Christmas Break
Last Friday was our last "official" day of practice before the two week winter break before we meet up again January 3rd. During the next two week we'll be having two-a-days; a practice in the morning and in the afternoon where kids can come down and still get some work in. This of course is completely optional as are the workouts that I handed my guys in case their families hit the road for Christmas.
As in the past, I pulled my guys aside and explained the nature of optional practices and workouts letting them know that while they were completely optional - I would not be checking in on them - the consequences were not. Doing nothing over the two weeks away would mean a serious lapse in fitness and put them well behind anyone who chose to workout and of course the opposite holds true. I let them know that simply doing the Cal/Ab set would not maintain fitness and that the sets needed to be coupled with a minimum of 1 hours worth of activity with 2 being optimal. Activity was defined as anything where your heart rate is in the aerobic threshold for a sustained period of time.
Most of the guys had the deer in the headlights look and began making plans to try and hit up gyms but I told them nothing like that was really needed. The important thing was the level of activity and doing so was easy. A couple hours on the bike - most of them ride their bikes religiously - or an hour of laps in the pool or cross country skiing or snow shoeing, all relatively easy things to do. I did advice them to avoid running the entire time and that if they did choose to run, to run backward for half of the run. Running in general is thought to be one of the worst cross training exercises for rowers because of the repetitive motions. I did remind them that rowing is a total body workout and that good cross training would utilize their entire body, not just parts - biking unfortunately being one of those. In general to make their lives easier I stressed the importance of simply being active and doing the sets.
I'm looking forward to being able to catch up on a lot of work that has been done half way. I got the weights on Friday so I'm going to spend part of winter plugging them into the workouts that we've done to get an idea of where we are. I am looking forward to getting into spring when I can use the VO2 Max formulas but for now weight adjusted is working just fine. I'm seeing some definite trends with individuals where guys are improving and also unfortunately, not improving at all but we've got the rest of winter to get it sorted out.
Despite this winter's practices being more fun and organized, I am still looking forward to breaking the seals on the boathouse doors and getting back onto the water.
As in the past, I pulled my guys aside and explained the nature of optional practices and workouts letting them know that while they were completely optional - I would not be checking in on them - the consequences were not. Doing nothing over the two weeks away would mean a serious lapse in fitness and put them well behind anyone who chose to workout and of course the opposite holds true. I let them know that simply doing the Cal/Ab set would not maintain fitness and that the sets needed to be coupled with a minimum of 1 hours worth of activity with 2 being optimal. Activity was defined as anything where your heart rate is in the aerobic threshold for a sustained period of time.
Most of the guys had the deer in the headlights look and began making plans to try and hit up gyms but I told them nothing like that was really needed. The important thing was the level of activity and doing so was easy. A couple hours on the bike - most of them ride their bikes religiously - or an hour of laps in the pool or cross country skiing or snow shoeing, all relatively easy things to do. I did advice them to avoid running the entire time and that if they did choose to run, to run backward for half of the run. Running in general is thought to be one of the worst cross training exercises for rowers because of the repetitive motions. I did remind them that rowing is a total body workout and that good cross training would utilize their entire body, not just parts - biking unfortunately being one of those. In general to make their lives easier I stressed the importance of simply being active and doing the sets.
I'm looking forward to being able to catch up on a lot of work that has been done half way. I got the weights on Friday so I'm going to spend part of winter plugging them into the workouts that we've done to get an idea of where we are. I am looking forward to getting into spring when I can use the VO2 Max formulas but for now weight adjusted is working just fine. I'm seeing some definite trends with individuals where guys are improving and also unfortunately, not improving at all but we've got the rest of winter to get it sorted out.
Despite this winter's practices being more fun and organized, I am still looking forward to breaking the seals on the boathouse doors and getting back onto the water.
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