some strength
and bone density by having resistance
against which we can push.
We desperately want to ensure that we maintain the building
of muscle as well as bone density which happens
through impact, it happens
through the ability to develop strength.
We need to do those things as we age.
Rowing is fantastic for that.
So here's my suggestion, if you are younger,
be as varied with this machine as possible.
Spend a lot of time, spent short periods of time,
go play other sports, try rowing, check it all out.
As you get older, if you're loving this machine,
make sure that you are using some higher resistance.
Yes, it is important and I know we may find more efficiency
as we get older and perhaps we've been on this machine
for a long time so we may be to the point
where our drag factors come down,
but that high damper setting can be effective
for helping to build strength and strength endurance
when we are on a rower.
So that's the general gist of it.
Make sure that you are, as you are spanning your life,
you understand that this machine is very usable.
Always work to what your body can do and wants out of this
but know that old versus young,
this machine's just gonna do you right.
And tall versus short.
This one is extremely common especially from the crowd
that thinks that because they're short,
rowing isn't for them and that's absolutely false.
There's no reason that just because you are shorter,
rowing can't be an effective training tool for you
and a lot of people say well, I'm short so I can't be good
at rowing and that's patently false as well.
The fact is, your objective is to make your body move
as well as possible.
I can't make you taller but I can make you more efficient
and I can give you the longest possible stroke
with good movement, I have to asterisk that,
get as long as possible
with good movement, this is important.
You can get long
and then you can get long with good movement.
So don't prioritize length for length sake,
prioritize length after you've prioritized good positions,
good movement and good movement quality
and I have had lots of athletes,
especially like crossfit-style athletes,
games athletes even that I've worked with
that are very short, five, one and up and guess what,
they found a way to get good at this movement
despite perhaps their height detriment
that they're just as qualified
because they learn to move well,
they understood their bodies on the machine
and they learned to work their bodies with the machine
instead of saying, I'm sure you know,
this machine isn't for me.
So always prioritize good movement, follow good practices,
learn how to move well, find your efficiency
and all of a sudden you'll find
that this machine no longer feels
like a black hole of energy.
You'll find that you start to thrive on this thing.
Now, as a tall athlete,
especially if you're excessively tall,
it's important that you are almost thinking
to the opposite of, it can be very easy to stretch
on both ends of the movement.
You actually want to bring the two ends in,
the catch and the release and make sure
that those are nice and crisp,
not overreaching on either side.
So do ensure that you are number one,
when you get to the catch, turn it around
before you're tapping the front of the machine.
That tap is actually an inefficiency point
and at the release,
make sure you're stopping that lay back at 11,
don't start overreaching.
Especially being excessively tall, you may find
that you waste a lot of energy
as you pass that 11 o'clock point
and I have to bring it all back up
to move through the recovery again.
So with the taller athletes, shore up the two ends,
catch and release, be snappy at both
and be strict with where you are.
With the shorter athletes, prioritize movement,
build length as the movement will allow
and find efficiency in the movement.
Next we have adaptive rowing
and this is really a beautiful use of this machine.
Now within adaptive rowing, you have multiple categories.
You have arms and shoulders, you have trunk and arms,
you have legs, trunk, and arms
and within legs, trunk and arms, you have visually impaired,
intellectually impaired and then amputee categories.
So below the knee I believe or above the knee and arms.
So depending on your amputee status,
it will classify what category
of adaptive rowing you are in.
Now what's so useful about this is
the machine can be manipulated in multiple ways
to be able to organize and work
with whatever type of athlete you may have.
Now, from an arms and shoulders athlete
who's kneading the midline braced,
there are different ways that we can do this.
We have fixed seats on the slide,
we have tractor-style seats that have harnesses
that go around the trunk.
You can remove the slide from the machine for example
and bring a wheelchair up to the front of the machine,
fix the legs on the front end under the flywheel
and then you can simply be in a wheelchair using the machine
and the same goes for the skier for example.
There are lots of ways of using this machine
for adaptive categories and it's really amazing
to be able to see adaptive athletes find an outlet
for that fitness, especially as varied as it is
and as varied as the adaptation may need to be
and this tool is so useful in that sense.
The ways in which we we craft the movement
and we craft the athlete are so very depending
on each person because every injury
or every adaptation is unique to that person.
We want to ensure
that we are crafting movement the best way possible.
So it's almost impossible for me
to say all of the different ways that we would change
and alter this movement, but it's safe to say
that for example, you can have arms only rowing,
you can have trunk and arms in which you are still able
to hinge at the hip and the legs are fixed.
You can be working with single leg rowing,
you can be working with a removed slide
and a fixed flywheel.
The variations are endless, but do know
that this machine is extremely adaptable
and usable for these purposes.
And left-handed versus right-handed.
I'm kidding, there's not actually a, there's no difference.
And that's a wrap.
Now, there may be variations inside here
that we didn't touch on for example flexibility,
whether you're tight or extremely flexible,
both have their own issues to deal with
and we'll probably handle that in a future video,
but the point being that the rowing movement is
for every body and I mean that.
You can adapt this movement any way that you need
for whatever your body type, but at the end of the day,
it's important that you understand
how you are using the movement or your body
and that you are doing it with the right end frame in mind,
not just doing it to get it done,
doing it with purpose and intention
so that you get the training value out of it
that you're looking for.
Whether it's weight loss
or maintaining fitness during pregnancy
or you're an adaptive athlete that needs a fitness outlet.
Whatever it may be, this movement is adaptable, usable
and I would encourage you to do so
and find the right solution for you.
So Dark Horses, thank you for tuning in this week.
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in your own lives and as always guys,
thank you so much for tuning in.
I appreciate it and we will see you next time.
We'll see you on the other side.
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