- Hey guys.
Welcome back to another Toolbox Tips.
Today we're gonna talk about mindfulness
when you're rowing.
(upbeat music)
What's up guys?
And welcome back to another Toolbox Tips.
It just so happens to be a Tuesday.
All that alliteration just makes me feel good,
warm and yummy inside.
Today we're talking about mindfulness
when you are on this machine.
Now why does that matter?
Why should you even pay attention to this?
Well mindfulness is simply going to be the tool
that's going to give you a better workout
all just by paying more and more
focused attention to what you are doing.
That's why we're talking about it.
So don't think that I'm getting too wabi-sabi on you here.
We're just gonna go into the effective practice
of mindfulness when you're on anything
but more particularly when you're on this machine.
Why you should pay attention to it,
how you even do it,
and how it is going to impact your workout.
So for those of you joining us for the first time
this is Dark Horse Rowing and we bring you
everything that there is to know about
this indoor machine and the sport of indoor rowing
as well as the fitness of it.
So those of you that have a machine in your basement
or maybe a C1 collecting dust in the corner at your gym.
You're just wondering how do I use that?
That's what we're here for,
that's why you come to us.
So today we're talking about mindfulness
when you're on this machine.
Now what does that mean?
What is mindfulness?
I would give that there is an open-ended definition to this.
I personally have my own interpretation of mindfulness
but to me it is simply that mind-body connection
so that in the moment I'm aware of what I am doing.
I'm not thinking about the thing that's an hour ahead of me
or 20 minutes behind me.
I'm present meaning I'm so fully engaged
that I'm giving it everything.
Meaning my mental and my physical capacity.
So to me that is mindfulness.
It's being mindful of what you are doing.
Your mind is full of this present thing.
So when it comes to this machine,
I wanna talk a little bit about
how I achieve mindfulness on the machine
and also how you can use some of these tips
when you're on this machine and particularly
when you need to really squeeze
the last little bit of juice out of that workout.
What you can do to help yourself get there.
Now when I'm on this machine,
you'll notice I didn't wear shoes for a reason today.
I've been playing around with
shoeless training just in general
whether it's on this machine or elsewhere.
I've been really trying to spend more time barefoot
and it just so happens that this coincides well
with the topic of mindfulness.
Why you might ask,
because I have proprioception everywhere.
My feet,
my skin is this giant organ that allows me to feel.
And when I have shoes on they are taking away feel from me
and my feet are one third
of my connection point to this machine.
That's the roundabout piece.
So why would it be helpful to take my shoes off?
Well because when I take my shoes off
I gain the full experience of awareness,
texture,
feel to what I'm doing.
So you'll notice that when I take a seat,
if I'm rowing shoeless I'm going to actually
bring my foot stretchers up a little bit
from what I'm used to with shoes
because the padding on those shoes is going to
lift my feet higher
so when I take my shoes off I need to
lift my foot stretchers.
For me it was just one peg.
I'm usually on a four and without shoes
I go up to a three on my setting.
Now the way that I like to achieve mindfulness
when I'm on this machine is that
I want to go through a little practice
before I begin my workout of feeling
and noting that feeling.
So number one I'm going to press my feet
and just move my feet around so that I can feel.
What do I feel?
Is it smooth?
Is it rough?
Under my heels it's smooth.
I get a little bit of wiggle.
Under my feet I feel the knobbiness of this guy right here.
I feel my toes kind of gripping into the plastic.
Is the plastic cold or warm?
I feel the strap.
I'm just trying to bring in as many sensations as possible
and just make note of it so that is your goal.
It's almost a practice,
how much can I feel and be aware of?
Next I'm gonna move on to my second point of contact
and that's my butt in the seat.
So butt in the seat,
I'm thinking do I feel my weight?
Can I feel my whole body present and settled into the seat?
So I'm sitting here,
got it.
I can feel that body connected to the seat.
Finally I'm gonna pick up my handle,
my third point of connection.
I'm gonna establish my grip which as we know,
hands nice and wide,
thumbs underneath the handle
and I'm closing the circuit between
my thumb and my forefinger.
Not overlapping.
If you're overlapping you're probably grabbing too tight.
Which is gonna mean that that handle sits in my fingers
not in the palm of my hand.
If the handle touches the palm of your hand,
there's a really good chance that you're gripping too tight
and your arms only make up 10% of the stroke.
So don't spend all this effort gripping the handle
because it's not gonna make up anything for you
in your efficiency.
I establish my grip and then I go through
the same practice with my hands.
Do I feel the tension on the chain
trying to pull the handle away from me lightly?
Do I feel the smoothness or the roughness of the handle?
Do I feel the seam on the plastic?
Do I feel my fingers?
Are my hands sweaty?
Are they cold?
Do I have feeling in my fingers?
So I'm going through this practice and just feeling
all of these different things
and what that is doing is taking my mind and saying,
alright mind,
listen up.
Get ready,
we got something coming,
you gotta be engaged and ready for what we're about to do.
And by realizing all those points of contact,
it sets me up to get ready for the workout
that I have coming.
Now why is that beneficial?
If I need to be in tune with a workout
that requires that I hit a certain split
or that I'm in a specific stroke rate
or maybe I'm just learning the machine,
I'm new to this and I need to get comfortable
on this machine.
Well if I'm not fully engrossed in what I am doing,
if I'm not locked in with this monitor
and my body and my brain connect here,
what you'll find is that that's going to be a lot harder
to achieve what your goal of that workout is.
Whether it's fitness or just kinesthetically based.
Those efforts,
those end goals of what your day is about
are only going to be improved when you fully engage
with what you are doing.
Now this goes way beyond this machine.
This goes beyond indoor rowing or fitness or weight lifting.
This goes into your everyday life.
You can take this practice and
if you have a really great workout
after you've become mindful of what you're doing,
guess what?
You can do it when you're eating breakfast.
You can do it when you're present
with your significant other.
You can do it at work sitting at your desk.
Could you be more productive because
you are tuned in to what you are doing.
These things are extremely helpful
and personally for me I like to be mindful
when I am connected and ready to work out.
I notice that on the days when
I don't take that time to set myself up,
man those workouts are just,
I can't ever connect.
And I always walk away frustrated wishing I'd found
a better tune during that workout.
So for me that mindfulness is very important.
I like to spend a little bit of time everyday
just trying to be mindful.
Meditation in the morning,
things like that help me to achieve
a better structure of day
and so taking that we can take that
big umbrella of what that is.
Peace out a little bit.
Bring it to your workout.
Bring it to your machine.
Take the time to be mindful when you are on it.
You will find that you get better workouts.
You're gonna be happier with what you do
and you will end up in the long-run
with a much faster path to your goal
as opposed to having all these sloppy workouts
that may not get you to where you want to be.
So that guys is mindfulness
when you are on the indoor rower.
As always thank you tuning in.
This has been mindfulness for rowing.
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And guys as always we will see you on the other side.
(meditating)
Why are you still here?
Go be mindful somewhere else.
(deep breathing)
I don't actually do this with my hands.
(deep breathing)
You're still here?
Alright.
You wanna be mindful a little bit?
Just do it with me.
Just sit here.
Just want you to sit some deep breaths with me.
(deep breathing)
That's a good start to the day.
See you on the other side.
(upbeat music)