Rowing

[xProtein]

Hi Andy,

A bit about me: I am a competitive rower and my strength and power are at the high-end of the spectrum for rowers. However I often find my quad muscles getting brutally fatigued with an extremely unpleasant burning sensation on race-pieces. This pain is frequently the limiting factor for my performance. For comparison, I find it to be the same kind of burning any muscle gets from high reps to failure, like doing, say, 30+ shoulder presses to failure.

Could it be that my quads need specific endurance training? I have never trained legs with more than 10 reps, and typically sets of 5. Would several weeks of 15s-25s on front squat and leg press make the difference?

Also, do I need to periodize my strength training in this way, say, a month of 15s for everything, then a month of 12s, all the way down to 5s and 3s? Or is what I'm doing now, a mix of heavy squats/DLs/presses (singles, triples or fives) as a base each week and the rest a mixture of whatever assistance exercises I feel I need work on, okay?

Thanks.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

How often do you row???

[TomF]

My kids rowed competitively.

Strength training will be a helluva good assistance exercise if you're a rower, but you're still gonna have to have the bulk of your training doing actual rowing.

And it's not gonna stop feeling like death, especially on race pieces (2k?). As our coach said, the "perfect" 2k is one where you pull the last stroke to cross the finish line, and then lean over and throw up. Rowing's a strength-endurance sport, and while most rowers could benefit from a lot more of the "strength" part of that, there's no avoiding the "endurance" bit.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Right....that is basically what I was getting at. I have experimented with endurance type training in the weight room with swimmers and have come to the conclusion that it doesn't work. The best combo is basically just pure strength training + swimming.

I have trained two collegiate rowers as well and came to the same conclusion with them. Conditioning for rowing should be done rowing. Other than that, lots of squats, deadlifts, cleans, and weighted pull ups with heavy weights. Perhaps Prowler conditioning might have some carryover, but I'm not sure.

[TomF]

IMO, one of the great truths about rowing is that when all other factors are equal, the athletes willing to suffer more and longer will be on the podium.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

Only have watched the sport and trained only a few high level rowers, I think I'd have to agree.