Coaching Tips: Rowing

Rowing Efficiently in your CrossFit Workouts

Hey all, hope your training has been going well thus far. I wanted to start writing a series of posts on this blog to address some technical errors I notice while coaching classes at Reebok CrossFit Back Bay. On the whole, you guys have all progressed incredibly well as athletes and I must say that I am quite proud of all of your accomplishments. However, in the endless pursuit of elite fitness (other than the summertime abs that's why we are all here, right?) there are certain things we should all be paying attention to in order to get better. I figured I would open this series of "Coaching Tips" blog posts by discussing some faults I see almost every day in our rowing techniques.

I would like to present a quick checklist for many of you to consider while rowing, whether we have forced you to do so in a workout or whether you get your weekend kicks with your rower in a dark room wearing shorts of a questionable length (unless you happen to be Coach Gino):

• Each stroke begins with the handle as close to the fan as possible, chest upright but posture also leaning slightly forward, and legs bent aggressively in between the arms (many of you taller athletes tend to force the legs outside the arms)
• The stroke begins with the knees, much like in our Olympic lifting, with an aggressive drive through the heels which pushes the knees down as we send our torso backwards
• Once the knees have been fully extended, the momentum of the stroke continues into our hips as we open the hips with speed, causing our shoulders to come behind the hips while still maintaining straight arms
• ONLY once the hips are open do we finish the pull by driving the handle to our chest, using our upper back and the ever-familiar "pinching" of our shoulder blades
• Once the handle has been fully extended to the chest we IMMEDIATELY extend our arms again while the hips and knees remain silent
• After the arms are extended we close our hips again, sending the shoulders in front of the hips and the handle over the knees -- the knees REMAIN EXTENDED here (all too often I see people returning with the knees first instead of the arms)
• Finally we re-bend the knees, leaning forward and returning the handle as close to the fan as possible, thus returning us to our starting position (aka the "catch")

All too often these steps get jumbled, particularly on the return. Most of you have become very proficient with your strokes, it is just the return that has become messy. Make sure that arms come BEFORE knees on the way back. The return is simply the same as the pull in reverse order, so train your brain to complete these steps correctly.

Most importantly, the number one thing many of you need to do on your rows is relax. Start paying attention to your "strokes per minute" or s/m reading on your monitors. Coach Gino cruelly programmed a 500m row sprint at 35 s/m or higher earlier this week, and for those of you who didn't black out or immediately attempt to forget this nightmarish endeavor, you remember how incredibly awful it was. Aim to keep strokes per minute low, particularly once the distance of your rows begins to increase. Distance and s/m should be inversely proportional, meaning the longer the distance, the less strokes you should be taking to get there. Focus on getting a strong pull while taking the time to breath and relax on the return. Establishing this type of cadence on your rows will allow you to stay fresher for longer in WODs which happen to involve rowing.

Start paying attention to efficiency when we row during warm-ups and workouts alike. The extra thought you put in now will make you a better athlete and will drastically reduce your times in rowing WODs. Lastly, not following these tips will make you look like THIS GUY and no one wants to look like that. Thanks for reading and as always, if you have any questions please approach me in class or shoot me an email.

Happy rowing,
Coach Justin