It’s 5:45am on a below-freezing morning and the Mercyhurst Women’s Rowing team can be found entering the gym in the Mercyhurst Athletic Center because on Tuesday’s we lift. Spring training camp is fast approaching for the team and we’re taking advantage of every practice we have while simultaneously counting down the days until the bus takes us to sunny (hopefully) Alabama. Our morning practices consist of cross training that will condition our bodies to get us faster at the afternoon erg sessions which will all transfer over to moving the boat that much faster through the water. Lifting is an important aspect of our training in the winter because the weight repetitions is giving your body an anaerobic workout and recent studies have shown that the energy production forceful muscular contractions you’re using when lifting creates up to 23% of the energy needed for most rowing regattas. And while 23% isn’t necessarily a lot but rowing, every percent/meter/second counts and can be the difference between winning and losing. Because of this, strength training is praised by the most respected rowing coaches and even gets positive reviews from the athletes. While doing reps of heavy weights may not be the activity of choice at sunrise amongst college students, they all understand that this is what it takes to be competitive and agree that lift has many benefits to the sport of rowing. Women’s team captain and experienced senior gives her insight of morning lift practice by stating that “during lift we focus on using muscles outside of the main ones used in rowing which helps us with our stability. This transfers over to the water and contributes to keeping the boat set.” Strength training allows coaches and athletes to pick and choose certain muscle groups to focus on and strengthen during the off season. For some athletes however, lift benefits them by building up their anaerobic strength and making that 23% of the race that much more powerful. A junior rower agrees with the benefits of lifting and states that her anaerobic strength is something she finds she needs to work on during winter training. She also adds that “we need to lift to be able to get the boat moving as fast as possible right off the line at races” and every rower knows that having a bad start can have a negative effect on the rest of the race. So while you may have thought that lifting was only for bodybuilders or football players, more and more sports are starting to see the benefits to strength training and rowing is one of them. If you want to win it all and make it to the starting line of the NCAA rowing finals, some early morning lifts are likely to be in your future.

You can check out http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/peak45.htm for more information on the benefits of strength training in the sport of rowing.