Tag: training

Racing Rowing Teammates & Coaches Training & Nutrition

Blood in the Water

By readyallrow May 1, 2013

I don’t know when or how I stumbled on this article but it’s a great one. It was published in 1999 and briefly chronicles the selection process of Mike Teti’s heavyweight 8+ for the ’99 world championships and the 2000 Olympic team.

As the thin fog lifts over the pine trees and off the lake, Teti begins today’s practice session with his version of a pep talk. “For the past two weeks, I’ve been really flexible with your work hours,” he announces, his voice scratchy from weeks of shouting through a bullhorn. His face is tan and windburned from 18 years of flying up and down narrow channels of water with a clock in his hand. “I’ve been really flexible with your relationships. I have been really flexible with your academics. Well, I’m through being flexible. I’m going to the World Championships to win. Anyone who requires maintenance, you are not welcome here. I will provide the coaching, the equipment, and the expertise to those who want to go to the Olympic Games and win a fucking gold medal. Anything that gets in the way of that, I’m gonna run it the fuck over. Some of you guys are severely on the bubble, and most of you here will not make the Olympic Team.”

And this one…

“I don’t have all fucking day!” Teti screams. “Line up.”

And this one…

Teti never simply shouts, “Pull!” He yells things such as, “Pull like you’re the biggest, baddest motherfucker in a bar, and everybody in the bar knows it!”

Coxswains, remember that one – you never know when it might come in handy.

A typical 2000m race takes about 220 strokes from start to finish. The NCAA allots 20 hours of training/practice for every week that a team is in season. If a team trains for the max allotted hours, by the time they get to a championship race they will have trained for close to 3 hours for each stroke that they take in the race.

Q&A Rowing Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 28, 2013

So I’ve been rowing for 6 months now and I work really hard and do extra coaching sessions and am super passionate about it, but I feel as though I’ve recently stopped improving. Is it normal to plateau for a while in terms of your rate of improvement with rowing? Also, when rowing a double scull what does each seat mean? I was put in bow seat. Thanks!

I got an email about this the other day that asked a similar question. I think the plateau is fairly normal, to be honest. It’s very much like losing weight. First the weight loss is rapid and then it starts to gradually slow down as you continue to lose more. Eventually it gets to a certain point (i.e. those last five pounds) where you level off and it feels like you aren’t losing anymore. After a period of time you’ll find a way to jump start your system, either by ramping up your exercise, changing your workout routine, or making additional tweaks to your diet, that will get the process going again. When the body gets used to something it tends to become desensitized to it to the point where it stops responding, essentially because it’s bored. If you’re going out and doing the same workouts on the water over and over and over day in and day out, your body is probably thinking “eh, been there, done that, I’m over it”.

Talk with your coach and see if you can change up what you do during practice by throwing in some different drills and pieces than what you’ve been doing. After a week or two of going that you’ll probably start to notice some changes because you and your body will be excited again. Also make sure you’re recovering properly in between sessions.

Check out the post linked above – I wrote it awhile ago in response to a question about who goes where in the boats. This person asked about where people go in a quad and an eight, but the responsibilities of each seat are the same regardless of what kind of boat you’re in. The only change is that as move down towards the smaller boats, people tend to pick up more responsibilities. Your best answer to this question though is going to come straight from your coach since he/she is the one that put you there. If you’re curious as to why you’re in a certain seat, always ask!

Ergs Novice Rowing Technique Training & Nutrition

Rowing Blisters 101

By readyallrow April 26, 2013

Blisters suck — this we can all agree on. What most rowers and coxswains don’t know are the specifics of how and why they form, how to treat them, and how to prevent them.

One of my former coaches used to tell us that there was nothing more character-building in rowing than the blisters you get. A lot of the time you’re encouraged to just deal with them because they’re inevitable but a point in time comes when you have to stop just dealing with it and start taking the proper steps to protect the ones you already have and prevent more from occurring. Do not be careless when it comes to your blisters. There are few things more eye-roll inducing than rowers (novices) who are like “look at my hands, they’re completely torn to shreds, clearly this makes me the most badass rower ever!” Just … no.

What are they and how do you get them?

There are two kinds of blisters – your regular, run of the mill blisters and blood blisters. Regular blisters are pockets of fluid in between the upper layers of your skin. They’re most often caused by friction, which in rowing could be from overuse, having too tight of a grip, etc. The other kind of blister is a blood blister. These kinds form when blood vessels near the surface of your skin are damaged but the skin itself isn’t broken. There are two main causes for blood blisters. One is consistently rubbing the skin back and forth on or against something. The other, and more common cause, is the skin being pinched together (say, for example, when you’re rowing and suddenly the boat goes offset to one side and you smash your pinky in between the oar handle and the gunnel).

To pop or not to pop

There’s a lot of opinions out there on what you should do if you get a blister. Pop it, leave it alone, drain it, rip the skin off, sob quietly in the corner of the boathouse because your significant other will never want to hold your hand ever again, etc. I’m firmly in the camp of “leave it alone” if and when possible. As long as the blister isn’t having any kind of impact on your rowing you should aim to just let it be so as to avoid getting an infection in the open wound. This is one of those moments where you need to know the difference between pain and discomfort. Don’t deliberately mess with the blister if you don’t have to. If you develop a blister that has filled with fluid and is painful or disrupting your rowing though, you’ll want to drain it.

How to drain and clean your blisters

Before you do anything, wash your hands. It’s probably going to hurt but you never know what microbial nuisances might be lurking on your skin. Antimicrobial soap + warm water + at least 30 seconds per hand = acceptable. When you clean your blisters, especially the really bloody ones, try to avoid using peroxide if possible. Betadine is a better antibacterial alternative because it’s not as harsh on your skin and doesn’t hurt nearly as bad as peroxide does. Peroxide gets the job done quite well and there’s even some cool (read: gross) foaming action that happens with the really bad blisters but that being said, it hurts like a bitch.

As a pre-step to draining the blister you need to sterilize the needle or pin you plan on using. Don’t skip this step. It takes like, two minutes to do. You can sterilize whatever you plan on using by running it over a flame until it’s red hot and then letting it soak in peroxide for a few minutes.

When you’re ready to drain the blister, you’ll want to drain it from the side, not the middle as I’ve tried to illustrate below. To avoid creating a hole that would allow the skin to be easily ripped off it’s often suggested that you poke it with the needle from the top edge near your fingers. Keep the needle as close to your skin as possible.

Once the blister starts releasing the fluid, try not to let it run all over your hands. At the same time you’re poking it with the needle, hold a cotton ball or tissue on the blister so that the fluid can be immediately soaked up. Press gently with the pad of your finger to get the liquid out. Make sure that you’re actually pressing in the direction of the hole you just made too and do this until the blister is completely flat.

Once you’ve got the blister(s) drained you should put some Neosporin on them but keep them uncovered to give them an opportunity to dry out. NewSkin is another option but that seems to be a fairly hit or miss choice with most rowers. Some swear by it, others hate it. One thing that I’ve heard of people doing is rubbing Neosporin on a piece of sewing thread, putting it on a needle, and pulling it through the blister. Usually this is done before draining it but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be effective post-draining too. Doing this allows the medicine to get inside the blister and helps to prevent infections.

I’ve also heard about rowers using tea bags to help dry out and harden the blisters (via the tannic acid) – has anyone tried this? What have your experiences been? Another option is filling a bowl with epsom salts and warm water and allowing the salts to dissolve before soaking your hands for 20-30 minutes. This will help to dry out the blisters and keep them clean. Conveniently this process also allows you the time to catch up on all those TV shows you never actually have time to watch.

How to protect your hands

If you’ve already got blisters the next step is learning how to protect them while you’re practicing. Tape, band-aids, etc. are going to be your best friends if – if – you use them properly. Before anyone suggests it let’s get this out of the way right now: gloves = NO. You can’t get a good grip on the oar (yes, even with golfer’s or batter’s gloves) and your hands sweat inside them so much that you end up with way more blisters than when you started. You’re going to be tempted to ask your coach or coxswain if you can wear gloves but I’m here to save you from that embarrassment. Just don’t do it.

If you have blisters on your fingers, I recommend the knuckle band-aids since their little wing-like things allow them to stay more securely on your fingers. An additional option on top of – not instead of – the band-aids is to get those rubber finger protectors and slide one of those on. The rowers I’ve seen do it say that it holds the band-aid in place better so they don’t have to worry about it sliding around. If for whatever reason the blister starts bleeding, by having it in the protector you’ll avoid getting blood, bacteria, and who knows what else on your handle (and transferring whatever is on your handle into your open wound).

The issue that most rowers have is taping up the blisters on your palms and right below your fingers. If you just wrap the tape in a circle, about 1/3 of the way through your warmup you’ll notice that it’s starting to bunch up and expose your blisters to the elements. My recommendation is to wrap your hands similarly to how boxers wrap theirs. Obviously the tape wouldn’t need to be nearly as thick and if the blisters are only at the top of your palms you don’t need to wrap all the way down to your wrists but having the tape secured around your fingers though will ensure that it stays in place and you won’t have to worry about it.

Below is a video that you can use for reference. The loop that goes around your thumb (or whatever finger you choose) is what really secures your tape in place.

If you have a lot of blisters, buy your own tape and band-aids. Your coxswain is not a walking first aid dispensary. Anything that’s waterproof and flexible will be good since it’ll move with you and not restrict your movement.

You should be changing your tape and band-aids before and after every practice too because a) you need to clean your hands and get all the grunge off of them and b) the tape is going to be disgusting, rolled up on itself, and not effective at protecting your skin anymore.

How to prevent blisters.

Getting blisters as a rower is inevitable — it’s going to happen. You can limit the severity of them though simply by rowing with proper technique. Understand the difference between “relaxed grip” and “no grip” — “loose” does not literally mean loose as in flimsy, it means a happy medium between a death grip and no grip.

Avoid the death grip on the handle and instead keep the hands relaxed. On the recovery you should be able to freely wiggle your fingers while still maintaining control of the handle. You’ll know if you’re doing the death grip if your forearms and wrists are really sore and you’ve got hands that like they were rubbed on a cheese grater for a few hours.

Keep the towels that you use to wipe down your boats, oars, etc. clean too. At the beginning of the year it’s worth having everyone on the team donate an old rag or two to the team to use that way you’ve got an abundant supply. Also make sure the oar handles are being cleaned regularly too, especially if you’ve bled on them or had blisters open up during practice.

Know when a blister has festered into something more serious – and then get your ass to a doctor

MRSA. Sepsis. Cellulitis. Leptospirosis.

All of these are some of the potential consequences of bacteria coming in contact with your open wounds. All have been suffered from by rowers at some point or another. A prominent case that I remember reading about three or four years ago was the death of Andy Holmes, a several-time Olympian and gold-medalist from the UK, who died of leptospirosis after coming in contact with contaminated water. This resulted in British Rowing posting a notice on it’s website to rowers to remind them that good hygiene and proper care of blisters and track bites are crucial steps in not developing an infection, especially one that elevates to the severity that Holmes’ did.

It’s important for you to pay attention to any changes in the blisters themselves, the skin around the blisters, and most importantly, your overall health. If something looks or feels “off” don’t just suck it up — go to your local 24-hour urgent care facility and get someone to look at you. I know I say this all the time but I really mean it every time I do … better safe than sorry. Know how to separate discomfort or soreness from rowing from the symptoms of something more severe. If something feels off, tell your parent(s), coach(es), sibling(s), teammate(s), etc. so that someone else can keep an eye on you.

I’ve known three different people, two rowers and one coxswain, who developed MRSA as a result of not taking proper care of their blisters. On a scale of one to ten, two were probably at about a “six” with regards to severity and the other was at least a “nine”. That person got really sick and was hospitalized for about a week. This isn’t just stuff we make up to scare you into taking proper care of yourself, which you should be doing already. It can and does happen. Be proactive so it doesn’t happen to you.

Below is a quick rundown of each of the infections I listed above, in addition to their signs and symptoms.

Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

MRSA is a strain of bacteria that causes infections in the body and tends to be resistant to most commonly used antibiotics. It’s transmitted either through touching someone who already has it on their skin or by touching something (for example, oar handles) that has the bacteria on it. Signs of an infection include the skin around the initial wound being red, swollen, warm to the touch, more painful than normal, and potentially contain pus. Typically skin infections that are related to MRSA are mistaken for spider bites since spider bites look similar. If the infection spreads to the respiratory system, you could develop pneumonia and experience shortness of breath, a fever, chills, or a cough that you don’t otherwise normally have. If you go to the doctor and are given antibiotics, pay attention and see if you are actually getting better. If the infection continues to get worse, you develop a fever or the fever you have gets worse, or there are no signs of improvement after three(ish) days, go back to the doctor.

Sepsis (blood poisoning)

When bacteria enters the blood it’s known as a condition called “bacteremia”. Since the blood is typically sterile, the presence of bacteria is considered abnormal. Previous infections in the body’s organs can spread and lead to sepsis, which itself is a secondary set of symptoms, but it can also occur from bacteria entering through an open wound and being transported throughout the blood. Typically you’ll develop a rapid heart rate, a fever, and extreme chills, in addition to a rash that can appear in the form of skin discoloration or small red dots clustered across the body. Joint pain, disorientation, nausea, decreased blood pressure, vomiting, and clammy skin are additional symptoms you might experience if the infection progresses. At it’s most severe, your blood pressure drops to dangerously low levels which prevents your organs from getting the proper amount of oxygenated blood, leading to septic shock, which can cause (multiple) organ failure and death.

Cellulitis

Cellulitis, which is an infection of the connective tissues, is caused when bacteria (typically staph or strep) enters the body through broken skin (cuts, burns, blisters, etc.) and as it progresses, spreads to the deeper tissues, blood, and/or lymph nodes. The infected area will be warm and tender to the touch, red, and swollen. If it’s progressed to the point where the lymphatic system is involved you may notice that your lymph nodes are swollen and that you have streaking on the skin as the infection travels through the body. If the infection enters the bloodstream you will also most likely develop a fever.

Leptospirosis

This is a common bacterial infection transmitted between animals and humans. Typically we don’t come in contact with too many animals while we’re rowing but we do come in contact with a lot of water that presumably many animals have urinated in (another reason to work on splashing…). When you’re rowing and water from backsplash gets on your hands, legs, etc. that bacteria can enter your system through any open track bites or blisters you might have. Leptospirosis is a two-phase disease that starts with flu-like symptoms (headache, chills, muscle soreness, etc.), jaundice, red eyes, etc. before appearing to resolve itself. There’s a brief period where the person displays no symptoms before the second phase begins. Once that happens you get knocked out with illnesses ranging from meningitis to kidney and liver disease to full on renal failure.

The great thing though is that all of these conditions are preventable by taking proper care of any open blisters, cuts, etc. you have. I hope this helps answer some of your questions on how to handle blisters. If you’ve got a foolproof method that you turn to in dealing with your blisters, please leave it in the comments!

Image via // @petereed

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Q&A Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

By readyallrow April 3, 2013

So we recently got a new coach and she said that she is not going to group us based on experience anymore and that we pretty much have to try out for varsity again. As a two season varsity rower I think it’s unfair that I have to prove myself to this coach and that she’s bulldozed over all of my hard work and making me start from scratch. Would you ever do that? Also, is there any way to not get huge thighs from rowing?

Personally no, I wouldn’t do that. I would reserve the right to maybe reevaluate seats (over a lengthy period of time) in the varsity boats if I felt someone wasn’t deserving of their spot in the first eight or if someone in the third eight deserved to be in the second, but I wouldn’t make someone try out again. I think there has to be respect from the rower’s end that she’s the coach and is going to do things how she wants to do them (regardless of whether or not people agree) but there also has to be respect on the coach’s end for the work that everyone has put into getting where they are now. To disregard all of that seems selfish.

Rowers are blessed/cursed with the gift of thunder thighs. The quads and hamstrings are THE main muscles that we employ while rowing (I say “we” like I actually row or something), so naturally the more they get used, the stronger they become, and the larger the muscles get. Just like there’s no way to prevent people from saying “your arms must be so strong!”, there’s no way to prevent getting huge thighs. Embrace it!

Ergs Q&A Rowing Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 27, 2013

What’s the best way to adjust to higher rate ergs? For a few years now after winter training I just take forever to get my body/legs adjusted to 30+ rates on ergs. It’s fine in the boat, it’s just ergs. My teammates don’t have this problem as much as I do and we’re doing the same workouts. We’re all lightweights. I just feel like I’ll never be able to do good 2ks this way and it’s holding me back from being put in top boat. My coach told me it’s my erg scores, so what should I do?

Try adding in some intervals (8x500m, something like that) into your training during the winter. Right now though, you’ve just got to get on the erg and practice. Short sprints, 2ks, etc. The best way to get better at doing 2ks is to do steady state and more 2ks. Try doing 3x2k with a decent period of rest between each one. Bump the rate up each time – 28, 30,32, etc.

Also, don’t get discouraged. Talk with your coach too and ask them what they think you should do. They’ve got a better idea that I do of what your training, technique, etc. is like so they would be your best resource for figuring out what you can do to improve your erg times.

College Coxing High School Q&A Training & Nutrition

Question of the Day

By readyallrow March 20, 2013

What differences are there between being a collegiate coxswain versus a coxswain for a high school level team? What would a typical practice session look like?

“Typical” depends on your program. How practices are run, what you do, etc. all differ between programs, sometimes even between boats on the same team. There are big differences between Division 1 schools (where I was) and Division 3 schools too. Your best bet is to talk to the coaches of the schools you’re looking at and ask them what a typical practice entails.

In general though, you’ll probably have somewhere between 7-10 water practices a week and a team lift 1-2x a week. Most teams practice in the morning (usually somewhere between 6-8:30am) every day with the occasional afternoon/evening row (usually between 5-7ish), with the team lifts happening during that same block on the days they’re not on the water. Some teams only practice in the morning, some teams only practice in the afternoon/evenings, some teams have the rowers do weights on their own instead of all at once, etc. It varies.

Practices usually consist of a warmup followed by some drills (sometimes the drills are the warmup) and then either some AT pieces or several miles of steady state. There were also some days where we would do nothing BUT drills or just a warm up and steady state. There are a lot of factors that go into deciding what you do during a practice (the two biggest being the weather and how many people you have = what boats you can take out), so most coaches have a general idea of what they’d like to do but that’s not always what actually ends up happening. Usually the further out they have something planned, the more likely it is to change (i.e. if you get your training schedule for the year in August, what’s on the calendar for April might not be exactly what you end up doing, though it’ll usually be close).

As far as coxing specifically in college vs. high school, I don’t think there are any real differences because you’ve still gotta do all the same stuff. The only difference I can think of is that you’re really expected to be at that next level. The coaches expect you to be more responsible, be more on top of your coxing game, etc. They really anticipate not having to worry about you when you’re on the water too, whereas in high school, your coaches are always terrified you’re gonna hit something or break something or whatever. Basically though college rowing vs. high school rowing is the same as college vs. high school in general – there’s more work involved, it takes up way more time, and for most people it’s way more fun.

Ergs Rowing Training & Nutrition

Splits vs. Watts: What’s the difference?

By readyallrow March 7, 2013

A few questions have come up recently about splits, watts, and the difference between the two so that’s what I’m gonna go over today.

Splits

Typically the standard unit of measurement on the erg. Splits tell you your speed by displaying the amount of time (in minutes and seconds) it will take for you to row 500m at the pace you’re currently going.

Watts

Measures the amount of pure power you are producing.

Watts, as mentioned above, measures the amount of power you produce on each stroke and can also be an indicator of fitness and efficiency. High watts are often correlated to low splits but the relationship between the two isn’t always one being the product of the other. An example of this is comparing someone who does CrossFit to an elite rower. Both have a lot of strength so theoretically they’d both be able to produce the same low splits. What this doesn’t take into consideration though is their technique, which obviously plays a big part in how efficiently the power you’re generating is applied to moving the boat.

If you want to get an idea of the watts you’re producing, check out Concept 2’s watts calculator. It lets you put in your average split and in turn it calculates how many watts you produce. You can also use it the other way around and determine your pace from your watts. You can also use this watts/pace chart (the second tab under “indoor rowing”) to calculate and see the relationship between the two.

Another thing to think about is weight-adjusted scores. This helps coaches see who is the most efficient at moving their weight. If they put in everyone’s weights and splits into that calculator, they can get weight adjusted splits that they can then put into the watts calculator. This will give them a good idea of how well lighter rowers stack up in terms of power output compared to heavier guys.

Image via // Eigenberg Fotografie

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Coxing Rowing Teammates & Coaches Training & Nutrition

National Eating Disorder Awareness Week: Your experiences

By readyallrow March 1, 2013

Previously: Introduction || Eating disorders defined + explained || Signs + symptoms || Coxswains || Lightweights

When I decided to do the posts highlighting NEDA this week I knew that this post had to be one of the ones I did. Throughout the week I’ve collected a couple of messages and emails from rowers and coxswains who have experienced, are recovered, or are currently dealing with an eating disorder. One of the biggest things that I hope you guys get out of this post is to realize that you’re not alone if you’re experiencing these issues. You aren’t the only one. Other people have faced and overcome them and if they can, so can you.

These emails have made me sad, happy, angry, encouraged, frustrated, uncomfortable, and a whole range of other emotions. It’s saddening to read about this but at the same time I feel a sense of pride for everyone who says they’re recovered, are in recovery, or want to recover.

Thanks to everyone that reached out and was willing to share their experiences.

“I think it’s amazing that you’re doing this so here’s my story. In the summer before 6th grade (I’m in 9th grade now) I stopped eating. I went from my healthy 130lbs to under 90lbs at my worst. I wore baggy clothes and no one even noticed. When I told my best friend finally she just said, “oh yeah sometimes I won’t eat for like 6 hours if I’ve just had a big meal.” She didn’t get it and didn’t help. Then in 8th grade I discovered rowing. The sport pushed me to regain my health and now I’m recovered completely. Rowing saved me from everything and I couldn’t be more appreciative. But I know my story is a lot better than a lot of people’s and I owe it all to the sport that gave me it all. Thanks again so much for doing this.”

“As a 5’7” rower who isn’t lightweight I felt a lot of pressure to drop weight from my coaches and teammates. “You either need to start eating less or throwing up more.” That’s what my COACH told me to do. Needless to say I have never been more disgusted in my entire life. The saddest part is that at the time, I listened. My coach finally got the message when I passed out just before weighing in. Luckily I’m now being coached under some more level headed people and am happily (and healthily) 10lbs over.”

“I used to row and I was always the smallest on my team (who didn’t race lightweight). My coach used to always tell me to eat heaps to try to gain weight to keep up with the other girls because most of them were 40lbs heavier than me. Now I’ve stopped but I keep over eating and I know I am and it disgusts me and I want to make myself throw up to get rid of the food but that disgusts me too because I should be stronger than that but I’m not. Sorry for telling you all this, I just needed to say it out loud to somebody.”

“I’ve been reading all your posts on eating disorders awareness and I want to tell you about my dick of a coach. Last season we only had one coxswain for 18 rowers so he made this girl who was 60kg (about 130lb I think) cox cause she was the lightest novice and for the first five months he was fine with it. Then about 3 weeks before the biggest regatta of the season for the novices he told her that she was too heavy as another girl (who liked to stir a lot) had been saying that it was the coxswain’s fault that they had been losing because she was overweight (it wasn’t, the girls were just lazy and didn’t have a good attitude). The coach then told the coxswain that she had to lose 10kg (about 20lb) in 3 weeks so she was pretty much starving herself and running in track pants and jerseys every day in an effort to lose weight which didn’t work because she was of a very athletic build due to being a swimmer before and would have struggled to lose weight.

There is also another girl who had to cox for similar reasons the season before that and got similar treatment from the coach but he stopped her from coxing about 2 months before the big regattas because she was “too heavy”. She transferred to rowing where she struggled due to being 6 months behind the other novices in terms of experience. About 3 months into the next season her parents pulled her out of rowing due to the fact that she had developed anorexia and they didn’t think that rowing would be healthy for her. Luckily she is alright now.”

“I rowed for three years before coxing and when I started I was about 116lbs, no muscle, and still growing. By the end of the spring season of my freshman year of high school I was 126lbs and an inch taller. I grew a few more inches, gained some weight, and by my senior year was about 140lbs. When an injury worsened and made me unable to row, I asked to cox. To make weight for my freshman year of college I started eating a meal a day, sometimes a meal every other day. I averaged out eating 400 calories a day. I lost a lot of weight but I think the stress on my body actually prevented me from losing some of the weight I could’ve lost.

It’s sad – part of me only regrets that diet because I could’ve lost more weight if I hadn’t stressed out, not because I acknowledge that it was unhealthy for me. It’s twisted. Even today, I struggle to put enough food on my plate at school and it’s a major lose lose situation: I hate myself if I put enough food on my plate because I think I’m going to gain weight and I hate myself if I don’t put enough because I’m falling back into old habits. Long story short: eating disorders suck. People who encourage unhealthy weight loss habits don’t know what rabbit hole they’re pushing someone into. And once you develop one, I’m pretty sure it will always be with you in one capacity or another.”

“I am a lightweight rower, and, at 5’6”, quite happily have a maintenance weight of around 125lbs. I also am recovering from bulimia. My disordered eating started a few years before rowing, and it was very on and off. It started as throwing up my meals, and varied from that, to starving, to over-exercising, and everything in between. When I got into rowing, and learned about weight categories, I saw no reason to try and recover when simply throwing up was a ‘convenient’ (and soon my main) way of maintaining my weight. Despite believing this, my weight has since ranged from 87lbs to 139lbs!

I started to recover when I was weighed (90.4 lbs) after fainting during training. I was dehydrated, starving, and probably smelled of ketones. My coach took me into his office and had a long talk, because a BMI of <15 is not on, no matter who you are. He knew a bit about EDs, and he saw how mine was destroying my rowing, not to mention my health and body. He offered to help, and I accepted. I won’t pretend it was easy, but I‘m so glad I did!

He started to carefully (but not obsessively) monitor my food, making sure I kept at least a protein shake or some small meal, and moved on from there. He’s not qualified, so he also made me get help from professionals, although personally I hated them. It was important I went, but the real help came from my coach and my team. I know the coach/ therapist situation is NOT the norm, but it works for us!

I‘m happy to say that today I am (mostly) recovered. Yes, the thoughts are there, and probably always will be. Do I slip up sometimes still? Yes. But my coach and I always keep an eye on my weight. If it changes madly, we discuss options. Thanks to my collapsing/ catastrophe and being very open with the crew (who were amazingly supportive, and I love then for that), a male openweight also came forward with disordered eating, and now he’s doing really well with recovery. We are proudly an ED-free crew, and we all know each other well enough that we could come and chat if there was ever a problem, and not just ED related.

EDs have no business ruining anyone’s life, so if you’re ever in doubt, talk to someone. It doesn’t have to be a therapist. Catch your club barman, coxswain, partner, librarian, anyone you can trust. You won’t regret it. I promise.”

“I‘m a rower struggling with an ED right now and I thought I‘d share my story. It seems kind of silly to me, to already have this sort of issue, since I‘ve only completed one season. But the problem with rowing is that it consumes your life. You can’t get away from it so when trouble arises, you’re stuck with it.

For me the concept of being a “lightweight” really threw me off. When I joined the team I kept seeing all these varsity girls at my highly competitive club do weigh ins, we had this tradition of really fast lightweights going to D1 schools and all of a sudden I got this idea in my head that that is the only way I‘m going to get into a school. Currently, I am 124 lbs and 5’9″. The average 5’9″ girl on my team is at least 140.

I‘ve always been very tall and very skinny. When I joined my team, I gained 5 pounds, and that was fairly new for me, considering I‘ve never really put on weight quickly.That added weight and the new stimuli, the new idea of lightweight and weight classes and weight efficiency, it all scared me, I suppose. I look in the mirror and I hate what I see. I want my muscles more defined, I want my hard work to show, but I still want to be the twiggy little girl I was. But I want to be strong.

The wonderful part of rowing is that even with all the pressure of weight restrictions and good times for heavies or moving up a boat, even with all of that, you still see the beauty of the human body. I joined rowing because I loved how our US Women’s 8+ moved, how they were able to make it look so graceful but at the same time, holy crap, their muscles. The sport has made me love what my body can do, with the weight or without it. And so I want to keep fighting, I want to eat healthy, get good times, feel GOOD about myself, just because I‘m a goddamn rower and I put in so much effort that I deserve as much from myself.

This is really long winded, but my point is that it’s scary, the idea that if you play with the heavies, you need to get times like them, but if you ‘re a lightweight, you need to keep it down. It’s hard to find a good weight and a good time and everything, it torments me all the time, it’s terrifying, it hurts, half the time I hate my body, half the time I hate myself for hating my body.”

“It’s been almost a year since I first started my battle with my eating disorder. It’s tough to be an athlete and have one. I used to run on the treadmill to prepare for soccer season. When I got down to 107 lbs my mom stopped me. She wouldn’t let me leave the house because it was likely I would be going to the gym and on an empty stomach.

My eating disorder has brought me to my knees, especially today. Today was the start of soccer tryouts. Because I purge constantly my lungs tend to act up. In the middle of a drill it happened today. I lack just about every vitamin and mineral that I need. My back does a weird twitch from it. It’s hard to control my movements with spasms running about. Not only has my eating disorder affected my breathing, but it’s also affected my muscles. It’s true when people say you lose muscle from starving. I was never strong to begin with, but it was hard for me to run today; harder than it should have been. My bones have also lost some density and find it difficult to support myself and kick a ball far.

Playing a game on an empty stomach because you just can’t bring yourself to eat is dangerous. Feeling light-headed and faint isn’t something I wanted. This isn’t how I imagined my life to be, which is why I am where I am. I’m not sure if I want recovery. All I know is that I can’t keep this up forever. Thankfully, I’ve gotten a healthy amount of calories today. Maybe this year I’ll recover. I hope so.”

“I saw your post on EDs and lightweights, and I have a little bit of input. I had developed an ED prior to becoming a rower. I swam for several years, and putting a muscular girl into a swim suit does a number on your self esteem. So when I switched to rowing, and I learned about lightweights, I thought about trying to starve myself that much more just to get to 130. That would have killed me. I‘m 5″8, and I should be about 160 lbs, but I‘m 150 because I still have a habit of restricting. So I thought about trying to hit the light weight mark, but after my first practice with restrictions, I nearly passed out. I knew I couldn’t do it. And staying healthy was more important to me than being a lightweight.

In a weird way, rowing actually helped my ED. I couldn’t restrict my intake like I had done while I was swimming. Rowing took more out of me than I had anticipated, and I ended up dropping weight without even trying. So I learned that I was allowed to eat, even if I wasn’t one of the lightest girls on the team.”

“I was in pain for a long time. As is the case in anyone with an eating disorder, or anyone with a mental disorder in general. I was quite underweight – never to the point that I needed to go to the hospital, but I was definitely hurting my body. I didn’t get my period anymore, and I regularly had trouble with my blood glucose levels. I couldn’t run, I couldn’t concentrate, and I couldn’t remember much. How I managed to get a 3.6 GPA by the time I graduated, bearing in my I had been struggling with this for 2/3 of my college years, is still a miracle to me. But I did it, and after an extremely stressful last semester where my ED was the worst of all time, I started feeling peaceful. I don’t know where it came from, but I had ended another chapter of my life, I had achieved my academic goals and had another adventure in front of me. The adventure being moving to another country to go to graduate school. I associated my college town with my disorder, and I associated my hometown with stress and family problems, so I wanted to get away. But I didn’t want to taint my experience abroad with this stupid disorder, I was done with it, I didn’t want it in my life any longer.

There wasn’t a moment where it all clicked. Sometimes you hear that from people, ED survivors, that they went out and did something and suddenly it clicked. Or they went to therapy and had an epiphany. It didn’t work like that for me. I didn’t go to therapy. I didn’t go to the doctor. I wasn’t even diagnosed. As far as I know, no one knew except for the people I told. But I wanted to get better. I started eating more regularly and I felt better. My body image was still very distorted and it was a struggle not to look in the mirror and not to stand on the scale, but at a certain point it became normal not to. It sounds so much easier when I write it down like this, but I promise to anyone who is reading this: it was the fucking hardest thing I have ever done in my life. It is harder than a 2k. It is harder than a 5k, 6k, 10k, power hour, ergathon, anything. But you distract yourself. You find things that make you feel good. Whether that’s a song, or a bath, or knitting, or drawing – anything. YOU KEEP GOING, until it becomes normal.

I was looking at my graduate university’s website and after being sedentary for quite a long time (aside from the occasional yoga and run a bit earlier in my disorder), I wanted to do some exercise. I didn’t know what, until I found information about rowing. I was scared at first, because rowers tend to look quite buff, but I read up on it and I got excited. I watched youtube videos and I got excited. I wanted that connection with people, after being alone in my disorder for so long. At first I thought I would cox, because I was still quite small, but on the open day at the beginning of the academic year I decided I was gonna row. I realised I was only this small because I hadn’t been taking care of myself, and if I would eat normally and work out normally like any other person, I would be too big for coxing, as I am quite tall. I was still scared of the weight gain, but I hadn’t been weighing myself for a long time, and I finally started wanting something more than I wanted to be thin. I wanted to be fast and strong more than I wanted to be thin. I started training with the novices, and although I was obviously out of shape, I caught on quickly and made first novice boat in November. That’s when I decided I was more interested in what my body could do than what it looked like.

It was a struggle, especially during winter training where you pack on the pounds (of muscle, but still) but I got through it. I realised that in order to be a fast rower, you need the calories. You need the food. And if that sometimes means that you have to force yourself to eat, and force yourself to overeat to the point of being uncomfortable every so often, then so be it. I remember vividly the first time I realised that my thighs were touching once more – it’s a silly little thing but for someone with an ED it’s important. It shows your ‘status’. Losing your ‘status’ means failing and failure isn’t fun for anyone. The only way I got over that was by ignoring it. Ignoring it, doing other things, ignoring it some more until it no longer matters. Until you know longer care. Make it angry. Show it who’s boss. I gained the weight and leaped over the lightweight limit over Christmas break, and leaned back down to my normal, pre-ED weight a month and a half later, just within the lightweight zone. But I’m beating PB after PB. I’m winning medals. I’m stronger, and faster, and more determined to move the boat to the finish line as fast as I can, than I ever was to be skinny.”

Rowing Training & Nutrition

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week: Lightweights

By readyallrow February 28, 2013

Previously: Introduction || Eating disorders defined + explained || Signs + symptoms || Coxswains

Today’s post is going to be about lightweight rowing. That’s not to say that eating disorders don’t happen to heavyweights because they can and do but the potential of disordered eating amongst lightweights, particularly lightweight women, is much higher. Even knowing this though, it’s still not something that is often talked about or discussed. If you’re a heavy/open weight rower and you’re suffering from an eating disorder or think you might be engaging in some of the behaviors (voluntarily or involuntarily), this post is in no way meant to minimize those issues because they are just as serious.

What is lightweight rowing?

Lightweight rowing is a specific category of rowing that sets a maximum weight limit for each individual member of a crew. It was created as an offshoot of open weight and heavyweight rowing in order to give “average sized” athletes a chance at being competitive against similarly built rowers. Heavyweight rowers are typically taller and have more build on them so they often had a physical advantage over the smaller competition. FISA’s politically correct rationale for creating an international lightweight racing program is “to encourage more universality in the sport especially among nations with less statuesque people”. In layman’s terms, it levels the playing field.

In high school and college, the weight limits are 160lbs for men and 130lbs for women, with no changes to the minimums for the coxswain of a lightweight crew. In international competition, things are slightly different. Instead of looking at the weight of each individual member of a crew, officials look at those plus the average weight of the entire crew. Individual weights for men should be no more than 159.8lbs and 154.3 for the crew. Women should average no more than 125.6lbs for the crew and 130lbs for each individual.

Averaging is becoming a more and more hotly contested topic and most recently came up at FISA’s annual Congress meeting a week or two ago. Here is what was said about it with regards to potential rule changes in the press release:

“Lightweight Averaging – The Congress rejected the proposal of the Council to eliminate lightweight averaging in order to establish a system in which each athlete is responsible for his own weight, and not have to undergo sudden weight loss due to a teammate just before the race. Many delegates expressed the opinion that the current system of averaging allows a wider spectrum of participation in this category which might be lost if there is only one weight limit. The vote was 62 in favour of the change and 72 against.”

In collegiate rowing, the entire lightweight program across the country is small when looking at the number of schools competing vs. those who compete in the open weight or heavyweight categories. Part of this is due to funding, part of it is the school, athletic department, and/or coaches don’t think it would give their program a competitive advantage, and part of it is due to the stigma surrounding the propensity for disordered eating and the subsequent issues that arise with that when combining competitive athletes (particularly women) with weight restrictions.

Weight management

It’s often said that due to the limits on weight, lightweight rowers have a higher chance of developing eating disorders. Although that might seem obvious, when looking at the research a lot of studies found no measurable correlation between the two. What some studies did find, however, is that lightweight rowers were more highly associated with increased caloric restraints, diuretic misuse, and disordered eating patterns. Even though there was no measurable correlation, lightweights that participated in the research were on the fast track to possibly developing eating disorders in the future since they’re already doing many of the things that are clearly spelled out as warning signs and/or symptoms of them.

Other studies showed that while women were more prone to eating disorders and indulging in drastic weight control methods, men suffered from more frequent and greater overall weight fluctuations (i.e. yo-yo dieting), which is dangerous in its own right.

It’s important that whatever training and dieting regime you conclude works best for you is monitored by your coaches and/or training staff. Ideally the plan you come up with would be a collaborative effort. Athletes who are closely monitored tend to be more successful in managing their weight because of the resources and support available to them. It’s when that support system isn’t there that things tend to go poorly. In 2000, a rower from Germany who was trying to make a lightweight boat died because they weren’t being closely monitored. If someone offers you help, guidance, assistance, etc. during your lightweight career, don’t be stubborn and brush it off. You might not need them now but down the road you probably will for any variety of reasons.

One study that’s cited a lot when talking about weight loss and lightweight rowing is this one. Some of you guys have asked me about this too – can a smaller heavyweight rower lose weight and be competitive as a lightweight? This study found that it is possible but what is worth noting is that the “heavier” heavyweight athletes lost more muscle than fat mass over the course of the 16 weeks this study was conducted. Winter training through mid-spring season is about the same period of time so think about that if you are considering making the transition. Preparation must start well before the time you plan to fully compete as a lightweight. The rowers who suffered the greatest loss in muscle mass weren’t able to be competitive as lightweights because of the drastic reduction in power output, energy, etc.

Regardless of whether or not you’re a heavyweight trying to become a lightweight or if you’re already a lightweight, your weight loss needs to be a season long priority, not something you try and achieve four hours before weigh in. I say priority because that’s what it is, plain and simple. The recommended amount of weight loss per week for anyone, athlete or not, is 1-2lbs. Is it a lot, no. Does progress take time, yea. This is the one time in rowing where slow and steady wins the race. Plus, the benefits of losing weight slowly and responsibly ensure that you aren’t compromising your muscle mass at the same time.

If you’re weighing yourself, don’t do it every day because any changes you see will likely be normal fluctuations that occur throughout the day or as a result of water weight. Weigh yourself once to start (in the morning when you first wake up) and then again a few days later (again, in the morning when you wake up). Just because the scale only shows a one or two pound difference doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong and you should resort to other techniques to speed up the process. Weighing yourself too much (every day, multiple times a day, etc.) does nothing except fuck with your head. You should be weighing yourself on a consistent basis – that’s just part of being a responsible lightweight – but be smart about it.

The effects of dehydration

One of the things I briefly talked about yesterday with coxswains is dehydrating oneself as a way to get closer to the minimum or in the case of lightweights, to make weight. Other than what I hope are painfully obvious reasons as to why you shouldn’t do this, here’s some more evidence as to why it’s harmful. Let’s assume this is for a 132lb woman trying to make weight for her boat.

2% reduction (roughly 2.5lbs in this case) in water volume leads to a decreased ability for the body to cool itself, but for the most part, her ability to perform will remain unchanged. She may experience some fatigue or dizziness and will probably appear very flushed.

3% reduction (roughly 4lbs) results in a decrease in muscle endurance, which will lead to a faster onset of fatigue. Her heart rate will be elevated because the blood is thicker, so it has to work harder to pump it through the body. Confusion, fatigue, dizziness, etc. will start to become apparent as oxygen is more slowly transported to the brain. She may also be experiencing muscle cramps, thanks in part to the increased amount of lactate that is accumulating in her body due to the increased amount of energy she’s expending (which is due to the body’s decreasing ability to pump blood and slower delivery of oxygen to the tissues).

4% reduction (roughly 5lbs) or more leads to a severe decrease in endurance, loss of the body’s ability to cool itself (which means she won’t be sweating at all), very low blood pressure, a rapid heart rate (due to the increased thickness of the blood and the increased amount of energy the heart has to expend to pump it), dizziness, and/or fainting.

All of that is stuff you should keep in mind the next time you think about putting on several layers of thick clothing (with a trash bag on top) before running around a regatta site a few hours before weigh-ins to make weight.

If you want to read more, check out this article from Rowing News in 2003. If that link doesn’t take you directly to the start of the article, it starts on page 30 and is titled “Drained and Confused”. It’s pretty informative and talks about a lot of issues regarding lightweight rowing.

What are they and how do you get them?

To pop or not to pop

How to drain and clean your blisters

How to protect your hands

How to prevent blisters.

Know when a blister has festered into something more serious – and then get your ass to a doctor

Methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

Sepsis (blood poisoning)

Cellulitis

Leptospirosis

Image via // @petereed

Splits

Watts

Image via // Eigenberg Fotografie

What is lightweight rowing?

Weight management

The effects of dehydration

Image via // @rowingpost_teguran