Rowing Crew.. Workout Routine?

I'm joining crew, (rowing).. Practice starts monday, they start off w/ a 2.5 mile run down to the river then practice for about an hour and a half and a jog/walk back. I was wondering what type of routine I should do for working out..

I have strength but I need more endurance.

I'm thinking of a routine focusing on Back/Core/Legs.

I'm about 5"10-5"11, 170lbs. I need to lose some weight to get down to around 160-155. I will ask my coach about a routine but I was thinking if any1 here has any opinions?

 

Talk to your coach first.

 

And if you are looking for endurance, you should check out the conditioning forum.

 

careful about what your coach tells you. one of my friends was on a rowing team and he had the team doing HIT.

 

Yea, some of these mid/low level coaches seriously dont know what they are doing sometimes.

 

So what do you guys suggest? He's a novice coach thats why I was asking for help here so I can compare..

 

Isn't graedy the resident rowing expert? You might check his logs.

 

I don't know. I know nothing about Rowing. All I know is you should put emphasis on your pull motions.

Just hope he is a pretty modern guy in terms of sports science.

 

As it happens I picked up a magazine today with training tips from various british world/olympic champion, one of them being Steve Williams who is 2005 coxless four world champion and 2004 coxless four olympic champion. I am pretty bored so here it is

 

I used to coach rower's weights program back a while ago. I believe a good training (in the whole week, can't remember the splits) would include bent over rows, deadlifts, powercleans, front squats (perhaps backsquats depending on flexibility), and make sure you go all the way down in the squat.

If I can remember any more I'll add it in.

 

I train in a rowing club and used to row myself from age 9-15.

Here is a routine i used to do training with a guy, who is 8 years older and in the national team.

Train 2-3 times a week. alternate those two plans. Superseted means NO rest.


Bench - chest supported rows
Legpress seated (you can also do squats here) - Curls
Lat pulldowns - Back extensions
Push downs - Vsit ups
dumbell shoulder press - Obliques



Incline bench - Cable rows
Legpress lying (Frontsquats) - Curls
Lat pulldowns (different grip) - Back extensions
Tricep - Vsit ups
Side raise - Obliques



Do 4x25-30 on every exercise. No rest in the supersets and very little rest between them. The first few sessions it will be hard just to finish the training without gassing or muscelcrampings (oh the memories about a 2m 100 kg guy screaming at me, little boy )---> little weight.

 

yep. Crew is about explosive power movements repeated 25 times a minute (for a 5000m race). It's important to work your back etc with rowing motions (seated row, bench pulls) but most of your power is going to come from an explosion from your legs (which is why you have the slide to begin with!) So that would be what to work the most, power cleans, squats (of course!) etc.

I used to row crew in highschool and after hitting the weightroom for a while I could really feelt how much easier the rowing motion was with a little more power. Of course, technique is extremely important too, so don't forget to start practicing on that rowing machine!

 

The reason why the most power comes form your legs is because your legs are just the strongest muscles. If you have the technique right, you will use every muscle with every pull you do.
Btw.
The Olympic distance is 2000 m.
One race lasts about 6 minutes.