I am very fortunate to have a group of fun and interesting people rowing with me on a daily basis at the Iron Oarsman.
Below is a letter from a fellow rower and friend,. His name is Dr. Gary Mackie.


Dear Xeno

I am writing to you to suggest an additional application for your indoor rowing exercise program. As you know I find your workouts great for conditioning and very aerobic. I went through cardiac rehabilitation after having a 2-vessel C.A.B.G. procedure. The standard rehab consists of treadmill exercise and upper body weights. After five to six weeks, I found the program quite boring and didn’t stay with it for very long. I really feel that indoor rowing on your low impact rowing machines would provide a better form of cardiac rehabilitation. My reasons for saying this are that using low resistance on the machines would allow earlier upper body conditioning and the more horizontal body position would allow better venous pumping, a better venous pumping return is a better form of aerobic rehabilitation. In addition, rowing being low impact would also make the exercise easier for people in rehabilitation with associated joint injuries. I think you should approach the cardio rehab centers and introduce the exercise concept to them.

Sincerely,

G. Gary Mackie M.D.


Thank you Gary for this great letter of support. Your idea is proof that indoor rowing has many applications and I will follow suit.

Sincerely,

XENO

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

Are you single and tall?

Today, as I was rowing next to a tall (single) rower at the Iron Oarsman and I suddenly had an epiphony! Actually, I can not take credit for the epiphony. Erin, my wife, told me about a great place for single women to find smart athletic men, REGATTAS! At the end of March there is a great opportunity for single people to scope out rowers, male or female. The place is the San Diego Crew Classic at Mission Bay. You will find a bunch of people in tight body suits... Because the sport is collegiate driven, chances are that many of those rowers have a brain between their ears too. If you want further information on the regatta just go to www.crewclassic.org
So good luck to you down in San Diego.
I forgot to mention, that we, IRON OARSMAN, will HAVE A BOOTH during the regatta!!!!!!!
All the best,
XENO

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

I found the treasure!!!

From left to right, Rob Waddell with a bandaid on his head, Thomas Lange, and the short guy to the right is me. Marnie is not on this picture because she came a day late. Thomas won the gold in 88 and 92. He would have won gold in 84 had it not been for the boycot. Rob won gold in 2000, I won gold in 1996. We all rowed those medals in the men's single scull.
From my latest entry you know that I am planning to condense all the workouts onto one DVD thanks to new technology. WELL, I remember that I had a cameraman film my 2004 training camp with Rob Waddell, Marnie Mc Bean, and Thomas Lange. The footage shows how they and I talk about our Olympic Gold Medal races. The following day the recording has a seminar on how we trained to get to the top. In addition among the tapes I found some training footage of myself rowing on the Tweed River in Australia a week before the Olympics. In all I believe it is an unedited five hours!!! I am still think about the name.
So I wish to most of you a good Sunday and others further East a good Monday morning.
Sincerely,
XENO
Olympic Gold and Silver Medalist,
Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney.

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

Workout Compilation on one DVD!!!

Workout Compilation on one DVD!!!

Thanks to new technology we are going to be able to move six hours of workouts onto one DVD, which will bring the price down to a great $125.

In addition we are planning more workouts to be filmed in the next six month. I am extremely excited about this, because we will be able to provide more material on individual DVDs!

All the best and happy rowing.

Xeno
Olympic Gold and Silver Medalist, men's single scull.

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

Improving your ergo score, 2K, or even your 6K

Hello to all of you who are interested in improving your times on the rowing ergometer.

Here in a nutshell is what you have to do:

Gradually increase your training distance. When rowing at the aerobic intensity, most of the aerobic improvement comes after the first hour of rowing. Don't bother rowing regularly more than two hours.

Keep your harder intensity rows to two sessions per week with plenty of aerobic intensity rows in between. When you row 500m sprints don't do more than 4 a session. Take plenty of time to warm up and even more time to cool down. Make sure that you give enough time to recover between short distance pieces.

There is no point in "trying" to go all out for more than 1 X 2000 meters per workout.

Increase your torque (power per stroke) by rowing at low stroke rates for 2 or 3 minutes at a time with at least five minutes active recovery in between. Low stroke rates range between 18 and 22. This exercise is best when using a dynamic rowing machine set up, such as the ROWPERFECT or other sliding components that let your rowing machine move back and forth as your row.

Take time to break up the longer rows with technical drills. Make sure you support your lower back through out the stroke cycle. The body angle comes from hinging at the hip joint. Shorten and lengthen the stroke making sure that the arms are fully extended during the leg drive and before rolling to the catch.

That is it for now from sunny Truckee, California.
PS: Good luck at the Indoor Rowing World Championship for those who are going.

XENO
Olympic Gold and Silver Medalist
Iron Oarsman Master Instructor

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