Question:

High School Rowing/Crew Team?

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Crew season in my school is starting next month and I'm wondering whether I will be good at it.

So my BMI is like 23

I'm 5 ft 8, 152 lbs

I have good upper body strength and when it comes to bench pressing, my max is around 130-140, which i can do 2 sets of 10. (I usually work with 120 lbs)

Seat Row - max 130 lbs 2 reps of 15 or 3 reps of 10

I have bad cardio though. I get exhausted after a 2.5 miles run (which took me appr. 20 minutes) and generally don't work on cardio at all.

Is cardio important in crew and will upper body mass hinder rather than help me when it comes to crew?

Also, if my endurance isn't that good, will it be a problem??

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  1. Next month? That seems kind of late. Most crews start winter training in November. Your upper body strength is definitely an asset. All muscle is an asset. :) A bit of advice though: since you only weigh about 150 you may want to drop just a few pounds. 150 is pretty light for a male rower, so it's not likely you'll make a heavyweight crew, but I believe men's lightweight is 145, so you'd have a better shot at that.

    If you can't do cardio, you will get KILLED on the ergs --- which is basically the first test your coaches will spring on you. You will need to be able to do short-distance pieces, long-distance pieces, sprints, pyramids and much more. Erg competitions generally run from about early February to mid-March, so you'd better start training say, oh I dunno.... three months ago. Or now. ;) By the way, the first time you erg, if your lungs feel like they've had an anvil or two dropped on them, that's normal. Or if they feel like they've been punctured with Excalibur, that's normal too.

    Basically, if you want to know if you have a shot at rowing, go and do an 2k erg piece. If you finish well below 8 minutes, then you've got potential. If not, then you're probably better off playing golf or something (less cardio). Even if you finish below 8 minutes you'll still have a long way to go. So... good luck. :)


  2. Rowing is first leg strength AND cardio, followed by upper body BACK strength.  Bench press balances your torso muscles.

    If you can only manage 2 or 3 sets at 130 on seated row, it depends how that compares to others.

    A race is 200+ strokes at a high cardio rate.  Its like a mile race, sitting down, doing jump squats and bench rows.

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