forearms burning during 2K+ rowing pieces
ITguy_uk
(2.5K plus) that my forearms end up really burning towards the end of
the piece. This is similar to the sensation that I used to get in a
muscle group from an intense weight training set. I think this
burning is caused by me squaring/feathering the blade as it seems to
occur more in one arm more than the other (sweep rowing). I didn't
have the same burning sensation in my forearms when racing through the
summer over shorter distances (sub 2K) and I don't get it on an ergo.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is there anyway of reducing this
through altered rowing technique or specific training exercises. I
remember when weight training we used to have a short piece of broom
handle with a piece of string which was attached to a weight. You
held the broom handle in both hands (one each end) and rolled the
piece of broom handle so that the string rolled onto the handle, which
worked your forearms. Would this exercise help?
While the rest of my body was obviously working during these pieces it
seemed like my forearms were definitely the weakest point and holding
me back. Any suggestions for improving rowing technique or training
to reduce this would be appreciated.
Thanks
Henry Law
>I have found recently that while doing longer pieces at racing pace
>(2.5K plus) that my forearms end up really burning towards the end of
>the piece.
<snip>
>Has anyone else experienced this? Is there anyway of reducing this
>through altered rowing technique or specific training exercises.
<warning>I'm no rowing coach</warning> but I do recognise this from
the period after my return to rowing a few years ago. I used to end
the outing with my squaring arm tired and the muscles in it swollen
and tense and hard to the touch. (Reminded me of the Dilbert cartoon
book entitled "All pumped up after using the mouse") I'm assuming
it's your squaring - inside - arm. If it's not then maybe you're
squaring with the wrong one?
In my case it was simply tension: I was putting far far too much force
into squaring and feathering. Try it when the boat's static; you'll
find that you can turn the blade back and forth with your thumb and
forefinger (if you can't then something's binding). Then try and
achieve that in the boat (it takes time and concentration but so does
everything else in rowing technique) but rather than thumb and
forefinger you'll find it easiest to use thumb and the bottom joints
of your smallest and ring fingers (blisters, then callouses form
there).
You may find it easier to relax the grip and use less effort in
rotating the blade if you also try relaxing the whole hand grip during
the recovery. Try the "piano playing" exercise - waggle your fingers
freely as your hands go forward. (Don't try this in a race, kids!)
Also make sure that you're squaring early (if you're late then the
temptation is to strong-arm it round rapidly just in case) and not
starting the feather before the blade is more or less clear of the
water.
Henry Law <>< Manchester, England
Mike Sullivan
ITguy_uk wrote:
>
snip
>
>
> While the rest of my body was obviously working during these pieces it
> seemed like my forearms were definitely the weakest point and holding
> me back. Any suggestions for improving rowing technique or training
> to reduce this would be appreciated.
>
I think you might want to visit your drive connection rather than the
roll up. You could well be taking up too much pressure with the
upper body on the drive. As I stated in an earlier post, a great many
rowers with strong upper bodies tend to want to 'feel the pressure' in
their upper body to know they're rowing hard. Almost all novice
scullers, even those with excellent drive connection in a sweep boat
will encounter this phenom early on, not so much that they want to
feel strong on the drive, but they don't have the confidence that the
blade has been set in the water properly before they hang off their
handles. Thus we tend to 'feel the catch' with the arms early which
in the first couple races cause an extreme case of firepaw. The same
could be said for what happens when you race in rough water the
first couple times.
No matter what the style emphasis is on the tradeoff you use between
the amount of body swing and slide length, you want your arms to feel
like they're relaxed and hanging on the handle, and swing thru the finish
rather than muscle it in.
Mike
James Blythe
> You may find it easier to relax the grip and use less effort in
> rotating the blade if you also try relaxing the whole hand grip during
> the recovery. Try the "piano playing" exercise - waggle your fingers
> freely as your hands go forward. (Don't try this in a race, kids!)
>
> Also make sure that you're squaring early (if you're late then the
> temptation is to strong-arm it round rapidly just in case) and not
> starting the feather before the blade is more or less clear of the
> water.
OK - I've been meaning to ask this one for a while then. From the outset
when I started rowing (2+ years ago) I was taught to grip loosely with the
outside hand, 'make a claw', and grip with the inside to square/feather,
which I now do with my wrist. I had one tank session coached by someone who
didn't usually coach but was rowing at a very high level who said that
instead you should grip with the outside, and 'flick' the blade round with
the inside thumb and finger. As I found it fiendishly hard to do and no
other coach seemed bothered about it I went back to my old style of
feathering, which is fine - except in head races. I get the same inside arm
pain but it goes right the way through the wrist too. I'm fairly sure I'm
locking properly with the outside at the catch because I have no problem
rowing only with that arm as an exercise.
I am going to bring this up with our new coach next term, because
Wallingford hurt particularly badly, but what are opinions here? Should I be
using my inside hadn to 'twist' the blade or not?
James.
Robin Black
"ITguy_uk" <itgu...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:8be6df4c.03120...@posting.google.com...
> I have found recently that while doing longer pieces at racing pace
> (2.5K plus) that my forearms end up really burning towards the end of
> the piece. This is similar to the sensation that I used to get in a
> muscle group from an intense weight training set. I think this
> burning is caused by me squaring/feathering the blade as it seems to
> occur more in one arm more than the other (sweep rowing).
I think you are experiencing "the claw", when your forearm gets so sore and
tight you can hardly square the oar, and your arm essentially becomes a
claw. This is normally caused by having your arms bent on the drive, or your
wrist bent. It is much easier to take the load if your arms are straight,
think about carrying a heavy bag, you don't go around carrying it with your
arm bent. Also a lot of people have their wrists flat when they are not
rowing, balancing the boat. When they go to take a stroke they roll their
wrist over to square the blade, but they don't adjust their grip. You want
to make sure that your wrists are flat on the drive, or it will put a lot of
strain on the muscles on the top of your forearms. On the erg you don't have
to worry about this because your wrists always stay flat, so I would guess
that this is the problem rather than the straight arms. So remember straight
arms, and straight wrists.
Robin
Caroline Turnbull
Lots of excellent advice here. You say "recently" - are you using the
same boat as before? Could be worth checking the pitch, in case
something has moved and you're having to compensate by using your
wrist to bring the blade to the correct angle.
Caroline
Walter Martindale
you really only need to start the feathering and squaring motions, and let
momentum carry the blade to the square or feather position, using muscle
only to start and stop the motion and being relaxed in the middle - it's
possible you're holding on too hard and/or trying to guide the blade to the
feathered and squared positions rather than letting it happen. It's
possible that your oarlock is a bit tight on the oar (hard to know without
actually looking at the rig and seeing try to feather or square).
Something to try may be to completely open your hands and use them only to
hold the blade off the water on the recovery - i.e., out,away, open hands,
regrasp inside to roll over the blade again, in the water and concurrently
regrasp outside to hook and 'hang' off the handle. (an exercise).
Opinions I express here aren't completely divorced from anything official
from Alberta Rowing.
Walter Martindale
"ITguy_uk" <itgu...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:8be6df4c.03120...@posting.google.com...
Neil Wallace
> I have found recently that while doing longer pieces at racing pace
> (2.5K plus) that my forearms end up really burning towards the end of
> the piece.
You're definately getting lactic acid in these muscles, which does imply a
high force being applied by them.
Is your boat quite balanced?
I do know (from experience) that in wobbly boats (or stable boats down to
your side!), on choppy water, and perhaps without sufficient clearance, it
can be an effort to square the blade.
simonk
> I have found recently that while doing longer pieces at racing pace
> (2.5K plus) that my forearms end up really burning towards the end of
> the piece. This is similar to the sensation that I used to get in a
> muscle group from an intense weight training set.
Sounds like you're gripping too hard. This can be caused by something as
simple as having an oar handle that's a bit too slippy or dry. Maybe try
changing oar. If you can't, try scrubbing your oarhandle clean with a
washing-up brush and some disinfectant to clear off the gunge; or if the
handle's new and smooth, try roughening it up gently with a wire brush
(don't go too mad, though ...) I used to get this in bouncy water/wet
weather with those nasty Concept II rubber handle blades - as soon as they
get wet they're like teflon, and the only way to keep them under control in
dicey conditions is to grip for all you're worth - with painful
consequences.
Alternatively, since this only occurs in 2K pieces, maybe you're just
panicking a bit and getting too tense. Maybe see if you can get your coach
to let you do some pieces at high-ish rate, but knocking the pressure back
10-20% - this might be enough to give you confidence to move quickly in the
boat without feeling like everything's on the edge of meltdown.
Whatever, I doubt very much the answer lies in having weak forearms. I've
never heard of anyone having to do "remedial" forearm strengthening weight
regimes for rowing. The squaring/feathering action really only requires a
light touch. If you doubt this, grab an oar, rest the collar on a flat
surface and rotate it to and fro 200 times within 6 minutes - it's really
not that strenuous.
--
simonk
ITguy_uk
Thanks for all your replies, they have been very helpful. The
characteristics described by people who posted here are very close to
what I experienced ie quaring arm tired and the muscles in it swollen,
tense and hard to the touch along with my arm feeling like a "claw" at
the end of the race (Robin Black posting). From them I have
discovered what I think to be the cause of the problem:
1. I am definetly gripping the oar to tight and forcing the oar square
and feathered. I only noticed this fatigue in my forearms in the last
couple of head races. I have done 2K pieces at higher ratings during
training and do not get the same forearm fatigue.
2. I know in the past I have been guilty of squaring late, especially
in unbalanced boats and when tired tend to revert back to this bad
habit.
3. I also think I maybe gripping the oar to tight during racing
situations as I get quite bad blisters on the palm of my feathering
hand and none on the hand at the end of the oar. These are usually
much worse during racing and I have noticed I seem to experience this
more than most.
4. I also know that our crew in the past have been told not to bend
arms to early and to use our legs rather than our upper body. Coming
from a weight training background I seem to have a bad habit of using
my upper body more than my legs. I have also been told this is a
common novice fault. I think this is the case as the fatigue was in
both forearms rather than just my squaring forearm (although it was
more pronounced in my squaring forerm)
I have changed the way I grip the oar recently, when I first started
rowing I was told by my coach at my first club to have my non-squaring
(at end of oar) hand with my little finger (outside finger) over the
end of the oar. This was supposed to make sure that I kept the oar
pushed into the gate. Then at my current club duing a rowing tank
session my coach told me to grip the oar with all my fingers and not
have my small finger on my outside hand as that was "novice" rowing.
All I can think of is my original coach told me to do this as I was a
complete novice then but now I am more experienced I no longer need to
do this? This question is very similar to the one James Blythe posted.
So in summary from all the posts here I think I need to:
1. Work on emphasizing driving with my legs and not upper body along
with keeping arms straight at catch.
2. Work on not gripping the oar too tight and forcing it square and
feathered (Piano exercise as posted by Henry and having hand open on
recovery as suggested by Walter).
3. Squaring early even when tired
I think from reading these posts my forearm fatigue is caused by
several rather than one technical point that I need to work on and
this is exasperpated during racing because of the higher rating and
general race nerves/tension.
Thanks again for all your postings, they have given me lots of points
to work on.
1. I agree with simonk, I don't think its that my forearms need
training
"simonk" <m...@privacy.net> wrote in message news:<br584v$29498m$1...@ID-200745.news.uni-berlin.de>...
Henry Law
>All,
>
>Thanks for all your replies, they have been very helpful. The
What a very agreeable summing-up post. I'm sure I speak for the whole
untidy rabble here when I wish you well. Let us know how it goes.
Henry Law <>< Manchester, England
Freewheeling
--
--Scott
"ITguy_uk" <itgu...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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