It has been a while since I have written anything meaningful down in a full blog, and as I look back now it has been a pretty rough 2 or 3 years in terms of rowing performance since I was peaking in 2016. This is of course all relative, but for a good few years […]
I have been injured for the last 9-12 months or so to the point where I had to find an alternative means of testing and pushing myself as I’ve been unable to use the rowing machine. For the most part that has come in the form of the Wattbike (WB), an indoor static bike, and […]
Creating a monster. With my enforced hiatus from indoor rowing set to continue for a while yet, I found myself in danger of becoming frustrated and losing my way a bit so I needed a new focus until I could make a sensible return to rowing. Whilst all my main goals ultimately remain erg related […]
Dealing with injury. There are many things that motivate me to write my next blog and at times it isn’t always following a positive experience. I think the clue is within the title here and I’m hoping I am able to turn a frustrating situation into a positive. As is the case with any athlete, […]
Weight training for indoor rowing I am very often asked about weight training and its effectiveness for improving indoor rowing times. To answer this correctly, in my opinion, I need to know more about the individual asking the question as it is rarely a one size fits all scenario. It is a really grey […]
This article was originally posted on http://johntherower.com/. I don’t think I have any “real” competitions until the indoor season kicks off again in October/November. Sadly I can’t make the Devon Indoor champs on 16th September, so the next race I think I have is the WelshIndoor Champs in November (if I can work out how to […]
Most decisions we make are a combination , sub consciously or consciously, of head, heart and gut. Well it seems I’ve had a weekend long battle with these three. I have trained very well this week. It has been very hard, but I have hit some very good numbers. However, of late I have not […]
Mental Toughness for Rowing Performance. ‘It’s OK for you, you are mentally strong’. ‘It’s OK for you, you are good at rowing – you love it’! I have heard people say these things to me on many occasions. Whether they are true or not is a different story, but what is certainly true is that […]
I was recently asked my opinion on the very general topic of ‘Top Tips’ for rowing. Rather than focus on issues related to the use of the machine or technique, I instead focussed on a lifestyle approach to answering the very pertinent question ‘What are the things that are going to contribute to motivation, progress […]
The “More is more myth” In a highly competitive world where athletes are bigger, better, faster, and stronger than ever we feel it is necessary to increase our volume and length of workouts to reach optimal performance. While one on the outside looking in watches professional athletes working out multiple times a day has to […]