#1. Keep Your Heels Down
That means putting some of your weight on your heels and the ball of your foot. This is done to engage the entire leg and not dominate to either the quads or hamstrings exclusively. This balance is critical to good indoor rowing and how to row well because 60% of force production comes from your legs if you lift the heels and dont learn to push through the entire foot youre missing a lot of force and setting yourself up for poor movement habits.
#2. Push, Push, Push
The C2 rower is a fixed machine. It stays in place and your goal is to move in the confines of its system as effectively as you can.
When most people tell you to go faster they start yelling PULL HARDER! When in reality what theyre telling you to do isactually going to minimize your efforts. Your arms are only responsible for 10% of your force whenindoor rowing. So if youre trying to pull, youre maximizing 10% of your system.
HOWEVER, if you can learn to push through your legs for any rowing exercise, youre tapping into what #1 talked about; the 60% force driver.
#3. Make Your Mother Proud!
Sit tall on the machine with your whole trunk, not just your chest. Imagine trying to make your mother proud when you sit on the machine. Keeping your back in this strong position will make sure you can transfer power to the C2 rower when you need to and improve your times and speed in your indoor rowing workouts.
#4. Its All in the Hips
Going back to #3, when youre approaching a rowing exercise you need to keep your back flat. However, if youre learning how to row and you know that your legs give you 60% of your force, and your arms only give you 10%, theres a missing 30%.
This is where the hips come in. Think about trying to jump to a basketball hoop. You cant jump if you dont open your hips. If you want to get the most out of your hips, you need to close them (with good posture) and then as youre pushing the C2 rower away, you need to aggressively swing your hips open AS youre pushing through the legs.
The legs and the hips then work together to create a strong, connected, accelerating push of the machine.
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