Author: readyallrow

Q&A Training & Nutrition

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I’m looking to gain weight, however at the same time I want to lose fat. There are two other girls my height and I am the lightest of three of us. Girl A is 6 lbs heavier, Girl B has 14 lbs on me. I’m already at the heavier end of healthy for my height, but on any given day girl A can beat me, and once girl B gets her endurance up, she’ll be kicking both our asses. I know weight isn’t everything in erg times but it surely does help. Do you have any advice?

So if I understand you correctly, what you’re aiming for is not so much about gaining weight as it is about building muscle. It’s not the amount of weight that you’re carrying that helps you on the erg, rather it’s the amount of muscle mass you have that allows you to generate increased amounts of power. Not knowing anything about you and the other two girls, my guess is that’s probably where they’ve got you beat right now or at the very least, it’s playing a part.

When you’re trying to burn fat at the same time, what most people tend to do is focus on burning fat first and building muscle second before transitioning to the opposite once they’ve got their body fat where they want it. To do that you’ll need to do a couple basic things.

Determine the number of calories you need

The simplest way to do this is to just use one of the calorie calculator things online. My suggestion though would be to do it three or four times with separate calculators and then take the average since they don’t always use the same formulas, meaning you could see differences of 150-200 calories between them. Make sure the ones you use have a thing that lets you choose your activity level since that plays a pretty big part in how much fuel you need to consume. If burning fat is your priority then you’ll need to eat at a deficit in order to eliminate the excess calories, meaning 300-500ish calories less than what it says you need. This can easily be done though by swapping out certain foods for healthier options and exercising (which shouldn’t be hard considering you’re probably training right now).

Eat smarter

Plain and simple, you lose weight by decreasing the amount of calories going in and increasing what’s going out. The general population would say that all you need to do then is eat less food (2/3 of the general population is also obese so … there’s that) but what would be more beneficial, especially for an athlete, is to just be smarter about the foods you’re eating so that even though you’re ingesting fewer calories, you’re maximizing the nutritional benefits that you’re getting. “Eating less” is a dumb concept because you could easily say “Oh, I’m only going to eat half the box of Thin Mints for lunch today instead of the whole box.” and then change nothing else about your diet. Yea, you’re eating less but if you changed nothing else it’s probably not going to make that much of a difference. You have to consciously think about the foods you eat, think about what you could eliminate and replace with healthier options, and then actually commit to doing it. The hardest part is committing but if you go about it the right away, it shouldn’t be a hard transition to make. For example, make simple switches like swapping out white bread for whole grain, regular yogurt for Chobani, bagels for English muffins, etc. The most important thing is to make sure you’re still getting all the nutrients you need (especially protein!) so that your health and/or training isn’t adversely effected.

Exercise

Obviously, right? Cardio-based workouts (like erging, biking, running, etc. (aka steady state)) will aid in burning fat while strength-based workouts (weight lifting/training) will aid in developing muscle. Since the initial focus is on burning fat, there should be a higher cardio:strength ratio when it comes to your workouts at the beginning but you’ll eventually want to transition that after a couple of weeks so that you’re doing more strength workouts and working towards increasing your muscle mass.

Eventually you’ll hit a plateau both with your diet (it’s not really a diet, per se, but you know what I mean) and workouts, which is completely normal, and you’ll have to readjust everything to match that.

Coxing Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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Hi! I’m a coxswain for a little club in New Zealand, and thanks to my coach I virtually do nothing. On the water he takes my job away from me and tells them to row instead of me and won’t let me make any calls. He doesn’t let me cox anyone through their 2k and he tells me that it’s not important if I don’t make calls during a race! I’m not a novice coxswain either but I’ve had virtually no training and I’ve taught myself everything that I know because he’s never helped me out! What do I do? 🙁

My initial thought is to say “find a new club”…

Have you talked to him about this? Do you notice or know if he acts this way with the other coxswains too? It honestly seems like he doesn’t know much about coxing in general if he’s telling you that it’s not that important to say anything during a race. I would ask him why he thinks that, not in an accusatory way but rather in a way that gets him to explain his reasoning for saying that. I’ve never experienced anything like this myself so it’s hard to suggest what to do. I’ve known two people that this has happened to though and both of them ended up quitting because being on the team had become pointless for them and it wasn’t worth the money anymore. Honestly, I think your best (and only) option is to talk to him (outside of practice) and figure out what his deal is and then decide from there if it’s worth it to stay on the team. If I was in your position though, I’d be looking for another team so I could actually do what I joined the team to do.

If anyone has any suggestions or advice (especially from personal experience!), I’d love to hear them so please leave a comment down below.

College Coxing Q&A

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I really want to continue rowing in college but I am 5’3″ and my erg scores are not great. Do you think it would be possible for me to cox in college (maybe as a walk on?) even though I have never done it before? If so, how would I go about expressing interest in it?

Definitely! Coxing as a walk-on is pretty much going to be your only option at this point since coaches aren’t going to recruit someone who doesn’t have any experience. Plus, if you’re a senior right now, I think the recruiting period might be coming to an end so it’d be too late to go that route anyways. If you know that’s what you want to do though you might talk to your current coach(es) and see if you can switch to coxing permanently starting this season. If you’re a junior right now that’d give you roughly three seasons of water time, assuming your team has a fall season, which would put you in a really good position if you decide to walk on wherever you go to school. (I’ve gotten the impression that experienced walk-on coxswains are like gold to freshman coaches because it’s one less person they have to teach and it lets them focus on the rowers rather than worrying about teaching the coxswain how to cox while also trying to teach kids how to row.) You could keep rowing if you wanted and walk-on to a team with no coxing experience but I think that if you already know you might want to cox in college, it just makes more sense to switch now and get that year and a half of experience in before college starts.

As far as expressing interest, all you have to do is show up to the boathouse whenever the team hosts their walk-on tryouts. You’ll likely seen signs posted throughout campus and/or you’ll see the team out recruiting during the first few days of school. If your university holds some kind of student involvement fair where all the groups, clubs, athletic teams, etc. show up to promote their stuff, you can seek out the crew team’s table and get put on their general interest sign-up sheet. Someone from the team will then send out an email with details on when/where to show up. You could also send the coach an email once you arrive and say that you’re interested in walking on.

Coxswain recordings, pt. 17

College Coxing Racing Recordings

Coxswain recordings, pt. 17

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Dartmouth University 2011 Eastern Sprints Lightweight 8+ Heat

One early takeaway from this recording is how quickly and seamlessly he gives their position on the crews around there – “half a length up on Cornell, holding our margin on Princeton”. The easiest way to make communicating that information to your crew as effortless as he did is to know who’s in your race (duh/obviously) but if you’re a novice coxswain who isn’t used to racing six crews across, a simple hack is to write the crews (in lane # order) on a piece of electrical tape (with a Sharpie) and tape it above your foot.

Around 4:20ish you can see that Princeton’s already taken the rate up and Dartmouth … hasn’t. Their coxswain called that lengthen 10 and then the “big focus 5” (personally I think those should have been switched) and seemed to completely miss Princeton taking it up until they were already a few strokes into their sprint and had started to full even. They still won the heat and obviously that’s the most important thing but you’ve gotta make sure that you’re not so focused on calling moves that you forget to look at what’s happening around you, especially in the last 500 (or 300, in this case).

Other calls I liked:

“That’s it Dartmouth…”

“Grip and breathe…“

“Keep your focus internal, they’re not taking seats any time soon.”

Dartmouth University 2011 Eastern Sprints Lightweight 8+ Grand Final

Following the previous recording, this is the grand final from Sunday afternoon.

His intensity is great and like all good coxswains, it’s not about what he says but how he says it. His calls are sharp and concise and the tonal changes in his voice really emphasize what he wants his crew to do. That is the ultimate takeaway from this recording. He also tells them exactly where they are on the other big players in the race, as well as how far into the race they are time-wise. As they’re walking through Yale during the sprint you can feel the energy he’s bringing through his calls and that’s what you want at the end of the race – gun to your head, if you’ve gotta pick one spot in the race to pour your energy into, it’s right there in the last 500.

At 1:30 they’re through the 500 and practically four boats across when you hear him say “swing it and go, pry those puddles, take one seat…”. Take one seat. This is a great move because it’s a small, achievable goal for the crew and when the crews are that tight, walking up or back one seat on the field can be a huge difference maker.

Other calls I liked:

“There’s blood in the water, you’re hungry for this win…”

“Stomp on them, go…“

You can find and listen to more recordings by checking out the “Coxswain Recordings” page.

Q&A Training & Nutrition

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I’ve started running a lot on the elliptical in preparation for the crew season. I erg too, but not as much. Does the elliptical actually help or is it a waste of time?

I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of time because something is usually better than nothing but there are definitely better alternatives, such as getting on the bike and going for 45 minutes. I think 80-90 RPMs is what you’re supposed to aim for. Actually going for a run too is always good but if you can’t run because of knee problems or something else, the bike is still going to be a better alternative. The problem with ellipticals is that most people tend to get on there with little to no resistance and let momentum do the work for them, which essentially renders it useless for what you’re trying to do. Plus it’s boring as hell…

My suggestion would be to do a combination of running, erging, and biking. Actually go out and run if you’re able (keeping in mind any injuries or weather issues that would make it unsafe) 2 days a week and then do a core circuit when you finish. On the other 2 or 3 days, do something like 30 minutes of erging at a couple splits over your 5k pace followed by 20 minutes on the bike and a 10 minute plank circuit. If you want to challenge yourself with a really solid plank workout, I highly recommend this one.

Coxing High School Q&A Teammates & Coaches

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Hey. I’m a 15 year old rower from Australia. There’s 2 girl’s crews in my year, 9/10s. The A crew recently got one of their friends to cox them, but she’s an average weight and height. I’m in the B crew, which is constantly changing rowers, the cox and seat order. I’m currently 148cm (4’10”) and I weigh 40kg (88 lbs). Two of the girls in A crew and myself think that I’m a good cox and I should be coxing A crew, but I never get the chance to cox them or any other crews anymore. What should I do?

Wow, you’re smaller than me and you row? That’s crazy (and impressive…).

Hmm. I assume you’ve talked to your coach about this? Not knowing anything about your skills on the water, my guess is that the coaches like what they see and want to keep an oar in your hands because despite being incredibly small for a rower, you’ve actually got some boat-moving ability. If you’re not getting injured from trying to keep up with your teammates and your coaches are happy with the girl that’s currently coxing the A boat, I can see why they wouldn’t want to mess around with the current dynamic. I’d say that, for now, just stick to rowing.

Quick PSA for everyone too: there’s a very, veeerrry fine line that you risk crossing when you tell someone who isn’t your current coxswain (or isn’t a coxswain at all) that they should be coxing the top boat, they’d make a great coxswain, etc. because even if it’s an offhand comment, you’re going to put ideas in their head that might be completely unfounded and/or implausible. Granted yes, there are always exceptions and a lot of them have been posted on here but if you’re a rower and a) aren’t injured in any way, b) have never coxed or have coxed very little (3 months consistently or less), or c) aren’t of coxing size (obviously important) … just don’t entertain the thought. What ends up happening is you start thinking “Oh, I could probably do this better than that coxswain. Pffft, I could call a power 10 better than that. Hmm, looks like she’s struggling with how to dock, no worries I’ll just tell bow four what they need to do because I could probably explain it better than her.” Don’t be that person. Seriously. It’s rude and annoying and can really mess with a coxswain’s head and the chemistry of a crew.

If you think you have the potential to be a good coxswain but aren’t currently one, first determine if switching to coxing is realistic (more often than not it isn’t but again, exceptions exist) and then if you determine it is, talk to your coach about it. They’ll either say “you know what, we actually do need another coxswain, why don’t we try you out in a boat next week” or “we have all the coxswains we need right now, I’d rather see you stay in the boat”. Other times they’ll just flat out say no and unless you’ve got a really, REALLY good reason not to, you should just accept it and stick with what you’re currently doing. Just like with everything else out there, “no” is not code for “convince me”,  “incessantly bug me about it until I cave and say yes”, or “search for loopholes so you can do what you want anyways”. You have to trust the fact that your coach does know more than you do and most of the time it’s unlikely that they’re just flippantly ignoring your request.

Coxing Novice Q&A

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So as a novice, I’ve been coxing for about 5 months. My learning curve was very fast and I quickly became our top novice coxswain, yet I feel like I’ve hit a plateau. I’m not getting any better yet everyone else is improving faster and my top spots are very threatened right now. How do I get better after hitting a plateau? (btw: We don’t have winter training, we are on water all year round) Thanks!

I think the best way to get over a plateau is to find new ways to challenge yourself. When you’ve hit a plateau that typically means that your body, brain, whatever has adapted to the challenges you were presenting it before and now that it doesn’t perceive them as actually being challenging anymore, it’s bored. You’re bored. To become un-bored and get over the hump, think about all the things you’ve learned how to do in the last five months and then think about how you can start fine-tuning each of those skills. You’ve got the broad concepts down so now it’s time to start focusing on the details. If you’re having trouble thinking of stuff, talk to your coach(es). Since they’ve seen you on the water they’ll know exactly what you’re doing really well and what you can improve on. Get some feedback from them and then sit down and create a plan for yourself. Have a list of goals (small, medium, and large ones) that list out what you want to accomplish.

Small goals would be things like incorporating in three new calls for the catch into your vocabulary in the next two weeks (followed by three new calls for the finish in the following two weeks, etc.).

Medium goals would be smoothing out your docking technique over the next month (i.e. gauging when you need to drop down to fours, then pairs before weighing enough and leaning away so that the boat never comes into contact with the dock – this was one of the things I did and is probably the skill I’m most proud of. I’m a freaking amazing docker.).

Large goals usually encompass the whole season but can be tricky for novices, especially novice coxswains, to come up with. I guess one thing you could do is record a practice or race now and then record another practice or race at the end of the season and then compare the two. This would actually be a great way to hear the progress you’ve made with pointing out technique issues, increasing the efficiency of your calls, working on your tone and intonation, and just improving your overall communication skills with your coach and crew while you’re on the water.

Don’t think of this period as a plateau because that gives it a negative connotation and just makes you feel like crap. Think of it instead as that period between levels when the game is still loading. You’ve leveled up but you’re waiting for the next set of challenges to be put together and presented to you.