A guest post by Carlos Dinares
Following from part one of this post; Carlos suggests 8 ways you can train your athletes or train yourself to improve your core strength for rowing and sculling.
Ways to develop strength in your body to suspend:
- Row on the water at low rates with a bungee making the drive slower and heavier.
- Row on the water at low rates dropping out some of the crew members.
- Row on the water at low rates small boats.
- Row on the Rowperfect3 with heavy drag at low rates.
- Do body circuits on land with light weight and very dynamic movements.
- Do some crossfit training.
- Do dynamic core training.
- Do alternative sports where you are required to use dynamic movements with your body like martial arts, boxing, basketball etc.
A note from us
It’s important that when you do these exercises – especially the ones that increase the load on your body that you know you are actively using your core muscles in the rowing stroke.
In my club we are finding athletes who can do awesome core exercises on the land – holding postures for minutes on end. BUT they are not using the muscles on the ergo or in the boat. It’s vital that skills transfer to the boat from the gym or else you’re wasting your training effort. As a coach, check the athletes have muscles engaged – you can do this visually if they row with a singlet / crop top or without a shirt – see the muscles move. Watch during the stroke to see the muscles move as they engage and dis-engage.
