There are many different types of masters training programs - for elite racers, for club racers, for fitness rowers, for return-to rowing.
In this episode understand the benefits of 'cross fit' versus the more traditional 'miles make champions' approach.
01:00 Types of training though year
01:30 The new "Spacer Placer" rowing Tool for pushing out spacer washers.
04:45 Types of training what is your goal? In a weekly cycle use a mix (polarised) low, high, medium pace intensity & strength training.
Different types of session you can choose.
Aerobic system stresses
HIIT is a very broad definition - it could be oxygen utilisation 4Ă—5' or a power 30" on 90" off.
07:30 Plan your training through the year.
Your 2 key days a week training and insert your low intensity a strength in between.
High performance racers - you can insert Cross fit only if the workout is inserted in the right place & right way for your goal.
09:00 Cross fit workouts are intense. Prepare to do it.
As a master how careful do you need to be? To do intervals and explosive work and not get injured, you need to be strong and ready to do the workout. The faster you do things the larger the injury risk.
Does this type of workout fit your needs and goals? Also remember to check out your instructors - are they experienced and qualified?
Testing - speed of repetition amount in a given time.
12:30 make the right choices of training type to fit into your overall training.
Sport science reviews how to train your body. A word of warning - if you do 2x HlIT sessions you can't spend that time in the boat too.
16.20 Racers' training needs.
Train three times per week. Aerobic work for one session and two endurance sessions with one at a higher intensity. How high that is depends on time of year.
Use AT tempo endurance closer to the racing season. Oxygen utilisation or 1K / 4- 5min pieces. Speed and power workouts are shorter and quicker.
What stroke rate you want to race at?
18.00 Fitness rowers don't need extremely high intensity intervals. How skillful are you in the boat?
30 stroke pieces if you want to. Aerobic work is for fitness - combined with strength work in the gym.
19:45 Strength stimulates muscle metabolism. At the end of the session do 6x 30" on / 90" off or 20" on / 40" off.
Power works at the end of a strength session. Combination workouts.
21:00 Return to rowing rule of thumb is to approach it gradually to build tolerance.
Take it easy. Focus on technique and efficiency. Ensure your posture and body positions are correct. Hinge through the hips not the back.
22:50 Keep it fun and interesting focus on drills and steady rowing Pick a theme for the da to keep the interest and focus aligned.
Balance is lost as we age. How can rowers learn balance - in the boat, in life and physical balance? How to balance a quad scull.
03:00 Balance as you age.
Typically it changes around age 50. There is a loss of muscle mass - it affects co-ordination like walking and neuro-muscular aspects like hearing and vision as well.
04:45 Balance can be trained and maintained. Keep your muscles in good condition. Notice changes in your balance.
05:30 standing balance - it's more challenging.
08:30 Sitting balance. Use a swiss ball /physio ball.
Sit with hips and knees at 90 degrees. Arms to side in a T position. Lift one leg and extend it.
Does it challenge your balance?
Get comfortable doing this. Then raise both legs off the floor.
11:14 Try a V-sit, sit on the floor raise legs as well as torso. Balance on sit-bones. Can you balance?
13:00 How to balance a quad scull.
17.00 'Transitioning land to boat - getting into the boat. One leg squats help train strength.
Also concentric & eccentric motion. Lowering your weight to sitting is a good progressive exercise.
21:00 Why a 2x is easier to balance than a single scull.
The boat is wider - it sits in the water with more surface area of the hull under the water. A narrow beam is more sensitive.
23:00 Tension kills boat speed
What are the limits to masters rowing? Can we challenge ourselves more? Is comfort more important than skill? Rebecca and Marlene discuss technical skill challenges and physical challenges as you age. Risk versus rewards.
02:00 are limits being challenged now? Pay attention to how our bodies are changing. A class of masters who are high performance athletes exists. along with newcomers to the sport. Masters handicaps are less accurate for older athletes showing that masters are getting faster.
04:00 Head of the Charles results the top 50 year olds times were faster than 30 year olds and comparable to 40 year olds in recent years. They likely have more experience and more time to train.
07:00 I see people rowing in a comfort zone of technique, fitness and watermanship. Without coaching, people settle into habits. A good coach develops your skill to meet the challenge to get better. Marlene experiments every session.
11:00 The childlike approach to play and experimentation. Comfort in the boat is the goal. Doing tricks in the boat proves you are comfortable.
13:00 The pathway of learning technique. Coaches need this to keep athletes interested. Starting with the core skills. Grading in achievable small steps. Be an advanced waterman ship rower or sculler. Get in touch to see our technique pathway.
18:00 Buy the best equipment you can afford. Responsive equipment helps you row better.
What are limiting beliefs and how do they affect your rowing? Some of call it the voice of the inner lizard. We’ll talk about how to set yourself on a good course for this holiday period.
01:22: Jess DiCarlo talks about the book of the month, The Compleat Dr. Rowing by Andy Anderson. He is Dr. Rowing from the column in Rowing News magazine. .
03:15 The story of the Japanese rowers, rowing words, and the style of stories
04:55 The story “Seat racing a Twinkie” or was it a ham sandwich?
15:15 What are limiting beliefs? The definition.
17:00 Jess talks about perfectionist think; what do I do if I can’t follow a plan? About perfectionism.
18:30 Enjoying the process of what you are doing.
19:15 Marlene talks about Dr. Amy Johnson’s book “It’s Just a Thought” how you deal with limiting beliefs and changing habits. Where are the thoughts formed and how to deal with them. What is the inner lizard. Buy Dr Johnson's book.
23:40 About changing habits and habitual thoughts.
What ever you give attention to is reinforced.
28:10 Marlene talks about the resource: Limiting Beliefs Activity Sheet from UCDavis Success
Coaching and Learning Strategies
Activity question: What limiting belief do you want do you want to work on?
When you talk yourself out of taking action, what do you tell yourself?
29:30 Marlene talks about Mel Robbin’s 5-minute morning routine and boosting your energy for the day.
31:50 Take your thinking and break it into little tiny steps to create momentum.
33:55 During the holidays even if you miss your regular workout still do something- stretch, a 20-minute walk- it still counts. Limiting beliefs are not truth unless we act on them.
35:22 If you accomplish 80% of what you want to do you are doing quite well.
37:00 Happy Christmas we will be back the first week of January.
We need endurance training at low rate but golly it's boring. Learn some strategies to pass the time profitably investing in improving your performance and training consistency.
02:00 Low intensity sessions - how to approach them.
Common training mistake is to do the lower intensity session too hard. "Conversational level" workout - can you sing while rowing?
It trains your heart - it is beating slower and pumps more blood per heartbeat. A conditioning effect is lower morning heart rate as a result. This builds capillary density.
05:00 Goal is training consistency. Build a data set of your scores. Keep the training effect the same, even if you have to cut the workout shorter.
You become more fatigue resistant. Improve your recovery time between races in the summer because you're fitter from winter training.
09:30 Make technique corrections during your long erg workouts.
12:00 Choose a technical focus - every 5 minutes do one technical improvement for one minute. Repeat every 5 minutes.
14:00 Listen to audio books, podcasts while you work out. If you stop rowing during the session, it takes 3 minutes for the capillaries to start closing down. You could do a core exercise and re-start without losing the training effect.
A psychological break.
17:00 Rebecca counts strokes - chasing the average split number for your programmed workout. How many strokes to reduce the average by 0.1?
Consistency - in power, rate, technique and mental approach is your goal.
Concentration is a big element of racing - you can build up your concentration skill here and it will be beneficial.
Exercise with weights linked to lower risk of early death, study says.
Why we need MORE gym work as we age.
02:00 Weight lifting makes us stay healthier, longer. Being Active as well as doing weight lifting had 14% to lower risk of premature death. Other types of exercise were also included.
04:00 Mortality risk appears to be lowest for those adults who reported doing weightlifting. They had a 9% lower “all-cause mortality risk” Masters rowers are already active so staying strong gives greater quality of life. 06:00 How quickly can you walk across the street? A measure of ageing.
07:00 Thinner This Year book by Jen Sacheck - Muscle Nutrition specialist. It's a lifestyle book with great advice.
09:00 Muscle as the grand negotiator of body signals.
Stimulus must be constantly there to keep your muscles alive.
Muscles:-
13:00 Strategies that work for you. Work out at least twice a week with weights. You need recovery between sessions.
Get into shape BETWEEN not during sessions.
Joe de Leo suggests different off-season and on-season weight training.
16:00 when we row it's load bearing but that isn't that doing weights.
How about power strokes in the rowing boat? No - that's strength endurance. Rowing is repetitive and compared to a one Rep Max lift, one stroke is a low load Goal of strength training is to activate more muscle fibres to fire at the same time. We lose our slow twitch muscles as we age.
18.00 Other ways to increase resistance in your training:
23:30 kettle bells 25lb or 12kg are worth buying for your home gym. Bags with weights Nested dumb bell weights.
26:00 Strength training does not need a lot of time. Ideal rowing home gym.
We are very excited about the new masters events at the 50th San Diego Crew Classic Regatta. Bobbie Smith, the executive director of the San Diego Crew Classic, joins Marlene to talk more.
00:32 In today’s program we showcase the events at the San Diego Crew Classic, new events for masters. The 50th San Diego Crew Classic, is going to be held March 31-April 02, 2023. Entries are already open so there is a lot of interest in this years masters events.
01:05 Bobbie Smith gives us a complete run down on what’s happening with the regatta. including her rowing background and how she got involved with the Crew Classic Regatta.
03:37 The regatta is now three days, expanding to Friday racing, Friday is masters racing all day. Expanded events have been added. Sculling 4x for the first time.
04:15 Bobbie describes the new masters intermediate 8+ classification that the regatta has introduced.
To give masters new to rowing their own event.
Eligibility is you have to have started rowing in the last five years with no prior rowing experience and not have won a major competition. Discussion of the why.
07:10 Discussion: A stepping stone into a major regatta and a chance to win in the event to build confidence and welcome people. They have 5 years of eligibility.
10:03 There is also a new novice Mixed 8+ this year. 5 new masters events in total.
11:24 Description: We are a big boats race, except there is a 4+ for collegiate, so eights and quads over 2k.
Training for 2k for masters.
12:33 Marlene and Bobbie talk about the different approach for a 1k versus 2k.
The start, recovering from bad strokes, the 3rd 500m, how it fits into a winter training goal and leads into the on-water season. Train for Crash-B 2k then shift focus to SDCC.
15:52 Bobbie defines the club events versus the lettered events (A, B, etc) in the regatta. Any club event that has more than 12 entries a medal will be awarded to a winning crew where all members live within 50 miles of the actual club.
Discussion of the club culture; encouraging the club culture. What is the medal called? Do you have ideas? We’ll consult with Rebecca!
18:35 The intermediate club 8+ trophies will be the Faster Masters Intermediate Men’s and Women’s Club 8+
18:30 Diversity of masters rowing and culture, for masters in the Crew Classic there are now masters novice, masters sculling, masters intermediate club eights, and the age group categories up to “H” and “I” Once you get to F+ we will give a medal to every age group winner. Masters are racing into their 80s.
20:23 We are very excited at Faster Masters Rowing that we will be the sponsor of the Men’s and Women’s Intermediate Club 8+.
Rebecca inspired the events.
We got our fingers crossed that it will spread into other major events and reading more events for this group of rowers.
Rebecca has created a forum on the Faster Masters Rowing App (free) for the Crew Classic if you like to part of am intermediate 8+ communicate there.
You need to create a login to use the Faster Masters Rowing free app. https://fastermastersrowing.com/forums-2/forum/san-diego-crew-classic/
23:14 Bobbie: We’d love to have a Faster Masters 8+ out there with the trophy it would be so synergetic!
More information: www.crewclassic.org
Registration is on RegattaCentral.com currently open
Email: [email protected]
There is a live stream Sat/Sun on YouTube, hoping to be able to add Friday races to the live stream. Some top European university crews are coming too.
26:00 Help spread the word. Thank you to Bobbie Smith for being our guest on today’s podcast
When can a crew protest a race result or infringement? It's important to know what is allowed, how to do it and what happens if you are successful in protesting.
02:00 Race organisers can have local rules - e.g. penalise interference and going through the wrong arch of a bridge.
04:00 Roger Milne's story at Rio Olympics where he was umpiring and had to wait to see if the crew was going to protest
06:00 Anne Buckingham know when to protest. There are time limits.
07:00 How to prove you got interfered with? Coxes may run a go pro video which can be useful. Marshalls and umpires don't always see every infraction.
10:00 Dead heating at - Henley Royal Regatta and Luzern If your protest is upheld and you were disadvantaged, the outcome is to penalise the other crew - you won't get a faster time.
12:00 Know your rights - when can you protest and what you can protest. 15-00 Womens Eights Head Of the River Race obey the marshall's instructions. This crew was disqualified BEFORE the race started because they disobeyed. Check the race rules - hearsay may be wrong information.
19:00 Head Of The Charles Regatta you can be penalised before you even leave the dock.
22:00 At the London Olympics LM2X protest was about equipment breakage in the first 100 meters of the race. It was stopped, the breakage repaired and the race re-started
25:00 In the Tokyo Olympics M4- final the British did obstruct the Italians but they didn't protest. It would have disqualified the other crew. Think about the consequences of a protest.
28:00 Has to sit on a rowing seat. This affects your ability to set your body angle. Sit in a pelvic neutral position Your sit bones enter the holes in the seat. If you sit too far back "on your pockets" you have to flex your spine in order to get body angle. An exercise to improve this - sit on the floor with your legs straight. Put your hands on your knees and walk your fingers down your shins.
33:00 Adjustment of your sitting position while rowing. If you need to do this - do it in one stroke.
34:00 Make sure the seat fits you. You can sand out the holes in a wooden seat top to suit yourself. Different manufacturers' seat tops can be switched.
37:00 Custom seat tops - George Sharrow and Carl Douglas both offer these services. Carl suggests using florists' oasis foam to sit on and get a perfect mould of your backside. Comfort helps you sit with a neutral pelvis.
Transitioning seasons to Winter / Summer is a key point in the training year for masters rowers. Key things to do and watch out for.
01:00 What are season transitions in rowing? When you have completed any training period there is a transition that follows. Give yourself some recovery time and down time.
03:50 What is base level training? Lower intensity for aerobic work. Include cross training. When changing activities - be careful to do this gradually. It is new for your muscles.
07:00 Beware gardening - any intense yard work can injure you. Stacking firewood - it's the unusual positions you get into when raking, chopping wood.
12:10 Getting back on the erg.
Workout I - do a ten minute warmup. 15 minutes continuous rowing + stretch 10 minutes continuous.
Week 2 move to 20 minutes continuous rowing + 10 minutes after the stretch.
Week 3 move to 2Ă—20 minutes
Week 4 do 30 minutes continuous. Then build up gradually towards 45 or 60 minutes rowing.
17:30 Do several weeks erging before doing a test of any type.
19:00 Things to work on for yourself.
Muscle imbalances, stiff hamstrings. Use our Functional Movement Assessment free course to get 10 physical tests for your personal mobility.
Is having self-compassion "giving up"?
01:00 Tune in to your feelings and know the 'big picture' of training. Be your own best friend - look out for yourself.
Energy fluctuates - what's your energy level? Sometimes the programmed workout doesn't align with your energy levels.
02:30 Most rowers are not lazy. Compassion is not the same as laziness.
Steven Seiler says masters do 200 - 250 workouts a year. If you take time out it will recharge your batteries and quality of life.
04:30 When tired, your judgement is impaired.
A fatigue state is not calm. If you miss one or two sessions, carry on training. If you miss more than a week, review your physical state and you may need to repeat the missed sessions, or build back gradually.
07:00 Learn to work hard in long training. A well designed plan will build up to this point. It can be scary the first time. Repeat workouts to get better at this session. Get confident. Give an honest effort.
10:00 Learn to watch puddle size.
Get grip on the water by picking up speed rowing one at a time or in pairs and join in the rest of the crew. Learn to move quicker to keep the grip on the water. Erg sessions teach you consistency and efficiency. Learn to row harder and increase the meters rowed.
Mental toughness. Keep your workouts challenging but not impossible.
14:30 Question about testing and drag factor on the erg. This load (gearing) should match the gearing of your boat.
23:00 Book of the month Warriors by Danielle Brittain - the team doctor for the South African Rowing Team and mother to four rowers reviewed by Jess di Carlo.
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