Hi guys, I’ve got another rowing programming question.
Last weekend I just competed at a masters rowing regatta and had a great time! First time competing on the water for a while. For strength work the past few months I have been running a modified version of the three-day G&S II template which I have felt like has been going well (variations have essentially been adding weighted chin-ups/pull-ups, pike push ups, and doing power cleans for the power option). I was only on the water once a week and was on my erg otherwise for conditioning.
Off the back of enjoying the regatta over the weekend, I’m feeling super keen to go to NZ Masters Nationals in October. The club coach has said he can write me and my crew a rowing training programme for the 3 months leading up to it, based on 4 rowing sessions per week (mix of on the erg and on the water). Racing will be over a distance of 1k for each event, racing multiple events over the weekend.
Strength training on top will be up to me and this is what I wanted advice on.
I was thinking I could run something based on the Rowing Template which I have already. I wanted to ask how you would recommend modifying it to have a taper/peak at the end leading into a weekend of 1k sprints? And would there be any problem with having power cleans/power snatches in there somewhere as I thought that they were pretty helpful before?
Many thanks,
Dace
I think the rowing template would be fine. I’d probably favor doing 3x/wk for your first 6-8 weeks of prep, then doing the 2x/wk version until the end. The last 2 weeks of prep, I’d only do 1 top set on the lifting exercises and eliminate all the accessories. No problem with doing the power movements if you prefer.
Thanks for coming back to me Jordan! However, I’m a little confused on how to apply your recommendation if it would be ok to clarify?
If there are 23 weeks (starting Monday) until the regatta (11/12 Oct), would you do a 7 week block of another template first (e.g. GS&C/something else?), then start the 16 week Rowing Template? Then first 8 weeks doing 3/week version of the rowing template, and last 8 weeks doing 2/week version, with final two weeks only one heavy set per exercise?
OR do you mean stretch out the Rowing Template for the 23 weeks, staying in each block roughly 7/8 weeks each instead of 5 weeks each, with blocks two and three at the 2/week and final two weeks with just the one heavy set?
Related question - in block 3 of the Rowing Template, it says one set of 3-5 reps and then follow-on sets of 4-6 reps. Is that right? Or should they all be sets of 3-5 like in the GS&C II template?
Ah, I was just planning on 3 months here as mentioned. If you wanted to run another program prior to the rowing template for the balance of time, that’d be fine by me. It really depends on your rowing training load needs, which I’m not privy to.
You do understand the taper I described perfectly though.
It should be 3-5 reps for the back off sets. Thanks for catching that. I’ll fix it and you’ll get a message with the update. I must have missed it originally and, as you might expect, not too many people are super interested in rowing (yet).
Thanks again Jordan!
Any suggestions on what would work well as a precursor to the Rowing Template for a few weeks? GS&C II like I’ve been doing? Something more Strength focused? More Hypertrophy focused? I’ve got quite a few of the BBM templates…
For the popularity of the Rowing Template, who are you trying to appeal to with it? Rowers? For most rowing training programmes, they are generally geared towards a testing distance goal: eg winter/autumn season building to a target ‘head’ race or early season longer fitness test (i.e. 5k or 6k, depending on the country); the classic 2k championship distance; masters rowers 1k racing; or these days there are some sprint distance focused programmes (i.e. 250-500m). From the description of the Rowing Template on the website, I don’t think it gives any guidance to the reader for which of these categories it might be suitable for, so any rowers reading it will be looking for that. Perhaps if there are future iterations / generations of the template it could contain multiple tracks for different parts of the season or types of prep that better suit prep for a certain distance? I would at least recommend editing the current description to say what sort of distance prep it is geared towards 
Really, any template would work for the resistance training component. Whatever you’re feeling at the time would be fine. If forced to choose, I’d probably favor Hypertrophy 1, 2nd generation.
Thanks for the feedback on the rowing template.
Hi Jordan, I’ve got a follow up question on this topic. In the end I figured out that I couldn’t compete in the target regatta in October due to a family commitment. I had already started the Hypertrophy 1 template so kept doing that for the full 10 week first block rather than stop at 7 weeks. I then started the rowing template anyway and I’ve just finished Week 4 of the first block this morning. So far so good! I’ve now signed up for and expect to get selected into a team going to a different masters rowing regatta that is on 20/21 September: only 4 weeks away! The team training is two rows and one erg per week, anything else on top is up to you. My question is what should I do from here to there for my strength training? Should I skip to Block 3 of the rowing template for 3 weeks and then the last week leading in just do one heavy set for each exercise? Or should I just lengthen out block one for a few more weeks and in the final week do just the one heavy set per exercise?
Thanks very much!
Either choice is fine, as it’s only a few weeks of lifting. I’d probably favor continuing the same block in this setting if you’re doing well with it.
Awesome, thanks Jordan!
Hi Jordan, yet another follow up question - as I am getting closer to the racing, part of my mind is thinking about ‘what next’. I know it largely doesn’t matter and I will pick one of the templates I have (I’m thinking of PB1 to mix things up and try some singles which I haven’t done for years, but need to figure out how to squeeze the GPP lifts into my 3 weight-lifting days) but I wanted to get a steer from you about the week immediately post the competition. If I am racing over Saturday/Sunday (pending conditions I expect it to be 7 races of 1000m efforts in various boat classes), and my normal lifting days are Monday/Wednesday/Friday (early mornings), would you recommend doing any extra rest in that first week back? Maybe just do Wed/Fri and skip Monday morning? Or will a typically lighter-than-average Week 1 of the various templates be sufficiently backed-off if you stick to the RPEs? I’m a bit concerned about the high intensity of racing (which I don’t do regularly at all) and then back into the gym and somehow overdoing it and injuring myself! Sorry that’s probably a bit of a ramble, hopefully it makes sense!
I think a low stress week would be fine, but if you’re feeling a bit achey, sore, tired, or not yet ready to jump back in whole-hog, feel free to repeat the low stress week for a second week!
Awesome, thanks for the very quick reply Jordan!