Tech Tip: Fundamental Strength Movements for Sculling

by COC fleet manager and certified strength coach Will Ruth

I teach three exercises for fundamental physical skills and transfer to sculling technique in my strength training workshops at Craftsbury that were also included in my talk during the 2020 CSC webinar:

1. The hip hinge for the lower body: With feet in your “rowing stance” and a slight bend in your knees, flex the pelvis forward while maintaining a neutral spine, then squeeze the glute muscles to stand upright again. Hip hinge coordination and strength is essential to achieve length on the recovery and strength on the drive through the hips, rather than through the spine and shoulders.

2. The Y-W-T raise for the mid-back and rear shoulder: From the forward hinge position, make the letters Y, W, and T with your arms — like the song, but with different lyrics. Do 10 reps of each letter, keeping the shoulders in the back-and-down position through the entire exercise. Try to feel some new muscles working between your shoulder blades. Think about the application to the “hug the horizon” position at the catch. We’re training postural endurance in the hinge position, too.

3. The seated rockback for the abdominal muscles: Think about this like feet-out rowing, sculling, or erging. Sit upright on the edge of a bench with your knees at a 90-degree angle, put your hands behind your head (shoulders back-and-down!), keep pressure through the heels into the floor, and rock back to approximately your release position. If the knees lift or you lose pressure on the floor, don’t rock back quite so far. Rock forward to the upright or body-over position, then back to layback, to perform repetitions.

For rowers who don’t do regular strength training, I simply include these movements in the pre-row or pre-erg warm-up, bodyweight only, for 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps each. Rowers who do regular strength training can include variations of hinge, shoulder, and core exercises 2-3 times per week, beginning with bodyweight only and then progressing to weighted or more challenging exercises as outlined in the webinar.

Interested in learning more? Come see it in real life at a Craftsbury camp.