- What's up, Dark Horses?
And welcome to another Dark Horse workout of the week.
Lately we have been
in basically a 10 minute drill workout every week
but today I wanted to take a big throwback
back to the beginning.
The beginning of learning this machine.
So today our workout is going to be starting
with simply setting up on the machine.
This is the number one workout you should do
if you are brand new to this machine.
I'm gonna walk you through where your feet should be,
where you should sit on the seat, how to hold the handle,
and then we're gonna go through five minutes
of simple drill work that you can do
to get comfortable with the very first time you sit
on this machine so that you set good habits
and that you can roll into better mechanics,
a better future, better workouts,
and be happier, healthier,
and get more out of the rowing machine.
I mean, at the end of the day,
that's what this is all about.
If this is your first time here, welcome to Dark Horse,
where you are the hero of your own story
and we are simply the guide that helps you
to get to where you would like to go.
Meaning you can set your own path
and that you have the ability to control
where you want to go,
but you got to put in the work yourself to get there
and we will help guide you every step of the way
and you can join in this amazing community.
So with that being said,
let's talk through how today's workout is going to go.
This workout is going to take you
from absolute never having sat on a machine
to a confident first few strokes.
And we're going to do this
in 10 minutes or less on this machine.
I'm actually going to set 10 minutes on my watch
and then we're going to get
as much workout time in as possible
after we've got the appropriate setup on the machine.
We've done plenty of videos
on how to set yourself up on the machine,
we've done plenty of workout videos,
but never, never has a video been done
in which you are going to learn feet, seat, handles,
the three connection points
and the drills to get you started.
Okay, I'm going to start my watch for 10 minutes.
The clock starts now.
Now here's the deal.
There are three main connection points to the machine.
Number one is your, our, your feet.
So the way that you want to adjust the foot stretchers
on any machine whatever it may be is
you are going to put your feet in
and ensure that the straps are running
across the widest part of your foot
or the ball of your foot.
That's our target point, okay?
So go ahead and make those adjustments now.
And as you do that,
I'm just going to talk about why we do that.
Primarily it's because if our feet are too high,
if my feet are really high,
as I come into the catch,
it's going to create this big impingement in my hip
and it's gonna be very tough to get into a good position.
The other reason being that as we drive,
we want to make sure that we can push
through our entire foot, not just the toe,
which often happens if the foot is too high.
If the foot's too low,
it's actually going to give us too much vertical drive
and we're not going to be able to push
as horizontally strong as we'd like to.
So with that being said,
let's get our feet into the machines.
Next, your position on the seat
is actually pretty important.
You might not know this and why would you, right?
We need to walk through the reasonings here.
So number one, I want you to scoot
as far forward on your seat as you can comfortably sit.
Don't feel like you're teetering off the edge
or gonna fall off, but you don't want to be sitting
at the back of the seat.
And the primary reason being that
by sitting at the back of the seat,
the front edge of that seat is gonna dig
into your hamstrings
and that will get pretty uncomfortable over time.
So go ahead and scoot your butt forward
or towards the forward front of that seat.
That's your seat position.
Finally, the handle.
On that handle position,
I want your hands nice and wide.
Pinkies still on, okay, but I want a relaxed grip
where it's sitting in this first row of knuckles.
This first row of knuckles right here.
Okay, so in that row of knuckles is
where I want the handle to sit.
Then I'm going to have you close the gap
between your thumb and your forefinger,
just touching the tips of the fingers together very lightly
once the handle is in your hand.
The reason I don't want those fingers overlapped
and what that should cause is that the handle will not be
in the palm of your hand.
If the handle is touching the palm of your hand,
there's a really high likelihood
that you're gripping too hard on the handle.
And when you grip on the handle,
the arms only give us about 10%
of our force production through the stroke.
So if you are death gripping, holding the snot
out of this handle, you are wasting energy simply holding on
that is not going to benefit you
or get you any extra in the workout
or help you in any way really whatsoever.
So you're going to relax your hands,
let the handles sit in the knuckles,
touch that thumb and forefinger together,
closing the loop here, right?
That's what we're looking for
and let it sit in the knuckles.
That's your grip.
Again, nice and wide on the handle, not close together
and not pinkies hanging off the side.
Okay, that's your grip, that's how you're gonna hold it.
Now that took me three minutes
so I'm gonna hit just row here.
We're gonna go to what's called the release position
and we're gonna start with drills here.
To work out the basics of the stroke,
we're going to use what are called pick drills.
Pick drills simply mean
that you are picking the stroke apart into its pieces
and we will work on each piece independently
and then we'll bring them all back together
to form a good stroke.
So to start, legs should be straight,
posture should be nice and proud,
and I want your trunk open at 11 o'clock
or one o'clock depending on which side
of the clock face you're looking at.
And we're going to start,
push your feet into the foot stretchers, engage your legs,
sit up tall, brace your midline.
We're gonna start with arms only.
Okay, I'm gonna reset my clock.
You meet me back there.
And we're gonna start with arms only.
Ready, row.
Keeping all those positions,
I want you to just join me here, nice and relaxed.
Okay, finding a constant rhythm on the handle.
Straight in, straight out.
No crazy up or down movement of the handle.
No pausing at the front or back either.
This is going to be straight in, straight out to the body.
We're gonna stay here for a little bit,
getting you comfortable with the stroke.
Now one of the things that you need to think about
as you move through the rowing stroke is
that there's really no beginning or end point.
It doesn't start or stop ever.
We are constantly recycling momentum
and one of the things that we can learn
by rowing with arms only is just the ability
to keep the handle in constant motion
but finding ratio forward and back.
And that can be extremely useful to train our bodies
that there is a continuous movement element to the stroke.
Now as you are doing this,
I want you to think about dropping your shoulders
and use your lats.
As you draw the handle through,
I want you to imagine drawing your elbows through naturally,
not pinching them to your sides or winging them out,
and just moving through the elbow.
You're drawing the shoulders back each time.
Nice job, just stick with me here.
We're gonna do this for another 20 seconds
and we're gonna shift to hips only.
This is not very common in the rowing world, that's okay.
I want you to get comfortable with how the hips swing.
So the arms will be straight
and you're going to swing the hips open and closed.
In two, that's one and two.
Here we go.
Keep that posture tall
but rock forward and back through the hips.
Legs are staying straight.
Drop your shoulders.
In fact, everybody give me a nice big shrug of the shoulders
and drop them.
That should get you out of the traps.
Relaxing through the stroke.
Now remember if this is your first time on the machine,
I want you to be searching for maintenance of good posture
and grabbing of the tension.
And by grabbing I mean
that your body feels the tension on the handle, okay?
So you're feeling that tension on the handle.
Now in two strokes, I'm going to add in the arms.
That's one, that's two.
Good, now we're starting
to feel the order of operations of the stroke.
Arms move in and away again, then the hips close.
So arms away, close the hips,
hips open, then the arms.
Again, notice there's no stopping point.
Also notice how low and slow I'm moving
but I put tension and effort as I swing the body open.
That's where I'm able to put my work into the machine.
On the way back up, that's called the recovery.
There is no moment in time
where I can actually do work to the machine
and so we call it the recovery
because you actually recover during that time.
So arms move away, body closes.
Make sure that you're maintaining posture,
swinging the hips from 11 to one.
So looking or thinking about a clock face,
your trunk or your torso is swinging from 11 to one,
maintaining posture, not rounding the back to get there.
It's almost as if somebody is lifting your sternum
as you swing forward.
Stay with me here.
Try not to hit your chest with the handle.
Get really close but then just push it away again.
Think about your breathing for a moment here.
Okay.
Let's go ahead and slide up to the front of the stroke.
Only have a minute and a half left.
So come into this catch position with me,
body at a forward angle, heels down, knees to chest.
Hang out here.
We're gonna start with legs only.
Ready, go.
I want you to feel your legs pushing into the machine.
I want you to feel your core tight and braced
as you push the machine away from you.
Keep your hands relaxed, keep your shoulders down.
In two strokes, now we're gonna add in the hip swing
but not the arms.
This is one.
And two.
Good.
That's two.
Good, what I want you feeling is how you brace,
push the machine away from you with the legs,
and swing the hips open.
All right, we've got 30 more seconds,
so now we're gonna add in the arms
and take your first perfect full slide strokes.
That's one.
And two.
Oh, now there is a nice stroke.
(sighs)
Feel the legs push against the machine.
Feel how your body takes the time to recover
and then you put all your effort
(grunts) as you push the machine away.
And put your handle down.
Nice job.
So from here, where I want you to take this is number one,
hopefully that grooved you into a good movement pattern.
This is not the end, this is just the beginning.
Ideally you'll, as soon as you're done with this video,
pause it, take 100 more strokes,
practicing on the way that you move, right?
Mechanics always take priority on this machine.
Spend your first eight weeks thinking about mechanics.
And to do that, follow along with our other videos
that we have in the playlist here,
where we're teaching you mechanics as you go.
Follow our workouts.
Always trying to help you through the movement
and through the workout.
So as you go through,
spend the initial time focusing on the mechanics
because in the long run,
that's going to benefit your performance
because you will feel better, you'll move better,
you will know how to use your body on this machine.
Your body becomes the tool, the engine, right?
And this is simply the means with which you find fitness
or the means with which you find freedom in your life.
There are a lot of reasons
that people use the rowing machine.
I hope you find yours.
But before you get there, you need to focus on mechanics.
And if this is your first time, kudos.
You've made an excellent choice.
Focusing on the mechanics
to get you set up right for the future.
Now if you enjoyed this video
and you appreciate taking this approach
and you do feel like you want
to be the hero of your own story
and you're looking for that guide
to help you along in the journey, that is us.
That's Dark Horse, that makes you a Dark Horse,
that puts you in this community.
This community of people that follow this channel
who support each other in the comments,
who cheer each other on,
who need other people to help them through,
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but we all support each other in the effort.
Then that is you, you are a Dark Horse.
Hit that subscribe button and the bell next to it
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So thank you for tuning in.
As always, I love each and every single one of you.
Thank you so much for tuning in to this channel.
It means the world to me
and it means the world to everybody that's here.
And my only ask is that you guys go
spread that love out into the world.
We need more of it,
we need more people showing love to each other,
so spread that love, get great workouts,
be the hero of your own story.
And as always, I'll see you on the other side.
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