Why do we row?

Why do we row? Why do you row?

As elite rowers, it seems natural to ask the question, why do I row? Why do I train so hard, two or three times a day, each time pushing myself to the limit?  Why do I put myself through so much discomfort everyday? Why?

Everyone rows for their own personal purpose.  As stated by Jake Wetzel of the Canadian 8+ from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, ‘rowing is not a serene sport, it’s not a sport of gentlemen. Period. Rowing is a pain contest, and there are very few gentlemen who are willing to endure it.’  So we ask ourselves this question.

We row because it gives meaning to our purpose in life. Sounds simple right? Sounds like I’m also a philosopher yeah? Well, until you’ve tried it, the understanding of what it does to you can be wildly unknown.  The passion and the dedication involved to continually push ourselves to the limit shows the characters we are.  There is nothing like the satisfaction of crossing the line in first place, or achieving a personal best on the ergo.  It is like all the greatest moments in your life, the joy from all those moments surging through your body for those few seconds after the race.  But that feeling is incomparable.

It is like an addiction. No, it is an addiction.  It is an obsession.  But this all stems from the dedication.  Dedication to what you may ask? Dedication to camaraderie and teamwork.  After all rowing in crew requires togetherness, patience, skill, and most importantly a united team.  There is an obligation to never let your teammates down and give your all every session.  The huge desire to perfect the unity of a crew never leaves you.  Your own personal goals you continue to work on every session, motivated to improve everyday.  Many times, there are only small marginal gains after months of hardwork; But these marginal gains are the difference between first and second, between gold and silver. Being so addicted is a feeling which is hard to describe, but perfection is the ultimate goal. 

At the end of the day you either suffer the pain of discipline or you suffer the pain of regret.  And not only can rowing give meaning to your purpose in life, but it will make you disciplined in every area of life. 

The Nut Up or Shut Up team will suffer the pain of discipline.  Will you?

The REAL Gains

It’s gym day – the most important day of the week!! Like the last 750m of a rowing race, you’re ready to UNLEASH that inner beast. You’re muscles are swelling, your veins are pumping, and you can taste that chocolate-flavored protein shake from a mile away.  Yes, today’s the day of all days! The day where a boy becomes a man, and a man becomes… well manlier. But unlike every other jack-headed gym-goer, you’re not here for the curls, or the girls.  No. You’re an athlete who trains with a purpose.

We all want to look fit and strong! But for an elite athlete, there’s a difference between LOOKING, and BEING. We train with SPECIFICITY. Yes we’ve all heard the word. But how many of us actually apply it? No matter how tempting it is, you’re never going to catch an elite rower mapping veins, grating cheese, or intimidating themselves in the mirror.

So what exercises do we do? Well it may come to surprise some of you that rowing is in fact 70% legs. Which is one of the reasons the squat rack is sometimes considered our second home. Squatting is ESSENTIAL in improving a rower’s leg-drive, as well as maintaining control up the slide. It’s also an exercise that puts a huge emphasis on TECHNIQUE. Yes it’s beneficial, but can also be dangerous if performed incorrectly. So don’t cut it short! No one's going to admire how much weight you can carry on your back. They already invented a movement for that – it’s called half-slide rowing.

Like in a boat, make sure you go for LENGTH, whilst maintain a strong core. ‘Ass to grass’ as some call it. No one cares if you can only squat the bar. Come race day, you’ll be tearing down the course with LENGTH, CONTROL and POWER.

Rowers torture themselves with legwork almost everyday. Pain is our best friend, and stairs are our worst nightmare. But whilst legs make up the majority of a rowing stroke, the arms and bodies are there to deliver the final blow. They’re only 30% of the stroke, but when a race is down to the line, they can be the difference between winning and losing.

The generic question going around a gym is “how much do you press?” But in the boatsheds it’s “how much do you pull?” Bent-over row, seated row and upright row are all exercises that employ SPECIFICITY. I mean it’s blatantly obvious: they all finish with ‘row’.  Like the squats, timing and technique are essential. EXPLOSIVE in the pulling phase, and CONTROLLED in the releasing phase. Cheating the exercise means you’re cheating yourself, and your never going to get those gains back.

Specificity is an essential word in the training program of an elite athlete. It just takes motivation and some common sense to figure out how to use it. We’re all presented with a choice at some point: dissolve amongst all the other gym junkies out there, or rise above the average being and push yourself to your very best athletic ability. I say it’s time to achieve a real goal, one that’s gold and hangs from your neck. 

Drugs in Sport: Maintaining our Integrity

Drugs in sport. This is an issue that everyone in the Nut Up or Shut Up team feels strongly about. I know I certainly do. It is an issue that I have grown up to know a lot about because of my father. He is an avid cyclist, and ever since he took up riding, he has watched the Tour de France. Now, when Lance Armstrong began to really get a stranglehold on the event, Dad looked up to this guy. He thought Armstrong was the definition of an elite athlete. He believed Lance when he said he did not take drugs to win his 7 Tour de France titles. He was shattered when Armstrong was found guilty.

 

This kind of story, is unfortunately, becoming more and more prominent in today’s world of experimental sport scientists. It saddens me because I have grown up to believe that to be the best, one must also have outstanding integrity and passion. I don’t doubt the likes of Lance Armstrong or Alberto Contador had the passion for the sport and the willingness to win at all costs, but the ‘at all costs’ side of things began to rule their path in the sport over simply being the best based on pure merit.

The most recent international sporting drug scandal would have to be Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay. These men competed at an OLYMPIC level in the athletics division. They won the hearts of millions and made millions more dream to become like them. They had kids from all over the world practicing their 100m sprint, hoping, dreaming, to one day line up on the starting blocks, wait for the gun and win an Olympic gold medal. But as is becoming increasingly common in the sporting world, these two men turned to drugs to try and win. In doing that, they have exposed themselves as cheats and fakes to their fans worldwide. Like Armstrong did to my Dad, these two men have crushed the trust that so many held in them.

It seems that drugs in sport seem to follow those sports that garner a lot of money to one individual. Cyclists who race professionally receive huge paychecks at the end of each season. Sprinters and longer distance runners a like rack up massive sums from sponsorship deals. In Australia, we have had an increasing problem of both performance enhancing drugs and illicit drugs in our main sporting codes of AFL, rugby and soccer. In AFL, there are 19 year old boys who are just out of school, earning upwards of $80,000 a year. That is just asking for trouble with drugs and alcohol. Another issue in AFL (Australian Rules Football) is that one of the most respected clubs in the AFL, Essendon Football Club, has been under the microscope because they were administered peptides by their sports doctor, including their coach, and incredibly well-respected man and player (back in his day), James Hird. What kind of message does this send to the younger generation aspiring to become a football great?

 

For one to turn to drugs to enhance their physical performance, you have to have truly lost your path towards your goal. You have lost all integrity. You have lost all the respect that people hold towards you. Most obviously, you have lost the trust of those who believed in you. How pure can victory really be when one KNOWS in their heart that this victory was not deserved by them. To me, that is not winning. Winning for me is to cross the line, knowing that you have trained and prepared as much as you possibly can and that you executed that race to the best of your ability. Most of all, winning is knowing that those around you are just like you. They have got to where they are based on merit. Drugs ruins the integrity of sport, and I don’t know about you, but the integrity on sport is one of the main reasons I play it.

Why do rowers fear the erg?

This machine has been given many names. The most widely used brand is Concept 2.  The ergometer; Why do rowers fear and hate the ergo? Some call it a torture machine, or the machine from hell.  Why all these negative connotations?

You’ll say ‘You’re crazy, how can you even question that?’.  Well the reason I question these negative connotations are because it causes rowers to become fearful of the erg and simply detest using it to workout.  There are a lot of other things in life which do hurt and are painful, so why should the erg be hated on? 

The negative mindset is a real hindrance to your fitness and performance levels on the erg.  The mind is so much more powerful that the body.  When the mind already feels defeated before a workout, how can you possibly perform well?  The simple answer is you won’t.  I hear so many people complain about this erg and that erg, and why we have to erg so much.  Once again, this negativity sets you back, and puts you behind your competitors.

The erg is a fantastic tool which can be used to great effect.  Every time you prepare for a session, drop the hate, and think of all the positive things you can gain out of this.  By preparing your mindset and constantly thinking positively, you will be surprised by how much less it hurts your body and mind.  The more scared you are of the erg, the more it will hurt you, and the less you will achieve. 

I challenge you to treat every session on the ergo as a chance for you to prove your fitness and see how hard you can go.  Don’t wallow in self pity, but instead rise to the challenge, set yourself a goal to achieve and go out there and do it.  Self talk and self encouragement are really positive tools to obtaining a strong mindset before and during an ergo workout.  Go in there with 100% confidence and know you are fully capable to achieving your target split.  If you set out a plan, don’t back off or back out.  The key is to controlling the mind before and during the piece and always staying positive. Sure it takes time and practice, but don’t hate the erg. Love it. Yes I said LOVE THE ERG !  DO you want to make the national team?  Well I love to inform you that the 2k and 6k are two staple tests to be performed as part of selection.  Go in there with the mindset to attack the piece; don’t let it attack you. 

Adam Kreek scoring 18:59 min for his 6000m ergo test. Incredible amount of positive energy emanating from the crew. What an achievement.

I’ve heard people say the erg always wins. I disagree.  You can beat the erg every time.  It only wins if it’s defeated your mind before you start.  

Food for thought: What to eat before a morning row?

It’s a question that ponders the mind of a rower. With an answer that can determine the outcome of a performance - it can be the very difference between winning and a loosing. We go to bed dwelling on it, and when the alarm sounds at 5am, we wake up to the one of the hardest decisions of our day:

What do I eat this morning?

Ok, so it sounds simple enough, but what if you eat too much? Two bowls of oatmeal, 4 eggs, and a glass of orange juice can certainly give you one HELL of an energy kick (around 3600 KJ). But what goes in must come out, and unless you have a metabolism faster then Rob Waddell’s 2km ergo, it’s probably going to come out the wrong way. CONGRATULATIONS, you’ve just appointed yourself the ‘boat-washer’ for the morning session.

Sometimes the negatives outweigh the positives

Health articles are always drilling the importance of a BIG BREAKFAST. It’s the most important meal of the day, but prior to an intense morning row, a big breakfast often has to wait.

Ok easy, I just won’t eat as much. But what if you don’t eat enough? You may not be hungry at 5.30 in the morning, but come 15 minutes into your 90 minutes of paddling, you’re going to regret not having that extra bit of energy. Followed by the irresistible smell of breakfast on Southbank and you’re in for a very cruel session.

So what’s the answer?

Well truth is, there’s not one specific answer. We’re all different, and therefore all have different rates of metabolism.  You know your body better then anyone else. What works for you may not work for everyone else. I used to know someone who could drink 2 Big M’s before an ergo, and still hold himself to endure the full session. If that were me, I’d spend more time in the toilet then on the machine.

So instead of ranting on about the typical DO’S and DON’TS of any pre-workout meal, I thought I’d share some of the WONDER-FOODS that I find beneficial before an early morning row.

BANANAS: Bananas are a healthy way of gaining a SUSTAINED and SUBSTAINTIAL boost of energy. They provide a quick source of carbohydrates, which is why they’re a favorite choice for most rowers. The riper the banana, the quicker it is digested and converted into muscle fuel. I usually eat 2 bananas before a morning session.

HONEY: Not only does it taste great! But honey contains sufficient amounts of carbohydrates making it a natural and stable boost of energy for any sport. A great substitution for bananas!

UP AND GO’S: Though not as healthy, Up and Go’s contain the energy and dietary fiber of 2 Weet-bix. Great to have on the go! Though it depends on whether your stomach can withstand the milk.

BEETROOT JUICE: Feeling ambitious? Or maybe you got up too early and needed some time to kill. Beetroots are one of the healthiest foods going around. In response to exercise, beetroot juice contains a quick source of carbohydrates and aids the body to recover by balancing oxygen and increasing stamina. BUT BE WARNED: this food goes straight through you! 1 cup is more then enough before a session.

So there you have it – a list of foods that I consume, or have consumed prior to an early morning row. I’m no nutritionist, but REMEMEMBER, this list is just a vague guide. In the end it’s up to YOU. You’re the one who beats your body on the erg, in the boat and in the gym, so take care of what goes on inside it.

Winter Training: Sucks but it is the FOUNDATION of your Season!

So you get up. It’s 5am. It’s dark and cold. You drag yourself out of bed and into your car, and your car’s temperature gage says 1 degree Celsius and in case you didn’t think that was cold, a little snowflake is seen just to the right of the temperature reading. Great.

You get down to the club, and it seems that you are the only one braving this weather and cold to train. You probably are. I know right now I am the only girl in the Youth Women’s squad coming down to train religiously during this winter.

This is the dilemma and challenge that ALL rowers face when they finish their season proper in March and head into the ‘off’ season. Now I say off in quotation marks, because if you play your cards like the perfect rower, you won’t really have an off-season.

In order to progress each season in rowing, it is a lot more beneficial for you as an athlete to limit the time you spend away from training. You MUST use the winter season to your advantage! If you train during the winter, come the season proper, you will be MILES ahead of your competition for boats. Use the winter season to increase your physical and mental fitness.

To chart your fitness accurately, enter the most hated erg test: The 30min. Now, I can hear the groans from here, but trust me, the 30min erg does not have to be the torturous task that you make it out to be. The only reason you think it is the most uncomfortable thing in the world, it WILL be. However, if you decide that you will approach the test with a positive outlook and a PLAN, you will see your results skyrocket! Because of this, you have increased your mental hardness.

Another way your mentality will harden over the winter season is by not hitting the snooze button when your alarm goes off, because, let me tell you, it takes a tough as nails person to come down to rowing when it’s 0 degrees Celsius outside, jump out in a scull and bash out 20km. Come the season proper, you will be fitter mentally and physically, so when your coach says you have to do 120min of T2 (aerobic) rowing, YOU will do it, when others give up around 60min.

The winter season is also the PERFECT time to accomplish training sessions that are out of the norm. Do you think the 3 of us would have done a marathon erg in the racing season? No way! So do stuff you wouldn’t normally do. Is the Tour de France being on making you want to get out on the bike? Do it! Make the ride to Mordialloc and back a normal second session on Saturdays. Mix it up! It is very, very important to make your winter season training INTERESTING! If it is not interesting, you will very quickly lose interest and stop.

So get on your bike, jump in the small boats, bust out on the erg and most importantly, DON’T WASTE YOUR WINTER SEASON!!

Having the Spartan Mindset

What do you know of them?  Possibly the movie 300…Or maybe that iconic helmet?

Well, this article will give you the low-down on the Spartan race, and why we should have their mentality in many aspects of life. 

The life of a Spartan started the moment you were born.  Imagine a new-born baby then being bathed in wine rather than water.   Crazy you might say, but this tradition helped soldiers determine whether a baby would be weak by it’s reaction; if it was, the baby’s fate was sealed: To be thrown off a cliff or it would become a slave.  Now that’s harsh, (lets not take this mentality-that would be quite unethical to say the least), but this is where it started, and it is essentially why the Spartan army was rarely ever defeated.  Welcome to the warrior state of Sparta!

Boys were trained from the age of 7.  A mother’s softening touch was considered detrimental to the boy’s character; the Spartans were to show no sign of weakness.  For the next 11 years, they endured tough physical challenges and were deprived of food, living primarily on rations given to them by the army.  This forced them to hunt to steal; an act which if caught, they would be severely punished, not for stealing (this was a positive), but for getting caught!  Now tell me about brutality.  If there was any society which knew how to harden a mind, and strengthen a will, it was the Spartans.  There was a famous story reported in Sparta, where a child from the barracks had stolen a small wild fox.  He was stopped by suspicious soldiers who questioned him.  Rather than admit his guilt, he left the small fox under his shirt.  As the soldiers surrounded him, the fox chewed at his stomach, but the little child showed no sign of pain on his face; he would rather endure excruciating agony, rather than be caught. 

Surrender in battle was the ultimate disgrace for the Spartan soldier.  He was taught to fight without fear, and to the last man.  Even the mothers would say to their sons, “Return with your shield or on it”; a chilling reminder that he should honour his family, and complete his duty as a citizen of the powerful state. 

This hardened mentality shows no sign of weakness, and it is one of the essential keys to overcoming your opponents.  The sheer willpower required to persevere in the toughest situations is immense, and is something which is built up over time.  Showing no fear in the face of your enemies will undoubtedly give you the edge in whatever it is you wish to excel.  And do excel at it. Push your body to the limits; don’t you want to find out what you are capable of? Half-efforts produce half-results; it’s almost better to not do anything than give 50 %, because at least then, you’ve made a commitment.   It is only a mentality like this which can take you to the next level.  And it simply comes down to that ‘extra’ training and commitment. 

  

What is the difference between ordinary and extraordinary? It’s just the ‘extra’.  Was it the altitude training that helped the British coxless four win the Olympic Gold Medal? Is it LeBron James’ extra hours of preparation which make him the best basketball player in the world?  Is it Usain Bolt’s excessive consumption of the yam which gives him those little extra energy requirements to knock more second off the 100 m world record?

Who knows, but what it is, is a mindset which is in line with the Spartans.  Only a relentless 120 % will cut it when 0.1 seconds is the difference between first and second.  Only the mentality to ‘go hard or go home’ is acceptable, if the desire to really succeed is there.  After all, it is this which caused 300 Spartans to hold off the 300,000 Persians for 3 days. What does it take?  Outworking your opponents, and showing no fear; attack your opposition like you own that gold medal.

More than just an erg

They don’t call it the ‘wheel of death’ for no reason.

Staring down the eye of the barrel

Picture this. You’re staring at a screen. Counting down the meters as your entire body becomes weaker with every stroke. Now imagine doing it for around 3 HOURS!!  42,195km of immense pain fueled by plenty of support and one HUGE desire to FINISH.

On the 15^th of June 2013 we decided to take on our biggest challenge to date: a MARATHON on the ergo. 5 ‘tough-minded’ rowers participated in the fund-raising event, attempting to push their bodies further than ever before. Trust us, it wasn’t for the faint of heart.

A cold winters morning was the least of our worries as we walked into the sheds on Saturday morning. It was EARLY, it was DARK and it was QUIET – your typical scenario in a rowing off-season. Yet here we were: hydrated, carbo-loaded and ready to complete one hell of an ergo!!

In fact ‘ready’ was an understatement. We were more than ready! Energy Gels were a new, and unsurprisingly REVOLTING addition to our diet. For those who don’t know: energy gels are carbohydrate gels commonly taken in endurance events to provide energy and promote recovery. As recommended by our coaches, we arranged times to consume these during the marathon. One 15 minutes before, and then one every 45 minutes during, as well as frequent ‘drinking-strokes’ – strokes we’d take ‘light’ in exchange for a sip of water. It was a good routine, and definitely proved beneficial, especially in the back half of the ergo. 

Creative ways of hydrating

We estimated a 30-minute gap between girls and boys. That way we were predicted to finish around the same time. Georgie being the only girl to compete downed her first energy gel before disembarking at 7am. Alongside her: 15yr old ‘HARD-AS-ROCK’ cox Tommy Nicholson also attempting the venture. The two went off quite comfortably. Both were aiming to negative split - meaning to increase the speed as the marathon progressed. Georgie also aimed to maintain her heart rate around 160bpm (60-75% of her max).

Theo, Jason and a lightweight Callum MacKenzie were next in line. Theo and Callum did the ergo as a tandem, swapping every 6km, whilst Jason did the full marathon. It was 7.30am and we now had 4 machines churning away, slowly counting down from 42,195km.

8.00: Things were going well. We were calm and collected. Hell I don’t think any of us had even broken a sweat yet. To keep it interesting we’d often make out quick conversations. At one point Georgie made reference to a cute dog walking past the sheds. For half a minute, our minds were taken away from the moment. A great distraction!

10km down... 32km to go!!

9.00: By this time people had HURLED themselves out of bed to come and SUPPORT. It was just past Jason, Theo and Callum’s halfway point, whilst Georgie was into her final 12km. Now the pain was starting to CRAWL its way in. Legs started to feel HEAVY. Bodies started to get TIRED. For young Tommy, this was the end point. Having COURAGEOUSLY completed 28km of the ergo, he maturely decided to call it a morning. Great effort!!  Especially considering the kid’s only 160cms and 50kgs.

9.30: It’s the Last 30 minutes!! The light at the end of the tunnel was prominent. It’s now a MIND GAME. Legs were CRAMPING, backs were TIGHTENING, and arms were beginning to feel HEAVY. The pain was definitely present, but masked by the thought of being NEARLY DONE!! We’re counting down the minutes.

10.00: With every last bit of strength we took our FINAL STROKE. Nothing was more relieving then dropping that handle. But wow we were a mess!! DOMS was our new BEST FRIEND, not to mention the place reeked of sweat and energy gel. But ey we did it!! Now it was onto our next challenge… STAIRS.

So with that we finished what we set out to do… and more. Georgie now holds the SECOND BEST time for her age group, and Jason was only 7 minutes off the record for his. Theo and Callum managed to pull an admirable Tandem score, and Tommy finished the rest of his ergo that night. Believe us it was tough, but thanks to all the support we made it through. A big CONGRATS for everyone that made the attempt!! One down, plenty more to come!

The ‘Nut-Up or Shut-Up’ team