Get Fit To Row….. Join The Crew

Before you do a training session you think about what you’re going to do.

Before you take part in a race of any description you’ll think about the outcome.

You think.

You talk to yourself.

Sometimes you know exactly what the plan is, what the race will be like and what the outcome will be, but sometimes you won’t.

When you doubt how things are going to go, that voice that talks to you, talks a lot, sends in the wrong messages, creates the wrong processing, keeps you from performing what you really want to do, have trained to do and know you can do.

That voice is the chimp.

The chimpanzee is our primal behaviour, it’s the behaviour we have had as a human forever, it is the behaviour that keeps us alive, keeps us safe, limits risk, it processes situations fast, and highjacks our potential if not controlled.

We can learn to maximise our potential.

A book I’ve read on many occasions by Steve Peters,  The Chimp Paradox which has sold over 1.4 million copies since it was first published in 2012 talks all about the chimp and how we need to manage it to perform to the best of our abilities.

Here’s today’s podcast:

https://www.getfittorow.com/get-fit-to-row-podcast/133-chimp-paradox

What about your fitness and rowing, are you ready to get started?

Why we row?

It’s a question I often think about.

Why I row is simple, it’s good for my mind, my body and my mental health.

I think when I row, whether that be indoor on a rowing machine or on the water, it settles me.

It does this through the effort I need to put in to not only manage my body movements but it’s all about me “teaching” myself.

I get a sense of achievement when a session goes well.

Harry Parker who was the long standing heavy weight rowing coach at Harvard University talks openly about what he did for over 50 years in a video link is below.

I think he narrates what he sees as his job, and what he sees it doing for others.

You can forget the Harvard elite university link, best focus on Harry and what he says, a truly extraordinary man for how modestly he talk about simplicity, a simplicity that he has learned to teach over 50 years!

https://youtu.be/k5lXDcCdM8E

Here’s today’s podcast:

What about your fitness and rowing, are you ready to get started?

I haven’t told you yet but I have a day job and Get Fit To Row is my passion and side hustle, we all need one right?

Today the day job took me to an investors meeting and wasn’t that fun, it went as well as can be expected.

I needed to be able to clearly communicate “the plan”.

I needed to be well prepared for anything that could happen or be asked of me.

I needed to be able to visualise what I wanted to happen.

I needed to make it happen.

I needed to make sure others came along with me.

I needed to be patience.

I needed to play as a team but act as a leader.

I couldn't win without encouraging all of us to want to win.

I had to find a pace, set a rhythm and have a finish.

Most of all I needed to be 100% focused throughout.

Here’s today’s podcast:

https://www.getfittorow.com/get-fit-to-row-podcast/131-im-focused-throughout

What about your fitness and rowing, are you ready to get started?

Here’s the thing, when I do long rowing machine sessions, I am quite often reminded that my hamstrings are short and need a stretch, and I should know better.

There are two ways I often get to know that they are, and both are uncompromisingly bloody obvious very quickly in the session.

One way is I get a small friction blister on my bum cheek by my coccyx bone around the area of my sacrum, and the other is I get a dull pain in my L3, L4, L5 joints in my lumbar spine.

And all it says to me is “you need to do some more work on stretching your hamstring out” and also “make sure to get some movement into the hip flexors”.

I should know better, maybe I should have stretched more after the long walk with Oban my dog!

Here’s todays podcast:

https://www.getfittorow.com/get-fit-to-row-podcast/130-l3-l4-l5-and-that-blister

What about your fitness and rowing, are you ready to get started?

Have you taken the time to listen to a podcast by the BBC called 13 minutes to the moon?

The podcast goes through the last 13 minutes before the first man on the moon.

It’s extraordinary to listen to, to listen to the level of detail that went into making this event happen. It’s also fascinating listening to all of the subplots around the space race in the ’60s.

How did we get a man on the moon back then with the technology that was at hand is just incredible.

Now, to put this podcast episode into context, I’ve started doing 50-minute UT2 sessions and the 13 minutes to the moon podcast is just around 50mins long.

So I can listen to the podcasts, whilst doing my 50 mins.

I call that a win-win!

Here’s today’s podcast:

https://www.getfittorow.com/get-fit-to-row-podcast/129-50-minutes-to-the-moon

#technology #podcast #event #rowing #rowingtheatlantic

Here’s the thing, I keep talking about the 8 x 500m session like it's my brand new toy.

I love it.

In podcast 110 I talked about self-belief being a superpower, it’s a superpower everyone can have.

But what I’m learning is most people I train need to be introduced to the idea of a superpower being inside them, then learning to find that superpower and then being able to harness it.

If you do an 8 x 500m session with me, you’ll learn to find it.

Here’s today’s podcast:

https://www.getfittorow.com/get-fit-to-row-podcast/8x500m-there-is-no-hiding

And a link to episode 110:

https://www.getfittorow.com/get-fit-to-row-podcast/110-self-belief-is-a-superpower

Ok, I’ll admit from time to time I get things wrong, but that’s normal right?

Last week I did something that’s taken me a week to recover from, at first I had no idea what had caused it.

You see I felt really weak.

I couldn’t do my normal training, and I seemed to find it hard to have the motivation to do anything much.

I realised I needed a rest.

I’d over done it.

Here’s today’s podcast:

https://www.getfittorow.com/get-fit-to-row-podcast/127-people-like-us-do-things-like-this

What about your fitness and rowing, are you ready to get started?

If you’re yet to discover the joy of knowing what your heart rate training zones are then don’t worry you’re probably in good company.

Most people I train or coach through Get Fit To Row have never known the value and benefits of heart rate training.

Yesterday I when down to my local gym to do a short training session, I needed to get out of the house.

But I felt tired, well my head was tired, but the rest of me was well-rested.

My plan was to do a UT 1 session because I knew I could do it, I’d been feeling fit and strong whilst doing my UT2 session over the weekend so a UT1 would help up my game.

I did 8 x 500m with 2 mins rest at Heart rate 165-183.

As I did this session I started thinking, if everyone knew a bit more science around getting fit maybe they would enjoy getting fit.

I thought maybe it was time that I started putting some thoughts down as to how I have learnt to value heart rate training and UT2 and UT1, so I’ve started a new page on the website where I’ll share knowledge and reference info.

Here’s today’s podcast:

https://www.getfittorow.com/get-fit-to-row-podcast/ut1-and-ut2-its-life-but-not-as-you-know-it

What about your fitness and rowing, are you ready to get started?

One part of get Fit To Row that I haven’t talked about in much depth is the “smart” bit.

Over the many years that I have trained, I’ve always kept an eye on my resting heart rate, why? Simply because it’s the best indicator of my hearts fitness.

My resting heart rate is low at 46 beats per minute. I’m 51.

I’ve always thought the life I lead and the stress I put myself under would be stressing the heart, but It’s doing the opposite.

I train most days, I walk the dog most days, I eat well, I work hard mentally and physically, I drink a reasonable amount of water and I sleep as well as I need to.

This all has a good impact on my fitness and my hearts health.

What may seem hard is how hard I am on myself about being fit and pushing myself. I often talk about a podcast I did a while back about the ageing struggle, getting old, which starts at a much younger age than you’d think, and is going to be different for everyone.

Here’s today’s Podcast:

https://www.getfittorow.com/get-fit-to-row-podcast/125-resting-heart-rate

I’m reading a new book called Peak by Dr Marc Bubbs, It’s called The New Science of Athletic Performance That is Revolutionising Sports.

It’s a slow read for me and I and dipping into different bits each day. I came across this new chapter quote that i thought was quite an insight, that being:

“It’s not the will to win that matters. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters” - Paul “Bear” Bryant.

I think this rings true with just getting fit, you have to prepare to get fit, which I think requires time, learning, listening and above all a willingness to commit, preparing costs nothing, but doing the prep will allow you to get to where you want to be.

Here’s Today’s Podcast:

https://www.getfittorow.com/get-fit-to-row-podcast/prepare-to-win