- I'm Shane Farmer.
This is Dark Horse Rowing,
and today, we're talking about why your rower
isn't working for you
and what you can do to get more out of it
to give you better workouts every day.
(upbeat pop music)
So today is all about getting you to feel it
("In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins)
♪ I can feel it ♪
- on the machine so that you can feel
a little bit more comfortable
and that you know what you're looking for
when it comes to the workouts
because frankly, that's the hardest part.
What exactly is it that we're trying to feel?
I think that's the important question we answer first
before we get into how we change that feel.
It goes by different names,
and you can call it whatever you like,
but essentially, the feeling that we're looking for
is the machine pushing back against you
so that you can get a workout.
Now, why is that a problem if you're not feeling it?
Number one, it's just plain frustrating.
It can feel like you're dumping all of this work and energy
into a movement that's giving you no workout in return,
which can be kind of demoralizing.
The second is that it's very hard to get a workout in
when there's nothing resisting.
Not only is it frustrating,
but you're also just not getting a workout,
and it can feel like,
well, this machine just doesn't work for me.
So in this video, we're going to fix that.
Step one is getting your catch position dialed in
because by locking in the catch position,
you're effectively ironing out
the most important part of the stroke
which is the moment when you're going to create that tension
or the resistance or the pushback
or whatever you wanna call it that we're talking about.
When you lock that in,
it's gonna pay big dividends on the back end,
so it's worth spending the time ironing it out.
So my method for this is called the two-minute catch.
It's very simple.
You spend two minutes
in the catch. (rimshot crashing)
Now the hard part about this
is knowing what is the right catch,
but unless you've spent time there,
there's no way of knowing that
and thus, the two minutes that we spend in this catch.
Now, I'd encourage you to do this numerous times,
especially in the first couple weeks
as you're getting used to this.
Do this daily.
Practice sitting in the catch for two minutes.
To get there, all we need to know
is this little mental checklist
that we set for ourselves of what the catch position is.
It starts at the hands
and works its way down your body to your feet,
and you can remember it in that sense.
So what does it look like in reality?
Number one, hands nice and wide on the handle
but pinkies still on.
Thumbs underneath the handle with a nice, loose grip.
Next, elbows extended.
Next, shoulders reach.
Then, with the shoulders reach,
roll them down and tighten your lats.
Then, leave your head and neck relaxed,
your back flat but neutral,
hips behind my shoulders
so that I create a forward body angle.
Then, I want my knees tracking underneath my arms,
not splaying out.
Finally, my heels down,
and from here, I compress as much as possible
without breaking any of those positions,
and then, I'm going to gradually
try and get deeper into that position
without any deviations like knees splaying
or rounding my spine,
and I'm gonna spend two minutes sitting here.
That's gonna get uncomfortable.
♪ I want, just wanna be with you ♪
♪ Baby there's a place where we can go ♪
♪ Where it's always shining like the snow ♪
♪ Listen to your heart beat ♪
♪ Don't you know ♪ (timer beeping)
(Shane grunts)
- You're gonna feel it, I promise.
Oh.
Next, we need to establish
how you actually put tension on the handle
after correcting and creating a better catch position.
Now, to understand how we want to get the flywheel moving,
I'm gonna use an analogy from an event
that many of us have seen.
It's the strongman truck pull.
In the truck pull, there's a long rope
attached to the bumper of a truck
in which the athlete has to get the truck moving
and try to get it across a finish line.
Now, how does that relate to what we're doing?
Well, let's look at the way
in which we actually get a truck moving like that.
So here's my truck,
(vehicle engines rumbling)
and on the front, I have a rope.
Now I have my strongman here,
and he needs to get this truck moving.
How does he do that?
Well, there's option one which is grab the rope
and just start running as fast as he can,
hoping that when he gets to the end,
he's gonna be able to get the truck moving,
but we all know what's gonna happen in that instance.
He's not heavier than the truck.
Therefore, he does not have enough momentum going
to be able to get this truck moving,
so when he hits the end of the rope,
he's gonna go flying.
Opposite end of the spectrum, he walks the rope out.
He establishes tension,
and he just kind of leans into it
without adding much intensity.
That same application
is what's happening for a lot of people on the erg.
When they go to take a stroke,
they're either applying too much tension at the catch,
they smash it trying to put everything
into the first couple inches
which is the equivalent of grabbing the rope
and running with it,
or they just don't put enough intensity into it,
and that's what this video is covering a lot of is
how to help you establish better and more intensity
and basically grab tension at the catch.
So how do we actually get this truck moving?
Well, you establish tension on the rope,
you lean into it, and you have to grind
to get the truck rolling its first inch,
and from there, as soon as it's moving,
you can accelerate it.
The same applies to the stroke.
We need to be quick (fingers snapping)
and efficient at establishing tension.
That's what this next drill is going to be about,
and from there, we can accelerate
and apply the rest of our force through the drive,
and that is what creates
the effective drive through the stroke,
allowing us to get better workouts.
That analogy's going to apply to the rower directly
through the catch position
and the speed at which we change directions.
It's important that we are both quick
but light at the catch,
and that after we've established tension,
we can then accelerate.
So your goal is to spend as little static time
in the catch as possible
because the more time you rest
or stop or delay in the catch,
the more time you and the flywheel
are gonna get further apart on speeds
and the more you're going to disconnect
from the rhythm of the machine.
So having a quick, efficient, light but effective catch
is going to be very critical to getting a good stroke.
To remedy the slow catch,
we're gonna use a drill called the top quarter drill.
Now, the top quarter drill's purpose
is to get you using your legs
to both teach you to accelerate
as well as how to properly engage the tension
or the handle and the chain
instead of either ends of the spectrum
which would be smashing it with too much power
or not being fast enough to establish tension,
so it brings you right in the sweet spot.
In order to run the top quarter drill,
you'll strap into the machine,
(footholds clattering) (Shane clears throat)
grab your handle, and set up at the catch.
All you're going to do is take practice strokes
with good position now that we've practiced the catch,
and you're just gonna catch over and over and over,
essentially repeating the top quarter of the stroke
or the front quarter of the stroke,
(machine whirring)
and you're gonna repeat that over and over
with the objective of making sure
that the body stays in good position,
the arms stay long, the trunk stays locked in place,
and that it's the legs
that learn how to push and establish tension,
and once you have the tension,
you can accelerate against it through the rest of the drive.
Now, what I would encourage you to do for practice purposes
is handle this in about loads of 20 strokes
or groups of 20 strokes.
So perhaps think before a workout,
three sets of 20 strokes is a good way to prime the pump
to be fast and quick and connected at the catch.
Paired together, these two drills or workouts
or whatever you consider them
are going to create a greater understanding
of how you apply your body to the machine
to make the machine work for you,
but go test these out
because without integrating them into your regular practice,
you'll find that the knowledge isn't worth very much.
It's about creating new positions
and new habits with your body.
In order to enact that,
you need to be regularly practicing these drills
so that they become second nature for your body
as opposed trying to recall
every time you're in the middle of a workout.
Make it second nature for you,
and put these into practice a lot really early on
in your learning process.
Dark Horses, as always,
thank you so much for coming and watching this video.
I love you all.
I honestly mean that from the bottom of my heart.
All of you that consider yourself Dark Horses
that are doing the work every day, putting it in,
knowing where you wanna go
and steering your life in that direction,
we're here for you 'cause I love you guys,
and I wanna support you along your journey,
so with that being said,
thank you so much for tuning into this video.
Make sure that you subscribe and hit that bell next to it
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whenever we come out with a new video,
and as always, we'll see you on the other side.
(upbeat pop music)
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