Rest Day 8/21/14: What’s your favorite mobility move for Rowing? – Get Loose!

Rest Day:

The Renegade Rowing Team drilling by Moonlight!

What’s your favorite mobility move for Rowing?

Get Loose and Enjoy 15 minutes of Hamstring and Hip Mobility.

Over the past week we’ve hit it pretty hard with intensity and higher volume.  Our ability to sit up and maintain a solid core through the stroke has a lot to do with our hamstring flexibility and the work we do on off days to promote recovery and rebuilding of the muscle fibers we tear.  Use today as an opportunity to stretch out and rebuild those hamstrings, increase your flexibility, and eat some good quality food.

Share your favorite mobility move, where you’re feeling it today, and how you mobilized!

Rowing WOD 8/20/14: 2k Row; 5Rds – 10 OHS, 10 Sit Ups; 2k Row – Post Time and Splits

Rowing WOD:

Renegade Rowing Workout

For Time …

Row 2k (@5k-1 Pace);

Then 5 Rounds of …

10 Overhead Squats w/ Empty Barbell

10 GH Sit Ups to Parallel (sub w/ abmat sit ups or v-ups);

Then Row 2k (@5k+3 Pace)

When rowing longer distances like 4k to 10k it helps to have a game plan.  Usually that game plan is to negative split.  Row the first thousand meters at an easy pace and then start to chip away and push harder through the middle and the end.  That plan doesn’t always work, but if you can find a way to be mentally strong and clear your head as if each 2k is a whole new race than there’s a chance you’ll get it done with a negative split.

Today’s Rowing WOD is a beast and a game plan will definitely be required.  A great goal would be to hold the same split for the first 2k and the last 2k.  That being said, there is a lot of work in the middle that will tax the arms and core.  Your ability to transfer power from feet to hands will be challenged at the start of your second 2k.  When you first start rowing again try to focus on power from the legs until your body and arms come back to normal.  If every muscle in your body is obliterated then just focus on being smooth and efficient with your technique and energy use.  If you can, mentally reset for the second 2k and hold a pace of 5k+3.

Post your overall time and average split for each 2k to comments.

Rowing WOD 8/19/14: 3k, 2.5k, 2k – Post Avg Splits

Rowing WOD:

More pics from Rowing/Running/Wod/Running/Rowing coming soon!

3k Row

  • (@5k+3 Pace)
  • 6min rest

2.5k Row

  • (@5k+1 Pace)
  • 5min rest

2k Row

  • (@5k Pace)

Why is rowing fun?  One reason is that it provides a challenge in learning technique to be as efficient as possible while working everything from your head to your toes.  Elsewhere in sports and training, if you’ve tried the Pose Method of running you may understand the beauty of focusing on technique and the perception of what your body is doing in space. Focusing on form and technique gives your mind something to work toward rather than complaining about how much your legs burn.

Today’s Rowing WOD is a good opportunity to focus on one or two form fixes but get after it as well.  Set the monitor for Intervals Variable and enter the work/rest accordingly.  This WOD has the potential to build your confidence in the 5k.  Come up with a plan and execute.  Be consistent with your splits and stroke ratings for all three.  If possible go a little bit faster on each piece.  Vets might try for a pace of 5k+3, 5k+1, 5k for each successive piece with a stroke rating of 28-32.  Find your efficient stroke.  Novices should focus on one form fix for each piece and work hard.

Post your Average 500m Splits to Comments along with an answer to this question…

Why is Rowing Fun?

Rowing WOD 8/18/14: “Hills” 3x10min – Post Distances

Rowing WOD:

Rowing Together at CFB - Have you tried a focused warmup with your gym?

Rowing Together at CFB – Have you tried a focused warmup with your gym?

“Hills”

3 x 10min w/ 4min Rest as follows …

4min @21 s/m

3min @23

2min @25

1min @29

I hope everyone had a great weekend and is ready to crush it this week!  We did this Rowing WOD back in July with the stroke rating a couple beats higher for each hill.  Try to find your results.  If you can, maintain the same splits but at lower stroke ratings.  The last minute is the same @29 s/m, so hit it hard.  Everyone should be feeling for connection, suspension, and body preparation.  Try to be smooth, effortless, and natural.

Rowing is a beautiful sport in that you create the resistance and determine how fast the boat moves.  That being said, keep in mind that you get out what you put in for things like strength, conditioning, and Rowing.  Ease into this workout for the first four minutes by finding your rhythm and breathing.  However, as the stroke rating goes up make sure you’re putting in the effort to bring the 500m split down and keep consistent pressure.

Set the monitor for 10 minutes of work and 4 minutes of rest.  During each ten minute piece follow the prescribed rating shifts.

Post your distance for each piece to comments.

Rest Day 8/17/14: Thoughts on Protein Powder?

Rest Day:protein

Do you use Protein Powder?

Below is a great post from Alex Black of Wicked Good Nutrition.  Check it out and post your thoughts and what you use for protein to comments.

Pros and Cons of Protein Powders

Protein powders were once the stuff of pro athletes and ultra meatheads, but have gone mainstream over the past 10 or so years. I first tried it when I was 15. When I told a personal trainer I’d been seeing with my mom that my goal was to get a 6-pack, he recommended I take 2 scoops of muscle milk powder 1-2 times per day. So mom and I dutifully trekked down to GNC and bought the vanilla flavor. And it was AWFUL. I don’t think I took the recommended dose even once, and I certainly never got said 6 pack. I couldn’t get it to dissolve in anything – not water, not milk, not a smoothie. Only now, looking back with educated eyes, do I see how completely ridiculous it was for this bro to tell a 15-year-old athlete to take a mostly unregulated supplement! The industry has gotten much better since then in terms of taste and palatability, but it is still mostly unregulated and athletes should pay attention to ingredients and types of protein.

Click here for the full blog post!