lightweight rower trying to get kinda strong

[scoott56]

Hi all,

I'm 18, weigh 74.5kg and live in melbourne australia. I'm 183 cm tall. I'm currently rowing at a sub-elite level (hopefully make that elite soon) and want to get strong.

Currently I'm at:
Squat: 125 for 5
Deadlift: 1rm of 150
Bench: 1rm of 92.5
Press: 1rm of 60
Power Clean: 1rm of 85
Snatch: 1rm of 65

I'm hoping to get a squat of at least 180kg, a deadlift of 3x bw (ie around 225), and a power clean of at least 1.5x bw. So i need to get strong!

I'm going to be following a TM program for the time being. However, hopefully I'll secure sponsorship by a local s&c gym - Firebrand Fitness - and will get programming advice, it all, from them. It's a really cool gym - no mirrors, pendlay bars, bumpers, a prowler, sledgehammers, tractor tyres, rings. Everything. Anyway, went into Firebrand today so they could see me lift:

I sat on the indoor trainer for 30 mins this morning - only 2 90 sec intervals that weren't hard. Anyway lifting:

11/3 Friday
Squat: 5@40,70,90,100,110, then only 2@120 - failed on 3rd. AM NOT HAPPY
Deadlift: 5@70,90,100,110,120,125 then 3@130 - easy. Was working on a neutral spine and pulling through heels.
Pushups max: 34 - not impressed with this
Chins max: 11
Ring Dips: a total of 1 - need to buy rings.

Wasn't a great session. My squat varies so much - very frustrating. Deadlift felt pretty good. I was exhausted after the session anyway. Hopefully monday will be better.

[scoott56]

14/3 Monday
Snatch: 4@40,3@50, then 3@55, 3x2@60 - not bad, and did another 3@57.5 just to feel the difference in weight and work on explosiveness
Squat: 5@50,70 then 3@90,110. Work sets: 3x5@112.5 - felt a bit slow out of the hole on a few sets - perhaps I need to concentrate on using my glutes and hamstrings more?
Press: 5,5,5,4,5 @47.5 - hard work. Not sure what happened on the 4th set. I'll have to work out a way to microload.
Chins: 6@bw, then 3x5@bw+21.5
Dragon Flag negatives: 2 sets of 3
Front Lever bent leg holds: 3 sets

Sat on the spin bike for 30 mins post session. Didn't feel that great coming in, but got everything done so should be satisfied I guess

[scoott56]

16/3 Wednesday
We spent about 90 mins doing hills on the bike last night, so I commuted to uni on my bike easy. Felt a bit crappy for the day, but always seem to feel okay by the time its time to hit the gym. Maybe I'm just excited - or more likely, its the caffeine. Anyway:

I worked with a guy who goes to the gym and weightlifts competitively (ie o-lifting). He's quite strong so I take his advice.

Snatch tech practice: 4x3 @ 50 - working on bending the knees when receiving the bar. And not pushing my head through the hole when recieving - stay more upright. Big chest off ground
Squat (light) - 3x5@90 after warm up - working on really forcing hips back and knees out. using the glutes and hamstrings. Will work on more on friday. Need to get the feeling of hips back at the bottom, then forcing them forward - contracting glutes hard - at the top. Slightly wider stance but ass to grass
Bench - 5,5@77.5 then 5@75 - too heavy. Need to stay tight. Tighten the lats and use them to pull the shoulders away from the ears - forcing chest out. Sore left bicep - benching weird?
Power Clean - 5x3@70 - keep doing these when fatigued. Forces more explosiveness. Stay at a comfy weight. Big Chest and solid receiving position. L Bicep was hurting during these
Various grip pull ups - did about 60 spread out over the session.
Few sets of various core work.

Quite worn out after the session, but was productive technique wise. I've been feeling like I was being overly quad dominant when squatting for a while, so really need to focus on sitting back a lot. Hopefully this will allow me to start squatting some real weights. Will work on it on Friday - perhaps even do 3x5 again?

[scoott56]

Friday 18/3

Sat on the indoor trainer for 35 mins this morning - just a few short quick legs intervals. Still, my legs were fatigued and I felt tired for most of the morning. Had a good sleep though.

Squat: 5@60,80 then 3@100 Work: 3x5@115 - after having just fixed squat tech up, wanted to practice. These felt surprisingly hard, and were too slow. not happy
Press: 5@bar, 5@40, 3@45, then 3@50 - this is terrible. I'm not sure what's wrong with my press. I did press from the rack, and probably prefer to clean the bar first.
Deadlift: 5@40,90 then 3@110,120, then an easyish triple @135. Then did another 5@120, all overhand.
Dips: 6xbw,3x5@bw+22.5
Chins: 13,9,7 @bw
Dragon Flag negs: one set - left bicep still hurting so didn't push these
Front Lever bent leg holds: 2 sets
Good Mornings: 2x8@50

Was exhausted after gym. At least I got all the squat reps - very slow though. again, I'm not happy

[scoott56]

Monday 21/3

Sat on the indoor trainer for 35 mins again this morning - felt fatigued again all morning. Think I'll have to address this, as its affecting lifting. Not sure what to do, because my primary sport is rowing, and I need to be very fit.

Anyway, gym:

Snatch: 5@40,3@45,50,55 then 4x2@60 - these were quite good. am sitting under the bar much better and getting stronger.
Squat: 5@60,80,100 - 100 was slow as out of the hole, and I knew I would not be getting 117.5, so decided to deload 10% in the hope that bar speed would increase, so 3x5@105 - still stupidly slow - not as bad, but fucking frustrating. Why am I so slow out of the hole? I think I'll take a video or get some advice. Stupid squat. I hit 127.5 for 6 about a month ago. This sucks. After, did a few box squats at 90kg, then a few singles at 105 again, trying to practice driving out of the hole. Stupid squat.
Bench press: 5@40,60 then 5x5@70 - working on pulling shoulder away from ears by tensing lats - felt kinda hard.
Chins: 3x5@22.5 - time to deload this - still getting pain in the left bicep from either the chins or bench - not sure
Hanging Leg Raises: 2 sets
Front Lever Holds: 1 set

Was in the gym for about 90 mins - ages. Squatting is frustrating the fuck out of me. I think I may be forcing myself to sit back too much, causing my ass to 'wink' and losing power out of the hole, because I was a LOT stronger not very long ago. That better be the case.

[Andras]

What are you doing on the days you don't lift? As a "not any more pre elite" rower , I had to cut my volume waaay back to slug out SS. ie, no 10ks on the erg. I can mess around with my bad sculling technique but thats about it. 35 min on the erg is defiantly too much work to precede a big lifting day. if you're watching weight, then you are of course limiting recovery, as a heavyweight I can't give you any useful advice on that.

Also, I'd consider dropping the snatches and good mornings. Or at least consider them in your overall plan. I know the Europeans use the Olympic lifts, but a lot of US colleges don't. The thinking here is first you build up some strength, then you apply that strength over longer distances. Winter was a lot of lifting, and long low heart rate erg pieces or long sessions in the tanks. Now having read practical programming, strength and endurance were our two blocks. late winer/early spring was short short stuff (ie, 45 sec on, 20 off x 10, increasing cadence, 3 times through, lots of rest between the sets of 10 ) to apply that strength and push on your anaerobic threshold. once actual spring training starts you've got strength and power to start training the 500s and 1000s and longer pieces as you also bring the ratings up.

if you are looking for good programming the east german book "Rudern" is dated but I think pretty solid. In the back it has building blocks stuff that sounds a lot like Rip's PP book. Both are worth getting.

good luck in your training.

-Andras

[scoott56]

I think I'll have to look at doing aerobic exercise after lifting or something. I'm not sure what to do yet - I think I'll speak to my coach about it.
I spend 2 hours or so on the bike on Tuesday doing hills, then have Thursday off, Saturday about 4 hours on the bike, and then Sunday off as well.

[scoott56]

We did 2 hours in the hills last night, so I didn't do any aerobic training in the morning. Instead, I sat on the ergo (rowing machine) for 25 mins pre-gym easy - it was a warm up I guess. Felt okay.

Snatch tech practice (from hang): bar,5@40,5@45,3x3@50 - good
Back Squat - 5@60,5@75,then 3x5@95 - working on sitting back into the hammies at the bottom - am coming forward a bit. was better
Press - just did 3x5@45 - working on elbows in front of the bar. strong through the core
Power Clean - need a longer warm up. worked 5x3@70 - got a lot easier by like set 3, and will increase weight
Front Lever Holds - 4 sets
Swiss ball pass ab thingy - 2 sets of 10

Gym was pretty reasonable today. satisfied

[Kincain]

hey I just saw the title of this thread, and I was once also a lightweight rower. With your height you could as well be a heavy weight rower. For instance my height is 1.85m and I weigh now 98kg. But I know there are other considerations that need to be made before going up a weight class.

And are you following a strength training program that was written by your coaches or yourself? Ow I just saw that your are doing TM, you might want to review some stuff because with your numbers I would do SS instead of TM. I made this mistake too starting with TM.

[scoott56]

Well I've been told I'll be much more competitive as a lighweight rower. I guess we'll see. Do you still row competitively kincain?

I'm beginning a sponsorship program with an s&c facility here in melbourne, so i think i'll be organising my programming through them for the time being at least.

I agree with my numbers not being very high. My PB's are a fair bit higher than this - but I'm focusing on getting the technique right before I increase the weight.