We had a very nice Xmas. My children got what they wished for and my wife and I are thankful for having a happy and healthy family. I have to confess that I did a few detours in my diet in the last few days. Quite often chocolate and other rich foods were offered to me and I did not have the discipline to politely decline... On top of this, my wife and I were busy organizing for the holidays and I did not get to put in my usual miles on my WaterRower. After opening the presents I took the opportunity to roll out my WaterRower to the living room. Reid just finished eating and was happy jumping in his bouncer. Erin, Reid, and I were watching a great show of aerial views of coastlines around the world in high definition. My WaterRower was set one foot away from the TV screen and I felt I was on a hang-glider rowing :-) The setting was perfect for a paddle. As I started rowing I felt a little stiff from sitting around and having interrupted sleep since the birth of Reid in July. In honor of Erin, I should just put up and shut up, because her sleep started being bad six months into “our” pregnancy.
25 minutes into my row I started loosening up and felt the air in my stomach magically disappear. This is when the breathing technique of exhaling into the catch made me think again about most people who row past their most competitive years. If you have a little extra cargo above your hip joint, you will find it far more pleasant to breathe and relax during your row the way I described above. As for the highly trim group, don’t think that my breathing is dictated only by my massiveness. In the contrary, when I was ultra fit, I exhaled rolling into the last half of the recovery and found the best possible effortless hang of the leg drive.
My other thought during my hour long row, which ended in a right-arm-only-pull for the last five minutes while my son Reid was riding in my right arm, was that I am addicted to exercise, but I am not a glutton for punishment. My motto in live is to workout long and steady, like a diesel engine pulling freight through the Mohave Desert. Even when I was training for the Olympics, most of my workouts were long and steady, which I loved. I did not care much about “ramming” into intolerable pain in order to win races.
My advice to the majority of rowers is to go long and steady for 90% of the time, after all you only have one body. Of course, it is OK to row super hard here and there... but you won’t catch me in a rat race for personal bests now that I consider myself a DIESEL ENGINE that is going for the long haul: “ROWING ROWING ROWING...ROWING ROWING ROWING...ROWHIDE!!!”
Over and out.
Xeno.
www.ironoarsman.com
Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.
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