- So you're looking for information on the rowing machine
'cause you're just trying to get started,
and all you're coming across
is a lot of really complicated content.
We've put out a ton of those.
Guilty as charged,
and you just want something simple
that's gonna get you started.
Maybe you're in the gym right now,
and you're looking to sit down on the machine
and just get a workout in.
Well, that's what today's video is about.
In today's video,
I'm gonna give you a simple and uncomplicated
five steps to getting you started on the machine,
and that is any rowing machine
that you might have access to
to get you going quickly and efficiently.
Let's get into it.
(upbeat pop music)
So you're looking for info on the machine,
and all you're coming across are these videos
that are explaining really complex concepts.
Well, that's because there are a lot of complex concepts
when it comes to this machine.
As with anything, when you start to dive deep,
there are a lot of things that you won't know
until you really dig into the niche of it,
but today, we're going to cover very simple
pieces of the puzzle to get you started
so that you can comfortably,
in the next five minutes or so,
sit down on a machine, get a workout, and feel great.
So today,
regardless of what kind of rowing machine you have,
we're not trying to discriminate,
let's just get you started.
We're gonna consider this the quick starter's guide
to getting onto a rowing machine.
First, you're gonna sit on the seat
as far forward as you can comfortably sit,
and you're going to take your hands, grab your butt,
and you're actually going to lift your butt behind you.
Do that with the other cheek
so that you're sitting with your hips
in this nice forward tilt.
You don't wanna be sitting on the back of your butt
or with your tailbone on the seat.
You wanna take that, those hands, grab your butt, lift,
and get your hips tilted forward.
That's step one.
Step two, you're going to adjust your foot stretcher.
So on whatever machine you have,
you're going to adjust this
plastic foot plate (hands tapping)
so that the strap is going to cover
the widest part of your foot or the ball of your foot.
(straps whir) Then you wanna make sure
that the straps are tight.
Finally, you're going to take your handle,
whatever kinda handle it may be,
and set your hands nice and wide on the handle,
but make sure that your fingers are all on.
From there, thumbs will go underneath the handle.
Keep a loose grip and extend your elbows.
That's your basic set-up position.
So second is how you move,
and this could go as deep or as surface-level as you want,
so we're just gonna make this really fast.
First, you're gonna (equipment rattling)
get yourself in the proper set-up position.
We call this the catch.
You want your hips behind your shoulders.
You want your heels down,
and you want your arms extended, shoulders reaching.
That's your basic set-up position.
Now, before you start to move,
you're gonna brace your gut
as if somebody were gonna punch you in the stomach,
that really hard brace.
You're gonna roll your shoulders down
and tension right here.
You may wanna take a hand off and feel it
to make sure that it's tight.
You need to have that engaged before you start to push.
Now, the movement phase,
we're going to start by pushing
through our whole foot and our leg aggressively.
(machine whirring) That's how we initiate.
Once that knee's about to extend, we can open the hips.
Notice my elbows haven't broken,
and when I get to the back side,
once those hips have swung open to 11 o'clock,
that's when the hands snap in,
and I can pull with the arms.
Now, as soon as I get to the back side,
as soon as the arms move in,
they immediately move away again
because I'm always under movement.
Once that arm is extended,
I move into the final phase of the stroke
where I close my hips back to one o'clock,
and then, I let my knees bend
as I come back to that catch position.
That's my entire cycle of movement.
Now third, this is really important
that you need to know
is that there are two main factors
you always need to keep in mind.
Number one is that
you're turning your cycle (machine ratcheting)
over quickly at the front end,
(hand patting) and you do that
with a quick push (machine whirring)
of the legs.
That quick turnaround of the cycle
is important thing number one.
Important thing number two is that we are always relaxed
as we slide forward.
That relaxation is really important to the stroke
because the stroke is very yin and yang.
It's very hot and cold, black and white,
fire and ice (chuckles),
whatever you wanna call it,
but you put it all into that drive,
and then you relax as you glide forward, collect yourself,
and put yourself into position
(machine whirring) to be able
to have a quick turnaround,
which is principle one.
So again, two principles
you need to always be thinking about:
quick turnaround at the catch
and then nice, relaxed slide
to get back to that catch every time.
All right, the next two things that you need to think about
are resistance and feedback,
and these are going to change with every single machine.
On the Concept2 machine, for example, resistance
is what we're talking about (plastic handle tapping)
when you adjust your damper setting or your drag factor,
you can go by either,
and what you want to understand
are the basics on your machine of how you adjust resistance.
A good sweet spot for the Concept2 machine
is between a three and five on the damper setting, okay?
That's a really good place to start,
and that would be that the speed that you would feel
if you were on a relatively normal
racing shell in the water.
It moves pretty well.
It doesn't feel too heavy, doesn't feel too light.
Now, if you wanted to feel like you were in a big,
heavy paddle boat with some really small oars in a headwind,
then you would take the damper setting up to a 10,
and if you wanted to feel like
you're in a very light, fast, sharp, quick boat,
you take it down to a one.
Now again, every machine will vary,
so understand your resistance,
and number two is feedback.
How do you receive feedback on the machine?
Well, that comes from whatever the performance monitor
may be on that machine.
Play around with the buttons.
Know how that monitor works so that you can collect data
on how you're working
because that data is important to you knowing
how far you've gone, how long you've done it,
and how much output you have when you're actually doing it.
That allows you to compare your efforts
between now and the next time you do it,
and it allows you to collect data
so that you can create some kind of consistency
in your training,
and fifth, this one's really important,
plan your training ahead of time.
Don't just jump on the machine and start moving.
Have a plan for what you're going to do
because if you just jump on with no plan,
you never know what you're gonna get out of it,
and there's no intent or purpose to the workout.
Give yourself an intent and purpose.
Decide whether it's time or distance
that you're going to be doing
or perhaps number of calories, number of watts.
Understand what your goal
or your objective in the workout is
because that's going to give you a reason
and a purpose behind the workout
which is going to give you quality of workout
as opposed to just kind of quantity, right?
You wanna have a value-driven workout,
not just a workout for the sake of workout
because frankly, if you don't set parameters,
you're gonna give up earlier
when it just starts to get mildly uncomfortable
as opposed to if you set a full parameter,
you know exactly what the intent is,
you'll work to that,
and you'll accomplish your goals much faster.
So that's it guys.
The whole purpose of this video
is to get you started quickly,
so take that information, sit down on your machine,
replay this video,
and make sure that you're doing steps one through four,
and then, in relation to step five, go check out
our workout playlist (inset screen popping)
(machine whirring) so that you can get
guided workouts that are going to help you
learn along the way and get you a great workout,
and in the meantime,
if you really loved this video, Dark Horses,
thank you so much as always
from the bottom of my heart for tuning in,
checking out what we got going.
I would love it (hand smacking)
if you would hit that Subscribe button
to make sure that you are a part of our following,
and if you really love it
and you wanna know when we get new workouts up,
make sure you hit that little bell button
'cause you're gonna get alerted
whenever we come out with a new video,
and as always, thank you so much, guys.
We will see you on the other side.
(upbeat pop music)
Hey, thanks for watching the video.
If you enjoyed this and you're looking for more
and you want workouts,
continuous coaching from me and my other coaches
in our private Facebook community,
it's our monthly workout program.
It's $39 a month.
Just go over to DarkHorseRowing.com/athlete
to sign up now.