Rowing

Yesterday I showed Vicky, Fi and Penny and Lizzie a film of correct rowing technique to help them improve their rowing skills. As we all know, it is so easy to get complacent with what we are doing, think we are doing enough to get by and then sometimes wonder why we are not getting better or achieving greater results. The improvement in everybody's technique on the rower yesterday showed how, just by observing and copying someone's behaviour, comparing it to their own behaviour and then changing one little thing they were doing, had a knock on affect to how they felt. The biggest change to behaviour for everyone was tilting the hips/body earlier in the move which led to less shoulder effort and more leg effort...the muscles which should be doing most of the work! This reduced tension in the shoulders, made breathing more relaxed and encouraged postural muscles to engage more. As Vicky, Fi, Penny and Lizzie practise this new rowing behaviour their leg, back and core muscles will become stronger leading to increased distance and speed.

So sometimes we have to take a step back, look at the behaviour of someone who is successful in what they do and what we want to do, look at what we are doing and compare our behaviour to theirs, notice where we might be able to make our behaviour more like theirs and then modify our actions to be more like theirs. With a bit of focus and practise we can see how this new behaviour affects our performance and as we notice how much better we might be feeling we can then continue to implement this new way of doing something until we no longer have to think about doing it, it just happens...Hey presto! A new positive habit has been created that is going to give us better results!!

If you would like to practise your rowing technique at home try this exercise with a partner.

Sitting opposite your partner with legs straight out in front of you and the soles of your feet against your partners, take a resistance band, tie the ends together and hold it as if you are holding the handle of the rower. Your partner holds the other end in the same way. (Think of the nursery rhyme row, row, row your boat!)

Now taking it in turns, keeping you spine long,  rock your hips forwards and pull the band as if you were pulling the handle of the rower towards you on the effort part of the exercise.

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At the same time your partner, keeping their spine straight, rocks their hips backwards and lets their arms and body be pulled forward as if they were holding the handle of the rower on the recovery part of the exercise.

Reverse the movement so that you are now doing the recovery part of the exercise and your partner is doing the effort.

Keep this movement flowing backwards and forwards as if you were on the rower and notice where you feel the muscles working in your body. Notice especially the muscles working in your upper back, between the shoulder blades, in the front of your arms, in your core (your trunk - abs, lower back and spine), in your buttocks. If you feel tension in your neck or shoulders you may have to adjust your neck and shoulder position.

Sue x

"As I row.... I feel my energy flow, I feel my strength power me forward as I overcome resistance." Sue

What do you notice as you row?