- What's up Dark Horse crew.
Today we are talking about
external rotation, scap depression.
That doesn't sound very interesting, does it?
Why are we talking about this?
Well, we get a lot of questions
about how to connect to the machine.
I think people feel ...
They hear the structure.
They hear legs only, legs and hips,
it's legs, body, arms.
Arms, body, legs, blah-blah-blah.
It can get actually confusing,
and we're all about making sure
that things actually make sense.
That's it.
At the end of the day, that's all that matters.
We're just talking about a skill.
What we are talking about
with this external rotation concept
is how we actually connect to the handle.
At the end of the day, that's all that matters.
Can you get your body to connect
to the handle so that you can,
boom, drive with your legs.
Because we talk a lot about legs, legs, legs.
It's 60% legs.
It's not actually 60%.
It's like 54.-something percent.
The point being we talk a lot
about using our legs, and at the end of the day,
what really matters is can your trunk
support your legs and can your arms
connect to your trunk?
Huge issue.
If you can't do that, then there's no way
for you to actually apply force to the machine.
How do we accomplish this?
Well there's something that I like to do
with most of my seminars and with most
of the people that I work with
when they're struggling to connect to their arms.
How do they feel that arm at the catch,
and we're going to go over that, right now.
What you want to think about is taking
one arm out, so you're going to take
your left arm and you're going to stick it
straight out in front of you.
Now when we're talking about shoulders
for the purposes of the skill of rowing,
we don't worry about packing our shoulders
back and down.
There's not a whole lot of safety
or performance gain that happens from that.
Most things where you're super heavy,
yeah, we really do have to be concerned
about making sure that those shoulders are
pulled back, however, when it comes
to the movement of rowing, what we need
to be concerned about is simply connecting
to the arms.
What I want you to think about
is you're going to take those arms
and you're going to put them out.
You're going to take one arm,
stick it straight out and now
you are going to think about rolling your shoulder down,
so not pulling back, but rolling.
We call this external rotation,
so you're going to externally rotate
your shoulder and then you're going to
drop it, so you're really rolling
your arm down, and you're doing that
without breaking at the elbow.
You're simply doing it from the shoulder.
You're rolling that arm out.
That's external rotation.
Now I want you to take this hand,
your left hand and you're going
to grab this lat.
This big meaty guy right here.
It might not be meaty on you,
but that's okay.
You're going to grab this guy right here.
Arm out, and you're going to roll down,
and what you should feel as you do that
is this gets tight.
This gets tight in your hand and what
you are trying to think about is getting
that as tight as possible without pulling back.
Shoulder reaching, and then roll down,
and feel that get tight.
Now you're going to keep that locked.
You're going to take the other arm,
you're going to put it straight out
and now you're going to duplicate
that feeling on the other side.
Now you're standing here like a zombie,
but what I want you to be feeling
is this,
that movement is what's going
to connect you to the handle.
Now it's very easy to practice this
on the machine.
We simply set ourselves up in
the catch position and then roll down
and get those lats connected.
I'm going to show you what that looks like.
(funky music)
That is how we actually put it together
on the machine.
Now from there, all you have to think about
every single stroke, now you can actually
contemplate this arms, body, legs,
legs, body, arms thing or legs and hips
and hips and arms, but what matters most
is that as you get the handle,
as that handle is pushing away from the body,
that you are setting that tension in the lat.
Now we can actually talk about applying
what we just did, that roll down,
and we can actually connect that
to the movements so we can talk about
legs, body, arms, arms, body, legs
or legs and hips or hips and arms
and pectorals and posturals and how those
all work together.
Now what you're thinking about,
anytime you push that handle away
is that you are pushing away and locking
that lat in first and foremost.
You're not waiting until you get
to the catch and trying to find tension
and hoping and wishing and praying.
We don't do that.
We want to make sure that we put ourselves
with intention into good position
because once you do that you're going to find
great connection, you're going to be happy,
I'm going to be happy.
The stars are going to shine, the sun
will come out, the birds will sing
and butterflies will come flapping all over the place.
As we're getting into this, guys,
I want you to go, and I'm going to give you
an action item here.
This is your action item.
I want you to, number one,
go and hold the catch position for two minutes.
Two minutes, that's it.
Set the catch position with the intention
on rolling down lats tight, elbows extended.
Just feel that and lock that in place.
Next I'm going to have you row
hips and arms only.
Go ahead, in hips and arms only
you are going to take 40 strokes
with hips and arms only.
That should happen pretty quick.
It shouldn't feel like a ton,
and you're sole goal is, as that handle
moves away, you are getting that lat
prepped and tight, not throwing the arms
and then hoping that you'll find tension.
Make sense?
Guys, that is your homework today,
and that is how we ultimately connect to the machine.
End of the day, that's the big picture.
How do you be more effective when
you are on the rower?
That's today's goal, so go practice.
Guys make sure that you are heading over
to DarkHorseRowing.com where we have
training plans for athletes and we also
have the Dark Horse Academy, our coaches
platform to help coaches use this machine
as a training tool, because at the end of the day,
that's what matters.
This is just a training tool.
I'm not trying to convince you
to be a rower, I'm just trying to get you guys
comfortable on the machine, and if you happen
to love rowing, fantastic.
Guys thanks for tuning in.
We will see you next time on
The Dark Horse Rowing YouTube channel.
Make sure you click, subscribe,
wherever it may be and guys,
leave us a comment below.
Let us know how we're doing, and if
there's anything else you want to see
we want to hear about it.
Guys we'll see you on the other side.
(funky music)
Lunch break.
I'm eating my territory foods
and it's delicious.
Buffalo chicken, salad, and I didn't have to make it.
That's the nice part.
I could seriously eat this for every meal.
All gone.
Game on.