- What's up guys, and welcome back to another episode of
Dark Horse Rowing, this week we take a stab
at one of the questions that we get quite regularly
which is, what about the skier?
Because, it's a concept two machine.
And well, we know concept two pretty much as
concept two knows concept two.
So, let's take a look at concept two machine.
It's ... one ... hold on, one second ...
The skier!
("Hard Way to Better by Siine")
♪ Hard way to better ♪
(techno music playing)
So one of the long held questions that we get
is about the skier,
mechanics, techniques, benefits, how do I use it,
when do I use it, so on and so forth.
So I figured you know what,
it's been a while since we've done a video
on the topic, let's dig in and give you
guys some of the basics
and just revisit it now that we've had a little bit
of a gap since our last skier video.
Let's get into it.
("Duel of the Fates by The City of Prague")
So the first version of the skier,
was actually a rower basically strapped to a wall.
So I get why you would think that maybe this is
just vertical rowing.
The problem however comes in when you try to apply
the thought process of the rowing movement
to this machine,
there's definitely an element of this that needs
a big of like fluidity and
relaxation, kind of like the rowing movement does,
however if you would try to think about the exact
same mechanics applied to this machine,
it ends up making you really rigid and stiff.
The problem is, when you feel that, it leads to this
machine feeling like a black hole of energy
and that just creates more and more frustration
and generally ends up with avoidance.
It's kinda like a lot of people feel about the rower
which is why people end up on our channel.
Because we help that not happen.
And that's the goal of today's video.
So it's important to understand the way that this
movement operates relative to what we understand
from the rower already, because many of you are here
because of that.
Number one, this is a vertical movement, obviously.
There's no horizontal path here.
This a purely vertical path.
I have to get these handles down,
in order to get the fly wheels spinning,
which makes this machine, tell me that I'm going fast,
So to understand the movement, we gotta start at the top.
Okay, so let's just start diggin into the movement.
Starting with the hands or the arms if you will.
First things first when you grab this handle,
make sure that you've got this flat part sitting on
the heel of your hand, you don't want it facing away
from you, so sitting on the heel of your hand.
That's gonna allow you to hang on the heel when
you put pressure on this and lean onto that handle
as opposed to having to death grip the thing.
Similar to when you're on the rower,
always make sure that you keep a relaxed grip because
death gripping this thing is not gonna be your friend
and it's gonna prematurely wear out your forearms,
not fun, let's stay away from that.
Now, next thing is that when we go to take a stroke,
what you need to understand is that you do not want that
arm fully extended
because that means in order to get it moving,
you have to basically break that elbow before
it can start traveling down,
we wanna avoid that.
You're gonna think about almost grabbing that tension
with a semi bent elbow.
Now this flies in the face, of everything that I've
ever taught on the rower, so again,
please keep in mind, separate movements.
When we're on this thing,
you're going to find that tension with
a broken elbow already and that's going to help those arms
connect, now the one thing that is going to carry over
is the way that we think about the catch position
or the top of the stroke.
On the rower, it's at the front.
On the skier, it's at the top.
To catch, you need that elbow broken and braced
and you need your lats engaged.
A good way to think about engaging the lats,
is taking that arm, putting it out and then
you're going to roll down.
So you're gonna externally rotate
and that is going to give you that tension
right here, this guy, should be nice and tight.
And that tension is what's going to connect you
to the machine.
So think about getting that tension at the top,
elbow broken, lat engaged, that is your initiation with
the arms, now keep in mind, this is not a tricep extension
movement, this is simply your brace to allow the rest
of your body to begin working.
So next, let's talk about the hips.
(clearing throat) my eyes are--
up here, thanks.
So now that we've locked down the arm,
it's important to understand how we actually take
that tension that I created with the catch
and now relay that into the force
production because that's really the important part.
Now, I'm going to break this, technically into two parts
as in the trunk and hips, and the legs.
However I want you to think about them more as one
happy union, as opposed to two totally separate movements.
It's not like the rowing stroke where we try to
piece out the movement,
instead we try to bring it together,
to a bit more aggregate of a movement.
So what we're talking about here,
and what I really wanna emphasize,
is that there is a difference with what you may be used to
with rowing where we talk about maintaining rigid posture
and simply swinging through the hips.
I want you to be a bit more fluid with the trunk.
(upbeat music playing)
Now, there's a saying that I've heard that is
Good skiing is bad posture,
I don't know that I wanna go to that extent of it
but don't be afraid that once you grab on,
once you brace with the lats and the arms,
don't be afraid to really almost crunch
into that stroke,
instead of feeling like you need to stay rigid
and upright, in this sense on the machine,
you're gonna get in to that
stroke a little bit.
Meaning you're gonna almost,
I like to think of it as trying to get
on top of the handles,
as opposed to being behind the handles
and then trying to make your way through after.
Instead you're gonna try to get on top
of the handles and that's gonna happen by closing the hip,
and giving almost this anterior chain like brace,
like a crunch, on top of that locked in lat and arm.
So I'm going to really think about using that anterior chain
to brace and connect my hips and my trunk to the movement
so that when I engage, it's a closing of the hip
and a brace through that anterior chain as opposed to
opening up and getting lost behind the handles,
instead I want to brace and get on top of the handles.
And the final piece is the legs.
Now there's nothing overly complicated here,
other than to say that when you are taking that stroke
or that ski I guess,
is that the correct terminology?
Am I, do I take a ski?
Do I just skate?
No, do I take a--
a push?
What am I taking?
Honestly, I would love to know,
what do you think it is?
Is it a ski stroke?
Comment, drop a--
let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
But anyway, the point being,
when it comes to the legs,
what I want you to think about is that as you
take that stroke, let's call it.
You're actually pushing your feet into the ground.
You're not trying to lean back against the handles,
you're not trying to do a tricep extension.
You are trying to again as we do in the rowing stroke,
push the ground away from you.
So I don't know if any of you
have ever practiced jumping down,
have you ever done that?
If not, take a second, practice jumping down.
How down can you jump?
Right?
It's like you're trying to push the ground away from you.
I want you to think about that same concept,
you're gonna push
the ground away from you with your legs
and then you're only going to close the hips enough
that your hands travel right past to your knees.
There is no sense in going any lower.
The majority of the force production,
should happen in the top bit of this stroke,
the top half of this stroke,
the bottom half is for follow through.
So if you are following through
all the way down here, all the way down here.
You're not getting anything out of the stroke extra
instead you're just wasting energy,
basically doing more of a squat than you need to do.
But!
It doesn't end there because as with all aerobic movement,
we need to learn that creating the same thing
over and over and over is done correctly.
- Hey, it's all in em, c'mon!
Work with me now.
It's all in the hips, yeah!
It's all in the hips.
- And for that, we need to find rhythm
because without it, we're just repeating bad history
over and over and over.
So let's dig into that.
So when it comes to creating rhythm,
let's just take the pieces that we've already learned,
that movement pattern.
And then let's understand how to return
and then it's simply repeating that process,
finding the points where you have to engage
and then finding the points where you can disengage
and relax a little bit to save yourself
as you go through.
So we already established that as you go to move
it's this anterior chain brace
while pushing through the floor
with your feet and bracing through that lat in the arm.
And that handle then travels right past the knee.
So that's my drive,
on the way back up,
I wanna think about the opposite,
I'm gonna use my posterior chains,
so I'm here.
I'm gonna use that posterior chain to stand me up,
I'm squeezing my butt to get tall,
I'm only going to get as tall as I can comfortably get.
I'm not gonna over extend, and I'm also not gonna reach
my elbows straight, I can come up on my toes slightly
to get a bit of hang on the handles,
but I'm also not trying to get up on my toes
for the sake of getting on my toes.
I'm doing it if that drive from behind
is giving me this nice boost up.
So when you're using that posterior chain to stand you up,
when you're doing that, you're able to turn this off
and get it ready for the brace.
Now the other thing you wanna think about
is that it's not this big long send
and then this slow stand up and send.
You will notice that on this machine, stroke rates
definitely run higher and that's okay.
That's fine, you take less time out of the legs,
which makes it a faster turnover.
And so stroke rate ends up being higher,
now that's okay however, we want to find as much efficiency
as possible so as you are moving you're thinking
engage anterior chain, engage posterior chain.
Anterior, posterior, anterior, posterior and then,
you start to vary stroke rate
simply by slowing or speeding up
both ends of the line.
Not just speeding up one, or the other.
And then, once you get comfortable with that,
you start matching to that point where when you are
anterior chain or on the drive,
you only engage what you have to,
disengage what you can and on the reverse,
on the recovery, you're gonna do the same thing,
engage where you have to, disengage where you can.
That starts to create efficiency,
and then as with the rowing stroke,
try not to create any points in the movement
where you ever stop.
On these machines,
any time the handle is not moving,
is a killer speed.
So as soon as that handle is coming up to the top,
you wanna change directions before it ever comes to a stop
and then you change directions, no no,
we wanna avoid that, as the handles are coming up,
you immediately change direction again.
Never hanging out in one position for any longer
than you have to.
So guys remember, this is just a beginners guide,
one of the things that I cannot encourage enough
is that every time you get onto this machine
or the rower or the biker,
you are always thinking about ironing out
little nuance movements
meaning can you improve by one percent every time
you get on this machine, or half a percent.
Just by practicing a little bit of technique,
you always wanna keep in mind those things
that you are working on regularly.
Because if you can do that, overtime,
that adds up to create better movement.
It doesn't happen in one video,
it doesn't happen with just
the snap of your fingers,
everything doesn't just magically get better,
it has to improve over time.
And so with that being said,
make sure that you take the little bit of time,
every time you get on this machine,
to practice your movement.
Now just remember, more practice equals more strokes
equals better efficiency.
And you can take that one to the bank.
Eh, that was a good one, you won't forget that will ya?
And with that guys, thank you for tuning in to
another episode of Dark Horse Rowing,
this time we covered the skier,
and we threw it back,
one of those things we haven't touched in a while so--
thank you again for tuning in,
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I will see you on the other side.
("Josha Bilash by Jahangir Sarkae and Zannat")
♪ It's the one and only ♪
♪ D O double G ♪
♪ Snoop Dogg, Snoop Dogg! ♪