- SkiErging is not an easy thing to figure out.
It's actually quite complex because there are so many
movements involved and you have to figure all of them out
yourself so let's give you a quick fix that's going to get
you faster, with more fun, and getting a better workout
every time you're on this machine, quickly.
There's nothing worse than looking at a skierg
knowing that you have to get a workout
and just dreading it because you don't actually
feel the right connection to the machine
and therefore it feels like this black hole of energy
where you just dump everything into it
and you don't get a whole lot out.
I've gone ahead and just taken the liberty of talking
to a ton of different coaches as well as the company
that makes this machine to figure out what is the right
way to use it and help you understand it better so that
you can walk away with like a trophy,
this is, or a torch, let's call it a torch.
You're carrying this torch up like yeah,
I feel good and confident on this thing,
that's what we're gonna give you today.
So let's get into it, let's give you this fix,
get it implemented so that you can walk away with more fun
and getting more out of your workouts.
If this is your first time here,
welcome, I'm Shane Farmer,
and this is Dark Horse Rowing where we build better
humans through rowing and skierging
so that you can build the life that you wanna live.
So what's this quick fix that you're talking about, Shane?
It sounds super gimmicky,
how am I possibly gonna fix all of my technique quickly?
Well, you're right, it's a little bit gimmicky
and in order to hear it,
I just feel like it's best that you sit down.
It's seated skiing!
The reason we're using seated skiing is because
when the brain is trying to process that the entire body
has to learn something new, it gets very overwhelmed
with a lot of the different things that are going on,
trying to process and work at the same time.
Ah, my arms!
Ah, my legs!
Now what is my core doing?
Oh, why are my hands doing that?
What's my back supposed to be doing right now?
Who am I?
So, by bringing the seat in,
you're gonna have to take your legs out of the stroke
which is gonna force us to focus on just the catch position
of the stroke or the moment in time when you actually
get tension on the handle,
once you figure out that phase of the stroke,
we'll reintroduce the legs and let you put it all together.
You'll need two things for this,
it's a skierg and a seat, essentially the seat
should be at a height where the knees are at around
90 degrees, as close to that as possible,
so that we can make sure we place that demand
on the upper body of the stroke.
Now what you wanna think about is establishing the right
catch or the moment of tension,
we use the word catch in rowing,
you can apply that same thing, essentially
you're catching the tension or grabbing the tension,
it's the moment when you actually
feel resistance on the handles,
that is what we are trying to establish
is a strong moment of resistant on the handles
because once you feel resistance, at the end of the day,
skiing, rowing, bike erging, whatever machine you wanna
talk about we're always searching for connection
to the machine, that's what we're talking about
when we say catch.
Okay, the primary points for you to take away
when it comes to the catch position.
Number one, elbow at 90 degrees.
Next, make a fist, cock it forward.
That's as if you're holding the handle in your hand.
Okay, both elbows up at that position,
next you want the lats to be tight because that's how
you're going to tension and connect your arms to your body,
the last thig you want is a lose arm overhead,
trying to make the shoulders do the work.
Instead, bring the whole body together,
core to extremity, meaning from the center, out.
So, to do that, take your arms,
elbows at 90, cock the wrists and make a fist.
Elbows out and then draw the elbows in
and you should feel this, these guys right here
that is called your lat, that should get tight.
That's the position you wanna establish each time
and then the initiation of the movement is a crunch down
while the whole system contracts together.
We don't get loose in the shoulders and let them come up,
we take the whole thing, tension it down, boom!
Fire from the abs, that's where the contraction
and the catch moment comes from.
So from here, it's just about taking strokes to feel
what it's like, to get all that whole system to work
together you have to practice it,
you can't just think about it in theory,
you actually have to put it into action.
So, sitting on your butt on the seat,
with the handles in your hands,
let's take some strokes together so you can see
what it's going to look like now that I don't get
to use my legs, remember initiation comes from crunching
and staying locked in from the lats with a bent elbow.
And what you're gonna notice pretty quickly,
is that both the shoulders, the lats and the abs
are all going to fatigue, very fast,
that is a good thing.
You should be looking for that,
because that's telling you A, the abs are working,
as well as the shoulders and the lats are all working
together to become one system.
As I mentioned, you have to take the strokes to do this,
so I'm going to give you homework.
Your homework on this is two by 1,000 meters
with as much rest needed in between those two pieces
to recover as possible, this is not intended to tire
you out although it will.
Your abs, your shoulders, your lats,
they're all going to feel this,
but that just is practice.
The goal here is not for that white, hot, burning, I'm dying
workout this is for you to feel the areas
where this thing is going to work.
So, two by 1,000 meters, rest as needed in between them,
and you're just gonna get those practice strokes in.
Taking as many strokes as you can
with a well intentioned movement.
And there are two primary errors
that I want you to watch out for as you're doing this
and make sure that if these start to creep in,
you either stop, reset, or adjust as you're moving.
The first is that the arms are going to want to reach
overhead or reach out to the sides because
that's what you're used to.
The objective is, as the handles finish here,
you're gonna come straight back up, let the tension
on the handles, notice if I let go,
the handle flies up on it own.
That tension, let that pull your arms back up each time
and simply into this bent elbow position.
So, do not let the hands reach high above you,
don't let them swing out to the sides,
that they finish and then come right back up
to that 90 degree bent elbow position.
The second, is making sure that you don't fold over
too far as you take the stroke and depend so much
on the hip hinge that you're not able to connect
through the core and the arms.
It's gonna be pretty obvious if this one happens
'cause you're gonna be very close to hitting your face
on the monitor or you're going to end up looking
at the ground, those two things are signals
that you're leaning over too far in the stroke,
so the things I want you to focus on
make sure the arms are getting pulled back up
by the strings, the elbows are in that bent position
when you catch and that you are simply making
a small movement through the core,
not a big, lean over where
I'm face planting into the monitor.
Okay, you've practiced those strokes
you've taken your two by a thousand meters,
it's time to actually stand up, get rid of the seat,
and start to put this and implement this
into your normal stroke.
Now it's really important, look at my face
when I'm telling you this because it's gonna be really
critical that you pick up on my expressions.
- You're a funny guy, Sully.
- As we're discussing what it is that you wanna
be accomplishing in the real stroke.
So with those mechanics in place,
you're not gonna change anything other than giving
yourself the slight advantage of getting all of your mass
on top of the handle now but what you should
understand is how do I establish that tension
on the handle, how do I put a crunch into the stroke
and then it's just a follow through with the legs
essentially you're just gonna let your weight
or your mass get on top of the handle a little,
giving yourself that hip hinge that we practiced
on the seat, now you just get a slight knee bend
in the stroke and it's not this massive addition.
It's just a little bit of a follow through,
imagining that your weight is carrying on the handles
and that the knees bend softly,
just as if you were on skis and that you're pushing
through the handles, just like we push in the rowing stroke,
you're gonna push on top of these handles as well.
So, let's take a look at what the mechanics look like
after we've taking that drill,
the seated drill, and put it into real mechanics.
As with all things movement,
these little mechanical changes are gonna create
a big impact in the way that your stroke feels,
in the way that the workout feels,
you should be feeling a lot more confident
with this drill because it's helping you engage
through the mid line and the lats,
two of the biggest slippage areas where you tend
to lose a lot of mechanics
and a lot of force production on the machine.
Using this drill is going
to be very effective for your technique!
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you can keep getting better every single day!