- I'm Shane Farmer, this is Dark Horse Rowing,
and today we're talking about
your grip on the handle.
(upbeat electronic music)
Today, we're talking about your grip on the handle
and why this thing is so important
to the way that you're actually moving on the machine.
Hint, it's because it's one of three main connection points
that you have to the machine.
(rowing machine whirring)
Where do the complications arise with this guy?
First, you have narrow versus wide.
Then you have the ever interesting thumb over
versus thumb under discussion.
Next, we have pronated versus supinated grip.
And then finally, we have the death grip
versus relaxed grip,
and these are all things that you need to understand
and figure out what is the correct way to hold the handle
to make sure that you're getting
the most out of your movement,
and that this isn't interrupting getting a good workout.
So question number one that's going to come up
is wide versus narrow grip.
Why would you choose a narrow grip versus a wide grip?
Well, there are two main reasons.
Number one, this creates a sense of tension
in your body if the hands are close.
Now, I do want to preface this by saying that
the wide grip is the correct grip.
So let's just make sure that
blanket statement is understood.
But why you would gravitate to this grip
is because it can help you feel a sense of tension.
Now, it's not the tension that we need or want,
and we'll explain that in a second.
And then number two is, if you don't have tension,
and every time you go to drive,
if your hands are wide, it feels wobbly,
this grip is gonna help with that
because your tension is coming into the center,
which puts you more in line with the chain,
which is going to help you feel less wobbly.
So when we're talking about the correct grip,
we want our hands nice and wide.
Well, why do we want to do that,
because, if I say so, that's not a good reason,
let's talk about the purpose behind it.
Number one is with a wide grip,
it's going to allow for better tracking of the arm
through that finish or release position.
We want to ensure that you can get
a full arm pull through the stroke
at the release or the finish with good tracking.
If my hands are close, this is creating impingement
and internal rotation of the shoulder,
as well as this is not a strong pull position.
If you were to do pull ups, having your hands here
gives me a T-Rex like quality,
which we don't necessarily value in training.
Instead, if I can get my arms wide,
it allows me to engage my lats,
drop my shoulders down, reach the shoulder,
and then as the handle draws through,
elbows track through naturally, I create a great squeeze,
and this creates much better engagement
of my shoulders and back, as opposed to if I'm pinched
and T-Rexing myself through the stroke.
So, answer to question number one, wide versus narrow,
we're gonna choose wide.
(rowing machine whirring)
Next, thumbs over versus thumbs under.
This discussion is a raging fire for people.
Believe me, you either absolutely want thumbs under
or absolutely want thumbs over.
Let's discuss why thumbs under is where you want to be,
but also why you would choose thumbs over
and why that may be something
you've gravitated to in the past.
So many who choose the thumb over grip
arguably like this because it feels like a more
relaxed hand position to them,
and that's often the reason for thumbs over,
in that that they just kind of hang here with their hands.
But in reality, it does not create
a great position for pulling through.
And the other issue that we have with a thumb over
is that if your knuckles,
or if your fingers were to slip
or get tired at any point during a workout,
if your thumb is over, we call this, in lifting,
if you were to use this grip for bench press,
this is called a suicide grip, for obvious reasons.
If I'm bench pressing and that bar falls,
I have no way of catching it,
it's just gonna fall straight onto my arms.
Same goes for if I'm taking a stroke, my fingers get sweaty,
and they slip because I put in some intensity,
if my thumb is over, I have no way
of grabbing onto the handle,
handle's flying that way, I'm flying that way,
it ends up becoming a dangerous grip to use.
(rowing machine whirring)
So the grip that we wanna use is thumbs under,
so that's established now, hands wide and thumbs under.
Now, this doesn't have to be any harder than thumbs over,
and yet you'll be amazed at how hard,
if this is what you've been rowing with, thumbs over,
how hard it can be to rotate that thumb under,
and yet you can fix all parts of your stroke.
And yet sometimes that thumb just wants to creep up.
So I would encourage you to just continuously
bring your mind back to, alright, thumbs around,
and if you notice that thumb sneak over,
just give yourself a gentle reminder
to place that thumb back under the handle.
Pronated versus supinated grip.
Otherwise known as over hand versus under hand.
So the discussion here is between
which is going to drive more value for your body overall
and the mechanics of the stroke,
pronated or supinated grip.
So really, for more back muscles and stabilizers,
meaning the little muscles that are supportive of my joints,
and keeping them healthy and making sure that my whole body
works together and has good flow,
we want to be using a pronated grip.
Why is that?
Well, with a pronated grip,
it allows me to externally rotate down
and draw completely elbows through the body.
And that ends up with a lot of
major muscle recruitment in my back,
think rhomboids and lats, the big muscle activators
that don't get a whole lot of work in our everyday life,
we spend most of our days driving
in an internally rotated position
with shoulders forward, this is where we write,
this is where we type, we eat, we drive,
all the things we do in our day to day life
tend to end up here.
The more that we can do
to drive the shoulders back and strengthen
those shoulders and the back
so that we are supportive in this tall position,
the better and the happier body
is going to be in the long run,
as well as, because we have major muscle activation,
we're going to get more strength through the stroke
because this is a stronger pull
as opposed to supinated or underhand grip.
(rowing machine whirring)
But if you want an absolutely sick bicep,
it's there, I promise.
If you want a sick bicep pump,
then go ahead and use supinated grip,
but don't expect a whole lot more out of the stroke
other than just targeting your biceps pretty well.
You know, I've never actually thought about it,
but I suppose if you put the damper up to 10
and just like curled your way into oblivion,
you could actually hit the biceps pretty well.
Somebody try that, tell me how that goes.
But again, I don't think that's
gonna make for a great workout.
Finally, death grip versus relaxed grip.
Let's explore why you end up with a death grip
over a relaxed grip.
The death grip very commonly happens
because you are dependent upon the arms
or leading with the shoulders
to create tension of the stroke.
And therefore by gripping and squeezing hard on the handle,
you engage all of the muscles in your arms,
and that's your brace system.
Okay, but as the saying goes,
when the arm bends, the power ends.
So if you've been following along with our videos,
you understand that as soon as that elbow breaks,
our legs and our hips are no longer applying
as much force to the handle,
because this broken joint becomes an energy leak.
All of a sudden, if my musculature has to support
this joint in a broken position,
that means that any of the work that's happening
below the chain has a potential leak here.
And so I end up, if I'm squeezing it,
odds are that my elbows are breaking and I'm holding here,
which means that my legs and hips aren't relaying
the power that I need to the stroke.
And that's the most common reason for a death grip.
What we want to be thinking about is a relaxed grip.
Now, I don't mean that it needs to
sit like totally out in the fingertips,
I want you to think about closing the circuit
between your thumb and your forefinger,
just touch the two tips of those fingers together,
and that's your grip position.
So it will end up creating,
there should be room for me to slide a finger
in between there, I'm not death gripping,
it's not in my palm, it's out in my knuckles.
And I'm closing that grip here
so that I'm not over relaxed on the handle,
I just have a nice loose grip.
Now that loose grip allows me, or almost requires,
that I have a stacked joint, meaning a long elbow.
Because a stacked joint is a strong joint.
If I asked you to, I don't know,
hold weight overhead for a prolonged period of time,
you would want to stack that joint,
meaning extend through your elbows.
If you tried to hold it with a bent elbow,
you would find that it's going to be very challenging
for you to hold that position for a long period of time.
So, when we are in that position,
when we are about to take a stroke,
you want to ensure that you have that relaxed grip,
that the elbows are long and relaxed,
and that you are hanging off of that joint
instead of bracing and depending on that joint.
(rowing machine whirring)
Okay, so recap time on how to hold your handle on a rower.
Number one, wide grip.
Number two, thumbs underneath.
Number three, relaxed grip, sitting out in the fingers.
And number four, pronated grip, meaning palms down.
This is our optimal position for the hands.
Also remember when I say wide,
I want your pinkies on the handle,
not draped off the outside, so pinkies on fully,
that means all four fingers on the front of the handle,
thumbs underneath, grip relaxed, pronated grip,
you got a winner, all you have to do is
let the shoulders reach, elbows extend, and engage the lats,
and you are on your way to a happier stroke.
All right, all of you out there in YouTube land.
Thanks for tuning in to another Dark Horse video.
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