Plank: Lie face down on the ground. Place your elbows on the ground underneath your shoulders with your forearms extended straight in front of you. Then, left yourself up on your toes and your forearms, keeping your body straight. Hold this position for 30 seconds to two minutes, increasing the amount of time you hold as you get stronger. Side plank: Begin in the same position as the plank and lift yourself up onto your arms and toes. Then, slowly turn your body to the side, so that your weight is resting on one foot and one arm (either your left foot and arm or your right). Make sure your body is in a straight line and you aren’t leaning over. Hold this position for 30 seconds to two minutes and then switch to the other side. V-sit hold: Sit on the ground with your legs straight in front of you and your upper body straight. Then, extend your arms out in front of you and slowly lift your legs off the ground. As you lift your legs off the ground, keep them straight, and slowly lean your upper body back, making sure to keep your back straight as you do so. Hold this position for 30 to 90 seconds.
Bridge: Lie on your back with you knees bent and feet flat against the floor, hip width apart. Then, slowly lift up your butt, using your glutes, until you have a straight line going from your shoulders to your knees. Hold the position for one to two minutes, or lower your butt and raise it again at a quick pace without letting your butt touch the ground. To make this position even harder, you can extend one leg straight out, keeping it in the air as you raise your butt. Barbell squat: Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and place a barbell behind your head across your shoulders and grip it with your hands. Squat like you are about to sit down, keeping your upper body straight and your chest out. Go as low as you can and then, stand back up and repeat. Do three sets of 12 reps. [2] X Research source Barbell/dumbbell lunges: Start by standing up with your feet together. Position the barbell as you did before, or hold a dumbbell in each hand. Then, take a step forward, bending your front knee so it creates a right angle, and lowering your back knee so that it almost touches the ground. Then, bring your back foot next to your front foot and repeat on the other side. You can do these in place, or you can do them walking. Try to do 50 yards of walking lunges.
Plank push ups: Start in the plank position, but instead of putting your elbows on the ground, you will put your hands underneath your shoulders. Push up to a plank position, with your weight on your hands and toes. Then, lower your body, keeping your elbows close to your body (you don’t want them to push outwards away from the body). Don’t allow your body to touch the floor, and then push yourself up again into that plank position. Reverse grip pulldowns: This exercise requires a pulldown machine. Sit at the machine and reach above you with an underhand grip to reach the pulldown bar. Then, slowly pull it down, using your upper body strength rather than momentum, until the bar is in line with your chest. Then, slowly allow the bar to go back to its starting position and repeat. Barbell rows: This is a great exercise to target the muscles you’ll need for rowing. Position your hands shoulder width apart on a barbell on the ground with an overhand grip. Bend your body over so that your back is flat, in a table top position and your knees are straight or slightly bent, depending on your flexibility. Then, lift the barbell up to your chest, keeping your back flat, and lower back down (try not to let it touch the ground). Do five sets of five reps and try to place as much weight on the barbell as possible.
You start at the catch position, and then you move to the release position through the drive phase. The drive phase is when you are pulling the handle towards your body and extending your legs. The release position is the position at the end of the drive phase – your legs are straight in front of you, your body is sitting upright, and your arms are pulled in towards you. Then, you will move on to the rock over phase, to the recovery phase, and finally back to your catch position. The rock over phase is when you begin to release your arms from the release position, allowing them to go straight, but keeping your legs straight. Then, in the recovery phase, as your upper body bends forward and your arms are fully straightened, you will begin to bend your knees until you’ve reached the catch position.
If you engage your muscles out of order or all at once, it can be difficult to get your timing and rhythm right, and it can also decrease the amount of power you are able to use. Make sure when you pull the handle back, that you allow your legs to fully straighten before you initiate the power with your core. Then, when moving to your starting position, make sure your arms are fully straightened before you bend your knees.
If you use more arm strength than leg strength, you will be able to pull, but you won’t be able to do so for long. Your upper body will get tired quickly and you’ll begin relying on your momentum to pull rather than your strength.
To get the right timing, you can practice saying “one” on the drive, and then “two, three” on the release and recovery phase. Or, you can say “power” on the drive and then “patience, patience” on the release and recovery phase. Timing your strokes is important because you want to make sure you have enough recovery. Because pulling takes more power, you’ll need double the amount of time to release so that you can recover and prepare for your next pull.
If they aren’t in place already, run the oars through the oar hooks so that the blade is in the water and the handle is in the boat. Make sure the oarlock points towards the back of the boat. If your oarlock faces the bow of the boat, it will be more difficult to row because the pitch of your blade will be off. Make sure the boat you are using to row in is an actual rowboat. If you row in a boat not designed for rowing, the task of rowing is going to be much more difficult. An ideal rowboat is 12 to 17 feet in length.
If you have lots of room between your handles and your chest when your legs are extended, you may need to move the foot stretchers away from you towards the stern. If you don’t have much room between your handles and your chest, you may need to move your foot stretchers towards you, towards the bow. If you have more of a classic rowboat, or one that isn’t designed for sports, you may not have foot stretchers or a seat that pushes backwards. In that case, you will still be doing similar arm movements as that of a rowing machine, but you won’t be extending your legs.
Make sure if you don’t have the ability to extend your legs that you are using your shoulder and core strength and not your back to pull the oars towards you. However, your upper body should still only be some of the strength you are using. You want to use as much leg strength and lower body strength as possible. This may involve you using your glutes and hips for power.
Make sure blades are just underneath the surface of the water, and not buried deep into the water, as it will be more difficult to row the deeper the oar is.
Once again, if you can copy the position of the release on the rowing machine, then do so. If not, keep your legs in whatever position you had them in, but make sure your upper body and your arms are positioned as they would be on a rowing machine.
Feathering your oars essentially means that once you lift them out of the water, you will turn them so that they are parallel with the surface of the water, and hold them an inch or two above the water. This positioning of the blade will give you less wind resistance.
If you want to turn on a smaller radius, hold water with one oar and row with the opposite oar. For example, if you are turning your boat to the right, place your left oar in the water and hold water, and row with your right oar. For an even smaller radius, take a normal stroke with one oar and a back stroke with the other oar. To turn left, do a normal row with your left oar, but then do a backwards row with your right oar. Essentially in a backwards row, you will be bringing one oar through the water and towards the bow of the boat versus a normal row where you move the oars through the water towards the stern of the boat.
