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As the summer starts rolling around and championship season is coming to a close for many clubs some of you may be looking for guidance in training and taking your performance to a new level.  I know here at our club we are offering multiple different camps (elite camp to go to club nationals, an elite sculling camp, returning rower camp, my own strength camp, and various learn-to-row camps) and I thought to extend my services to the rowing community for those that aren’t in the Atlanta area.

Lightweight’s looking to manage weight?  No problem - a large amount of my techniques were used the other weekend for some top EARC sprints boats looking to make weight.

Want to increase max wattage?  That’s what my primary focus is.  Getting rowers as strong as possible so as to make sub-max splits easier.  If your max wattage is 650 and you can bump it to 800, rowing at 400 watts for a 2k is now significantly easier as it is a much lower % of your max.

Stroke Analysis - Want some assessment on your stroke?  Get some videos and it will be broken down through all parts of the drive and recovery to make sure you’re maximizing your specific leverages.

Training program - Sometimes it’s as simple as needing a full comprehensive program to take you through the off-season ensuring that you’re doing things right.  My programs include erging, rowing, cycling, running (all options depending upon equipment availability) and lifting.  Finding a way to stave off boredom during the long months with minimal competition while improving performance for the competitive season is the goal of my training programs.  They’re built for the athlete and not some cookie cutter program.  Training programs aren’t a one fit all type thing - as coaches we have to build a “boat program” but often that means it works better for some rowers than others because it is targeting their weaknesses where they may be strengths in others - the training programs at VTS are tailored to the individual to turn YOUR weaknesses into strengths.

So to all the rowers out there - if you’re looking to take your training to new levels and come back in the fall stronger and faster than feel free to contact me via e-mail at ttucker@valhallatrainingsystem.com or shoot me an ask on here!

The rowing special will be $300/12 weeks of training/nutrition consulting.

The Viking

Got a question?  Ask away.  Anything and everything is fair game today.

After cutting weight (21 lbs the day before) and making weight (82.1 kg in 82.5 kg class) I was back up in weight to about 205 for the meet.  A bit tired but feeling good.

Squat:

Warmups went well dialed things in.  Shut it down at 405.

Attempt 1:  451 or so (can’t recall kg equivalent).  This was ridiculously easy, probably the best squat I had all day and it felt like it was 225.  Just hit the groove smooth.  Best type of opener you can have, one that feels light and boosts your confidence.

Attempt 2:  227.5 kg - 501 lbs.  This is the attempt that pissed me off.  I rushed the setup and didn’t have good balance.  I started going down with it and just decided to shut it down and come back up because my balance wasn’t right.  I basically wasted an attempt and had to retake it in the 3rd instead of going for a new PR and big lbs.

Attempt 3:  227.5 kg - 501 lbs.  New APC record.  This wasn’t a bad squat, came up quick and even though I didn’t hit the groove perfect it just goes to show me how much more I had left in the tank.  This should have been an attempt at 545 or so.

QuickTip Squat - slow down the damn setup and find your groove.  I left 45 lbs on the platform at least.

Bench:

Attempt 1:  125 kg - 275 lbs.  Easy opener, didn’t hit the groove perfect but it was light.

Attempt 2:  137.5 kg - 303 lbs.  Still pretty easy.

Attempt 3:  147.5 kg - 325 lbs - maybe?  Misloaded bar.  Right from the start I knew something was wrong.  Upon getting the lift off I felt as though the bar was way out to the right.  I asked my center spotter (and teammate) to bring it back over to the left but he had brought his hands off the bar so unable to do so.  I lifted my left hip up to shift the weight some (big mistake) and started my attempt.  I came down, got the press command, and then it flew off my chest.  Right when I started to drive with my legs my back spasmed massively and tons of pain which is where I lost the lift - I don’t really recall the next few minutes.  Basically the offset in my hips from raising up caused me to be out of alignment in my spin and I paid the price.  I managed to get out in the hall way before falling to the ground in pain and just laid there.  Luckily the powerlifting community is awesome and I had teammates, and other competitors help me out getting me ice, advil, elevated my feet and even had one father/coach - who’s daughter destroyed it at the meet - that was a chiropractor adjusted me and worked out the pain in my back and eventually my hamstring which apparently was strained bad.  I can’t thank him enough - not sure if you’ll ever read this but thank you!

Quicktip - bench.  Misloads suck, deal with it and move on.

Deadlift:

Attempt 1:  After the disaster in my last bench attempt I decided to bump down my opener on deadlift so I wouldn’t bomb out if it really started bothering me.  Went down to 451 lbs and smoked it.  No pain though still some tightness in my hamstring and back.

Attempt 2:  Went back up to what my opener was originally - 227.5 kg.  This also flew up, no pain.  For some reason I got really really tired after attempt 1 and was yawning a ton and felt like I could go take a nap.  Not good before deadlifting obviously.

Attempt 3:  Since I didn’t have any pain I figured I’d go for the APC record in deadlift as well.  Attempted 555 lbs (can’t recall kg equivalent).  Because I was so tired I decided I’d take a few hits of ammonia and get myself jacked up.  This ended up being dumb as I got so jacked up that my setup was rushed.  I ended up pulling quick, shooting my hips some and the bar never even touched my shins.  It got way too far out in front of me and I ended up having to bail on it at about my knees.  This royally pissed me off because it was just technical and I absolutely had the strength for it.  Left those lbs on the bar.

Finished with 1300 total and left about 125 lbs on the platform all said and done.  I’m happy about the squat record but pissed with my overall meet performance.

Things to change:

More sodium after making weight and during the meet.  I was told to go with pink sea salt and add it to my water - 1.5 tsp/day by the chiro that worked on me at the meet.  I was still dehydrated some and I think this is why I strained my hamstring.

More food/fluids post-weigh in.  I got my weight up but I really should have been up heavier.  I also didn’t get enough sleep.

Bring my IPOD.  I should have brought my ipod so I could zone everything out while I was in the hole/on deck helping me stay focused and visualize my lifts.  

Bring more food to the meet.  I definitely didn’t have enough solid food during the meet.

All and all as I said, pretty disappointed with my performance but I did qualify for nationals so I’ll be going through all this again in 8 short weeks.  Definitely have time to fix some things and hopefully gain a bit more strength (not expecting much).  The big thing at nationals I want is to simply put a good meet together.  I’d also like to go 9/9.  I also intend on bringing my hard weight down to about 195-197.  The last 5 lbs of the weight drop were fricken terrible so I’d like to avoid that if possible.  I’ll put videos/pictures up of the meet soon as people put them up online for me to get.

The Viking

Got a question?  Ask away!  Training, Nutrition, Life in general, or if you simply want to know more about me, I’m an open book.  As I mentioned, I’ll be using tumblr a good bit today to attempt to maintain sanity while I dehydrate out. What ya got?

And so it begins.  It’s meet week.  Totally off from the gym and focused on recovery.  Here’s a general outline of how it’s going to go.

1.  Massage - never had one but I’m going to get one.  I will feel slightly awkward about asking the person to try and ease up tension in my right hip flexor since it is so close to my groin, I really hope they don’t think I’m trying to get a happy ending.

2.  Foam Rolling multiple times a day and mobility work.  This is going to be huge in efforts towards getting my back and hips as healthy as possible.

3.  TENS unit multiple times a day

4.  Upping my sodium, potassium, and water intake - I’m taking shots of soy sauce, an extra 100mg of potassium a day and water intake is at 3 gallons.  This process is to really get my body flushing out water at an extremely high rate and to have it continue to do so when I drop water intake to zero.  Tricking the body in the name of competition.

5.  Some sort of cleanse to get anything out of my small intestine that may be keeping my weight higher.

6.  Wednesday - drop sodium at dinner and switch to distilled water

7.  Thursday - Morning will be mostly veggies in particular asparagus and celery as well as peanut butter.  I’ll also have protein shake + coconut milk mixes that will be very very thick to minimize liquid intake.  I’ll have three meals of this, each meal will have 500mg Dandelion Root, 400mg Caffeine, 99mg Potassium.  Dehydration phase will start at 4 PM, I’ll rotate between super hot baths (almost scalding) and steam (by putting towels under the door to create a pseudo steam room in my bathroom) - 15 mins bath, 15 mins steam, 5 min break with an ice pack on my neck  to help raise my internal temperature and trick my body into thinking it’s not as hot as it really is.  Towel off and do it again - repeat this process until I get to be about 2-3 lbs over the limit - take a nap if I’m ahead of schedule, if not just keep plugging through.  I will not shower at all in this period or before the weigh-in due to my skin wanting to reabsorb water.  The baths will have epson salt in it to help minimize this.

7.  Drive up to the race site - this is the part that scares me the most since I’ll be severely dehydrated.  Driving on roads where it’s 14 lanes on each side of the highway can be a bit nerve wracking when you’re not particularly of a sane mind.  Hoping to find someone to drive me there.

9..  Weigh-in Friday 10:00 AM.  Make weight (181 lbs), look prettier than everyone else and have super HawT AbZ.  Also probably feeling like crap.

10.  Immediately consume 2 pedialytes, and 2.5 liters of distilled water mixed with 7.2 ounces of glycerine.  This will ensure that the water is going into my blood plasma and not being taken out of my muscle.  At this point I’ll also have 300mg ALA (glucose disposal agent), 5 mg creatine monohydrate, 75 mg salt, 99 mg potassium.

11.  Proceed to refeed, eating whole meals as much as possible with carbs:protein ratio being 4:1.  Also drink minimum of 4 G2 gatorade recover drinks.  Do this until I’m back up at 210+.

12.  See the missus.  Super excited about this as we haven’t gotten to see each other in about 8 weeks.  Not sure if I’m happier about this or the chance to destroy some weight!  No, I’m not whipped, I just happen to like who I’m with and consider her my best friend that makes everything we do together way more awesome.

13 - I don’t believe in unlucky numbers -   Destroy some weight.  Looking to set a new APC World Record for the squat, deadlift, and total in the 181’s and pick up my first elite total.  Pictures and video to follow.