Stretching and stability
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There are many, many good things about rowing. Fitness, finesse, peace, competitiveness, blah blah.
There are quite a few not-as-good things as well. Like a car full of smelly socks and desperately trying to nap mid-afternoon whilst at work. (And instead writing a blog).
So in an effort to keep our athletes fully-functioning, this edition of the WA Rowing Club blog brings you two things:
Stretching (see above): Yoga for athletes with Greg Zhender on Wednesdays from 6pm to 7.30pm, $15 cash at the WA Rowing Club. No experience necessary, you don't need to bring anything and added bonus: It's not Bikram and does not involve chanting "Om Shanti".
Stability (see below): We have recently adopted Kay Robinson, who previously worked as the physiotherapist for the British Skeleton team.
Not this skeleton:
(for some inexplicable reason, this skeleton pic reminds me of John Cicerelli)
But this Skeleton:
Having looked after insane punters who hurl themselves down an ice luge headfirst, Kay knows a thing or two about avoiding injury. And presumably, she knows a bit about people who do stupid things. Kay has written us a brief on core stability in rowing here:
So what is our ‘Core’?
Everywhere we seem to go in the rowing world we hear coaches, physios and fellow athletes harping on about our core. But, what exactly is it?
Core is defined as “the dense central region” of something or “the part of something that is central to its existence”, both of which we can relate to in rowing! In the physio world our core is much more than the abdominal muscles alone and describes the group of muscles that (should) work simultaneously to stabilize the spine in all directions of movement, like our own in built corset!
This includes the diaphragm, glutes, pelvic floor muscles and hip flexors to name a few.
In rowing we have all chosen a sport where our core needs to be engaged before we even begin our outings from lifting boats onto the water, stepping on unstable and slippery surfaces and then of course is needed to continually right our bodies following each postural and balance change in the boat. Hence, why we need to train it in different positions and challenge muscles to work together through movement. Sit ups are great but try to add rotation and build in using your extremities too for an additional challenge.
A strong core gives us the necessary base to produce the power and speed to win races while avoiding injury!
Moral of the story?
If you need to stretch out, come to yoga at WARC.
If you need some stability in your life, Kay is at Physio Atelier. As this blog isn't in the habit of endorsing third party providers... we should point out Kay is one of many awesome physios who keep WARC athletes in something resembling functioning order.
But we're pretty sure she's the only one who gas a yarn to spin about Sochi Skeleton athletes.