Lifting and Rowing

[Worker Outer]

I'm 16 @ 160lbs and I started rowing this year. I'm still doing my novice program- Squat 190lbs and increasing, DL 230lbs same, Bench is 130, Press 90. Should any change from the LP accompany the extra stimulation recieved from rowing? Currently practices are 3 days a week 2 hrs long. I may move to a higher bracket which would mean practices 5 days/wk.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Diet?

[jfsully]

Since the OP didn’t answer, I’ll step in. My son (not the OP) is in nearly the same boat (ha). He wants to start an LP, but also doesn’t want to quit crew, which will involve regular conditioning workouts (rowing and running) for the next few months.

17yo, 6’4”, about 180lbs.

He is the prototypical skinny fit teen who could really tear up an LP.

I don’t know where his lifts are going to start on LP, as he has only been dicking around a little bit with the barbells, and I haven’t checked what he can do.

Diet wise, he eats mostly healthy, e.g. no soda but plenty of calories from thing like enormous chicken burritos, and will do whey protein shakes, with a goal of maybe 200g minimum daily, probably more. He could also do GOMAD. I’m guessing he will need 5k+ calories to support all this work.

I am 2 months into an LP myself, and i like to think he is motivated by seeing his deconditioned old dad making some progress. And this is something we can do together.

Basically, I am advising him to plan for barbell workouts before the crew stuff: either the morning before a PM rowing practice, or the night before an AM practice. Thought being that barbells should get priority and the most benefit from rest and recovery. If he dogs it on the rower the next morning, who cares. He still gets to hang out with his teammates and will probably still perform well enough, given he is a fit 17yo. And getting stronger will only help him on the boat.

I’ve heard/read you answer this question multiple times (“how do I fit SSLP into my ...?”) so hopefully I am on the right track with my advice here. Thoughts?
Thanks.

[Andrew Jackson]

I rowed as the varsity stroke seat at a D1 school that finished in the top ten nationally. I wish that I had prioritized strength training instead of wasting months of time doing long steady state erg pieces all summer as was the fashion. I am certain that I would had better times on the erg and the water. Unfortunately, I held to the conventional wisdom and focused more on putting in kilometers on the machine and actually chose to lose weight; intentionally dropping from 205 to 190. To my surprise, at the time, my erg scores got worse. I made very little progress on erg performance after rowing volume stopped being sufficient stress to drive strength adaptation - around the middle of my sophomore year of college.

Had I known better, I would have done my best to fit in lifting and make as much progress as rowing training volume allowed during the season. I like the idea of prioritizing the lifting in front of rowing practice. Off season, particularly during the summer before fall season starts up, I would have dropped almost all rowing and focused entirely on strength. At 16 & 17 years old and considering the kids above are training while practicing, I'd have them make fresh runs at a NLP over the summer. I would also prioritize gaining weight with an aim to 210-220 (a normal weight for "heavyweight" rower). Towards the end of summer I would start adding in some light conditioning on the erg. They'll likely be considered "out of shape" during the first few weeks of the fall, but it will come back relatively quickly.

Again, I can't tell you how many times I've wished I could go back and focus more on strength as a rower. I wasted a lot of energy on conditioning that could have been spent productively with a barbell.