I dug up a postcast that I did on endurance radio in 2005

http://www.EnduranceRadio.com Interview with Xeno Muller – January 12, 2005 <>: “Welcome back to www.EnduranceRadio.com. This is Tim Bourquin. Thanks very much for joining us again for another interview. We’re got something a little bit different for you today. We’re going to be speaking with Xeno Muller. He is the gold medalist for Switzerland in the 1996 Olympics in single skull, which is rowing, and also a silver medalist in the 2000 Olympics, so we’re going to be talking to Xeno about how athletes can use rowing to get some good exercise and building endurance, and he’s certainly the expert in that arena, so we’re going to hear from him. A couple of things first of all, the race of the day today is the Powerman Ohio 2005. The race is going to be on May 14 th or 15th, 2005, in Ohio. You can check out more information about that race at www.powermanohio.com. So we’re going to be right back to speak with Xeno Muller in about 30 seconds.” “Dehydration can diminish your energy and impair your performance. Scientists at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute have been studying athletes for nearly 20 years and understand what endurance athletes need to stay hydrated. Gatorade Endurance Hydration Formula contains a five electrolyte blend consisting of sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium and magnesium, formulated to replace the fluids and electrolytes you lose during longer more intense workouts and races. Find out more about Gatorade Endurance Hydration at www.gatorade.com today. Is it in you?” <>: “Xeno, thanks very much for joining us this evening, I appreciate you talking to us.” <>: “Hi Tim, it’s a pleasure.” <>: “Well its good to do this interview because we always hear that triathletes and even adventure racers and endurance athletes in general get stuck in a rut, especially over the winter months maybe, where they’re tired of just going out for a run, or they’re tired of doing miles and miles on the bike. You offer something a little bit different in terms of rowing. Talk to us about how that helps builds endurance.” <>: “You know rowing for people who do a different sport could be considered as a great cross-training exercise. I, myself, when I was training for the Olympics, and over the years, I needed cross-training exercises to keep my body healthy, away from injuries and not get into a mental rut like you just mentioned. Rowing is a low impact sport. It involves all of the body and it’s a weight resistant exercise, which helps you develop your endurance, in a rowing specific way, but it certainly can help runners or swimmers or cyclists gain more endurance and more strength overall.” <>: “Now obviously you’re sitting down either on a rowing machine or actually in a boat when you’re doing this, but you’re not just using your arms and chest because actually you’re using pretty much a lot of muscles and a full body workout.” <>: “Two thirds of the power that you produce comes from the leg drive and the lower back, and then one third of the entire stroke is the upper body and then finishing with the arms, that’s right.” <>: “Now how much of this, in terms of building strength and endurance, is about doing the right technique as well?” <>: “Well the right technique is key in order to prevent people from getting an injury. The key thing in rowing is to be able to apply the leg drive while you have a forward body angle with the upper body, hinging from the hip joint so that the small of your back is one piece with your pelvis, and as you drive the legs you keep the arms straight so that you can really just push with the legs only, and then once the leg drive is almost finished then you chain on with the lay-back, a swing-back, with the upper body. Once the upper body is almost at its final position that’s when you bring in the arm draw.” <>: “Now what kid of set-ups do you use in terms of doing endurance training? How long are you rowing for, and are you doing it in intervals where you’ll do it long, or shorter and then faster? How does that all work?” <>: “Well quite an interesting question. Ninety eight per cent, I mean I’m rough here, but I can definitely say its really really a lot of endurance training and it a target heart rate, which is the aerobic threshold that two millimoles of lactic acid that the body produces, that is where you do 98% of your training in rowing. Why? Because the sprint racing and I say sprint racing even though its seven minutes long roughly in the single skull, it is quite a sprint. Often times we compare it to 400 meters, or even 800 meters. People are not quite certain where you would put rowing in there, but what’s important to know that 80% of a 2000 meter race, you heavily rely on the aerobic capacity which is at two millimoles of lactic acid, and of course we are producing more lactic acid in the race, but if our aerobic capacity is not built enough, we will very quickly, as athletes, over produce lactic acid without breaking it down during our race.” <>: “Now you talked about how you do lactic acid testing are part of your training. Talk about that.” <>: “Well the device that now is available in 350 box. Its called The Lactate Pro and I’m no sales person for that device, but the reason why I’m really enthusiastic about it is because five, six or seven years ago in order to have accurate lactic acid readings you would have had to buy a machine that was about US $8,000 to $10,000. Now you can buy this small device, it looks like a glucose tester, at Savons, and this thing, of course, tests your lactic acid and you prick your ear lobe and with a tiny tiny little drop of blood that you put on a little test strip, that’s stuck in the lactic acid measuring device, within a minute you know your lactic acid, you know exactly what your exertion is in your body and then all you have to do is make sure that you are writing down at what heart rate you were pushing what lactic levels.” <>: “Now I want to ask you about once you have this information what you’re supposed to do with it and how you can improve your tolerance of that, but we need to take a quick break. We’re going to be right back to speak with Xeno Muller. “As an endurance athlete you have special hydration needs. Introducing Gatorade Endurance Hydration Formula, developed for elite and endurance athletes for use during their longer, most intense workouts and races. Research shows you’re going to sweat out more essential fluids and minerals during prolonged training and races. Find out how to put them all back properly at www.gatorade.com. Get the edge you need to achieve that PR you’ve been training for. Gatorade Endurance Hydration Formula, nobody does hydration better. Is it in you?” <>: “Xeno, once you’ve done this test and you find out what your lactic acid threshold level is, what are you then supposed to do with that information?” <>: “Once you have those numbers. For example if your aerobic threshold; the rule of thumb is that the aerobic threshold is around two millimoles of lactic acid. Once you know that; what has been studied and found out is that once athletes start doing their volume training at two millimoles of lactic acid, they become more and more performance at that level, which means months from the day you first tested yourself at two millimoles of lactic acid, a month later you will find out that at the same heart rate with the same millimoles of lactic, your power, your wattage on the Ergometer, or on the bike, or the speed that you can run at, has increased. So just by knowing that this aerobic level has increased you know that overall, in a max effort over several minutes, or even in a marathon situation, you will be more performance.” <>: “I’ve seen the rowing machines in the gyms, but you don’t see too many people on them too much. Is it because they simply just don’t know how to do it properly?” <>: “To be honest I think rowing is a fairly obscure sport for people on the street. They may see it every once in a blue moon on TV in a Hollywood movie, or they see it every four years at the Olympics. I think rowing is, in a way, certainly less accessible just because you need a boat out on the water. However, there are two really good rowing machines out there that can now be used for group workouts, and I am the first place here in the United States, in southern California, that has these rowing machines set up for people that are non-rowers to come, get the technique, come in with a dry shirt and leave with a sweaty shirt, and have had a great workout, a superior workout.” <>: “Well lets talk about that too because I want our listeners to understand two things. First of all we don’t endorse any products and rarely do we talk about it this much, but I think this is so unique I do want our listeners to know you’ve got available, so talk about your studio.” <>: “Well thank you. The reason why I’m enthusiastic about it, and lets deviate from plugging myself, lets just use rowing as an opportunity for people that, A, cannot run or cannot swim or cannot bike. For example, people with a leg injury, or whatever it is. Rowing in an organized group with people telling you how to do it is an absolute new ...” <>: “It sounds like a spinning class almost.” <>: “It sounds like a spinning class, but the thing is because the people sit on the seats, and even can actually put one leg out to the side and not use that ankle or not use that knee that maybe hurt, they can row along with just using one leg and both arms, and the same thing is true with the arms. So there are so many different ways of using this sport of rowing indoors for people who are slightly at a disadvantage, temporarily or permanently, and they can still have a great workout because its low impact, and that’s what we at the Iron Oarsman here in Costa Mesa. Anybody, whether they are tall, short, overweight, elderly, youngsters, they all have a niche in their way to be able to row and get the best out of it.” <>: “Well of course our listeners can go to Xeno’s website at www.gorow.com and find out about his iron Oarsman studio. Xeno, unbelievably we’re out of time already, there’s a lot more we can go into but we’ll link to your site and hopefully listeners can visit you and find out a little bit more about that.” <>: “It was a pleasure.” http://www.EnduranceRadio.com offers online radio programs and interviews with endurance athletes and coaches at all levels. Visit their site today and listen to everyday athletes just like you and also professional endurance athletes talk about how they train, eat and race. Weekend warriors and serious competitors alike will find something they can implement into their own training and technique immediately from each day's program. A new interview is posted each weekday.

Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.