("Put the Place Up" by Niklas Gustavsson)
- Guys welcome to another episode of Dark Horse Rowing
and today we're gonna talk about how you
can take this absolute disgust for the rowing machine
and make it work for you inside of your WODs.
Frankly one of the reasons that we're all even here
or that this channel even exists to talk about
indoor rowing is because of crossfit.
So whether you like it or dislike it, crossfit
really has been the thing that has brought rowing
back into the mainstream line of sight if you will.
Now you're probably here because there's some kind
of WOD at the gym that has rowing in it.
And you're thinking to yourself
God I hate rowing.
If only there was some magical video
that would help me get through this day without suffering
more than I'm already going to.
Well, that's why we're making this video.
- [Children] YAY!
- To help you get through your WODs a little bit easier--
- [Children] Yay!
- And make it a little less
bothersome to have rowing in one of your workouts
- [Children] Yay!
- And I got ya covered
and frankly these are three of the easiest tips
you could possibly implement when you've got this
rowing workout in front of you,
without having to go back in our archives and look at
all our videos.
Now don't get my wrong there's a lot of great content there
but if you are here now because you're looking at a workout
and you haven't done any of this practice before,
these three tips are gonna be extremely useful
for you right now, today, usable
to make ya happy.
Gotchya covered.
So if you're unsure of what the catch is,
the catch is the front of the stroke,
it's where you get loaded into position and you're ready
to take your stroke, that's the catch.
The catch is the most important part of the stroke
and it's really important that we're in the right position
there because if we're not then we're not going to have
the ability to properly push against the machine.
Imagine that you were in the bottom of a deadlift,
you're setting up and you have poor position, right?
No coach is gonna let that go,
or let's say that you're setting up for a snatch
or a clean and jerk,
in a poor set up, that is going to impact
the bar path as it moves through the lift.
Same goes for the stroke,
if we don't have a good set up in the catch position,
then we're going to struggle through the rest of the stroke
so the things for you to think about,
just when it comes to the catch,
that's just very broad,
is number one, elbows extended, shoulders reaching,
lats engaged, back nice and flat, hips behind the shoulders,
so you're in a forward body angle.
Then you want your knees tracking underneath your arms,
and you want your heels down and you wanna be as compressed
as possible without any of those things springing a leak.
And by leak, I mean coming out of position
to cause an energy leak,
in case that wasn't clear.
Cause it probably wasn't.
So what's really important about this trick
is that you understand that it's not about working harder,
this trick is simply about changing your focus point
when you're on the machine to try and get the absolute
most out of every stroke.
So, when we're talking about a quick catch,
all I mean is that the change in direction,
that moment in time from sliding forward
to driving, that little bit, right there.
That moment, if you can speed that up,
you're gonna create a more instantaneous connection
to the fly wheel which is going to within the machine,
read as a longer stroke, as well as allowing you to
pick up tension right away which means you can apply
more to the stroke as you drive through it.
And the reason being is that this is a free wheeling
fly wheel inside here so,
after I take stroke,
when I release, it begins to freewheel
meaning it's now spinning on its way down but its
no longer connected to the cog inside here
so as I slide forward, there's no connection
to the fly wheel.
Now, once I get here, I have to catch up to the speed
of the fly wheel, whatever speed that it is at,
in order to grab it again, twist it,
and then send it off.
Sending it off now it disengages,
I pick it up right here, I disengage right so,
that's what's happening every stroke is you're engaging
disengaging, a quick catch insures that you grab
the flywheel immediately and start spinning
it up on the drive.
So what does that look like?
Well I mentioned it's a focus change
so as I take my stroke, I recover nice and slow,
I'm not rushing the last quarter, I'm gliding in
and the only thing that changes is instead of hanging
out here, instead of getting here and having a moment
of pause and then driving,
I simply turn around or change direction
as soon as I get there and it establishes better tension
on the handle, the chain and then directly
connects that to the fly wheel.
And so really, when I think speed of the catch,
the rest of the movement stays relaxed and chilled out,
it's simply that turnover time and a little trick
that may help you,
is to think about changing direction almost as the
half an inch before you actually get into your full catch.
So as I'm gliding forward,
right now I would think push
and in the amount of time it takes my brain
to send that signal to my body,
I'm going to complete that final half an inch
to take off.
Push
Alright, and that speed of the turnover
is gonna have a big impact,
that goes for any damper setting,
any stroke rate,
a fast catch is going to be extremely useful for you.
Now, I always like to use Jackie,
a very standard crossfit workout as an example.
For those of you that don't know,
it's a thousand meter row, 50 thrusters and 30 pull ups.
Now, if we were to just do Jackie standard,
thousand meters to start,
the way that we approach the row
is going to be extremely important
because what you have to think about is all the work
that comes after the row.
Effectively when something comes after the row,
it negates the need to push all the way through
the row because the row is simply just there
to tire you out.
It is not going to win the workout for you
but if you don't know how to use the machine,
it can very likely lose the workout for you.
So in this instance, let's use standard Jackie
if there is something that comes after the row,
then you are going to taper the final 10% of meters.
Now in calories, it's only like one or two calories
but in meters, for anything a thousand meters or less,
you are going to taper the final 10%,
that means 100 meters in our Jackie example
and by taper I mean really taper.
If I'm coming in at a 150,
I'm going to in the final 100 meters,
let it climb, 210, 220, 230, I really don't care,
because nobody is going to be able to make up enough
time on me in that final 100 meters that I won't
be able to make up afterwards by feeling better
because I've used that 100 meters to recover
and that's what you do,
while you're tapering, you're gonna ease off the throttle,
bring your heart rate down,
get your breathing in control,
and get your legs just ready for whatever comes next,
in the Jackie instance it's thrusters.
Now, that goes for any time something else shows up after
so if I took Jackie and I split it into two rounds,
I made it a 500 meter row, 25 thrusters
and 15 pull ups, two rounds,
in both of those instances I have something after
the row therefore I'm going to taper the final
10% in this case it would be 50 meters
and that is how I'm going to spend the last 10%.
The only time that you give everything to the row,
is when rowing is either the only thing in the workout,
your gym programs 2,000 meters for time,
or if it ends the workout, using our Jackie example
let's say we took Jackie but reversed it
so did it in reverse order.
30 pull ups, 50 thrusters, thousand meter row,
well in this instance, rowing is the last thing
and the thing that ends the workout therefore,
you better go hard in that thousand meters
and that is going to benefit you
but the majority of the time that's not the case,
so rowing shows up in your WOD, think about the final
10% being your taper
now if it's over a thousand, just cap it at 100 meter taper
because somebody could make up a significant distance on you
if you will in the workout,
if for example it was a 2,000 or a 5,000 meter workout
at 500 meters, somebody could really do some damage,
200 meters they could still do some damage.
So that is our final 10%.
So when we're talking about the taper,
what does that actually look like
think of it in theory just as a tactic if you will
or a trick that you keep in your tool box.
Not a trick in like the magic sense
or that you're tricking somebody,
it's just a tool that you're going to have.
So, let's imagine,
I'm gonna pull up my monitor here
and row it you know,
I'm gonna take myself up to the pace that
I would use for Jackie,
again we like to use Jackie as an example.
So let's imagine that I'm rowing at a 140,
coming into the final 100 meters,
let's just take a look at what that taper, looks like.
It's simply easing off the throttle,
I'm not going to push as hard with my legs,
and I'm just gonna almost glide through the movement
because my priority is going to be
breathing, calming my heart rate
and letting my legs get ready to step off
and transition into the next thing.
So what that looks like, I'll just take a few strokes
at pressure and then I'll ease off so you can see
what that is.
Alright, there's the 140.
So let's say I'm cruising
comin in to my final 100, 2 more strokes
that's 9 9, so that's 890
and 900.
So I've got 100 meters left
I'm at 158.
206.
211.
214.
Alright, so I'm just gonna cruise here,
I let my stroke rate come down
and my whole effort is relaxing,
breathing, and letting my legs get ready
and my body get ready to do whatever comes next.
Now this tip is extremely important and those of you
that have hung around for a while,
know this is a really critical piece to the
way that we coach,
and it's so easy and all it is is a paradigm shift,
all you have to do is change the way that you perceive
the movement and it can have an extremely large
impact on how you are moving and impacting this machine
and that is push versus pull.
- Ladies and gentleman, can I please have your attention,
I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story,
and I need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen.
- The rowing movement is a big push, it's a huge push.
There is no, there is a pull
but the majority of your strength comes from
pushing the machine away from you,
not trying to pull the handle to you.
Think of it this way,
how much more can you squat,
how much more weight can you squat
versus how much weight can you pull up?
Now, I hope that there is a large disparity
between those two.
If you can pull up as much as you can squat,
we have bigger problems, call me,
cause we gotta work through that.
But, the majority of the time you're gonna be able
to squat more than you can pull up,
therefore we want to be giving the thought to the
movement of pushing the machine,
because a push gets you using your legs,
a pull makes you think about using your arms
and that is one of the greatest errors that we see
in this movement is people always trying to pull the handle
or if your friend is over your shoulder in the
middle of the WOD screaming at you,
what are they screaming?
It's "PULL HARDER."
Nobody is telling you to push harder.
So if you internally can change the way that you perceive
the movement to think about a big push,
you're gonna find that that has a big impact on your
ability to deliver force and power to the machine.
So, with push, don't pull being
probably the single most
impactful cue that we give or that we teach people to give.
It really comes down to simply understanding
how do you push against this machine
and to that extent,
we wanna come back to the catch, right?
We briefed the catch already,
so loading in that catch position,
we talked about arms straight, nice relaxed grip
on the handle, shoulders forward, lats engaged,
back nice and flat, hips behind the shoulders,
knees tracking underneath the arms,
shins as vertical as possible, heels down, okay?
Now, when I go to drive, I need to brace everything
from my lats all the way down to my hips,
I brace and lock in place and then I'm going to establish
this handle tension with that catch,
right we talked about a quick catch before.
I'm going to push through the legs, BOOM,
and firing that leg
establishes the tension on the handle.
it's not pulling here and then trying to push with the legs
because the instant I try to pull,
I take away my force production from the legs,
because I break up the order of operations.
So, if I open here, I don't have the ability
to apply that force any longer with my legs,
as impactfully as if I brace and start with the legs
to initiate that heavy load
which I can then accelerate into.
If I get up to the catch and my first move is shoulders
open, pulling with the arms, I can't apply that same
power because I'm not able to load appropriately,
so that this becomes a force driver.
Instead this becomes an energy leak,
because of a break somewhere else in the chain,
breaking of the elbows, soft midline,
whatever it may be.
So for this push versus pull,
load, brace, push with the legs,
and that's just a snap of the handle at the end.
But that push of the legs,
is the real big driver that I'm looking for.
So frankly guys, all of these tips,
they're incredibly easy
and for the most part, these are super fast wins
where you can spend less energy, being more efficient,
going further, faster, and getting more out of
that actual row element of your WOD
and in the long run,
you can focus on the actual movement and get even better,
but if you need right now,
if you just need those tips that happen immediately,
these are them, like if you can make these three changes,
huge difference, I promise,
you guys are gonna have an amazing impact
on your rowing workouts or workouts that include rowing
if you will, so continue to practice these,
put them in your head,
write em down on a little white board,
set it there while you're working on that workout
and constantly come back to these three tips.
Fun fact break, did you know that the model A
concept to rowing machine was made with a bicycle wheel
completely exposed, that just had little black plastic
flap cards on it to help create resistance as it moved.
Incredibly dangerous, and ingenious.
So go give these tips a try, guys and you're gonna find
they are extremely useful and helpful for you
and your WODs and/or workouts,
wherever they may be
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So thanks for tuning in guys and as always,
we'll see you on the other side.
(upbeat techno music)