Gym Closure – This Sunday, September 2nd. Enjoy a day of recovery.

Read – The 17 Commandments of Rowing from Breaking Muscle.

And number 18 (the thing that drives rowers the most nuts, aside from bending the knees waaaay too soon):

Create the most efficient path possible by moving the handle in a straight line.

Repeat after me: A STRAIGHT LINE. Please stop dipping the handles in the return to trace your legs or, worse, pulling the handles up to your neck in the drive. **shutters**

In the rowing world the hands move up and down at parts of the stroke due to the need to control the oar handle. We don’t have an actual oar to worry about on a C2.

At the catch, the chain should be in the middle of the rectangular box that guides the chain path, and as you drive it should make a straight line to the base of your sternum. Keep your arms and hands as relaxed as possible. Between them they make up a very small percentage of your power output, avoid spending unnecessary energy by gripping too hard or pulling too early.

Practice Like You Do Your OLY Lifts. Nothing shows progress more than practice. Expect to see great returns if you invest the time to drill yourself. A little work every day produces gains and you’ll notice your attitude toward this valuable machine changing.

Warmup 
2 Sets of the following circuit:
2 Minutes Jump Rope
Hip Mobility Series
10 Downdog Pushups
2/2 Getups

Conditioning
“Ad Triarios Redisse”

3 x 6 Minute rounds: one minute at each station, one minute rest between rounds (similar to FGB):

Ball Slams (25# or heavier for ALL levels)
5 Yd Lateral Shuffle Burpee (on the soft mats)
Battle Ropes
Wall Balls
Toes to Bar
Row for Calories
Rest 1 minute

There are six stations so we should have no more than 3 people per station (if there are 3 in a group then one person will use the Airdyne instead of the C2 Rower each round).

Lateral Shuffle Burpees are performed between two cones: move sideways from one cone to the other, when you are just past the cone sprawl into a burpee, jump up and scramble sideways to the first cone, burpee, and repeat. Video example here (play with volume down, music is extremely NSFW). Cones will be set up five yards apart on the soft mats. If there are two people at that station, you will have to face each other on opposite sides of the cones to share the space (for three people, get creative). As always when performing lateral movements, be careful of your foot placement and your weight distribution so you don’t roll your ankle and/or wipeout hard. You should try to get 8-10 burpees per interval.

L2 – sub knees to elbows if necessary
L0/1 – sub v-ups or Ball-up situps for T2B