Stretching Does not Prevent Muscle Soreness?

An artcle from the British Medical Journal reports that stretching before or after exercise does not prevent muscle soreness. This was a review of five studies of "moderate quality" and suggests that stretching does not reduce soreness from exercise, nor does it prevent injury - based on a study of army recruits.

My experience with army recruits suggests that the training is so hard nothing could prevent injury - but that's another story!

This article does not address the issue of stretching improving sport performance though and other research does suggest that there is a positive relationship between the two.

To see the abstract of this article:

Stretching before or after exercise does not prevent muscle soreness or reduce risk of injury: systematic review BMJ Volume 325 pp 468-70, 451-2

Here are a couple of other resources on stretching:

The Myths and Truths of Streching. A review from the Physician and Sports Medicine

Stretching and Flexibility: Everything you never wanted to know - Website

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Interesting Fitness Website

More aimed at the general fitness population than the aspiring elite athlete, time-to-get-fit.com is an interesting site for many Rowing Science Readers. They were kind enough to link to us and hthe How to Handle Morning Workouts article - both a part of a Problogger.com project on how to articles.

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Xeno Muller on the RowPerfect about to Debut in Canada and the US

Xeno muller is a big fan obviouslly of the RowPerfect. He discusses his experience with them on his blog and the fact that they are about to debut in North America.

Visit the Rowperfect site for more information.

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Xeno Muller on the RowPerfect about to Debut in Canada and the US

Xeno muller is a big fan obviouslly of the RowPerfect. He discusses his experience with them on his blog and the fact that they are about to debut in North America.

Visit the Rowperfect site for more information.

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Rowers Take Note of a Good Exercise Science Resource

Those who enjoy the technical side of training can find a good resource of information on ExRx.net.

ExRx.net (Exercise Prescription on the Net) is a free resource for the exercise professional, coach, or fitness enthusiast. ExRx.net consists of nearly 1900 pages, most of which are found in the Exercise and Muscle Directory.

ExRx.net is a recommended resource in the 2005 ACSM's Resource Manual for Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription (pgs 224, 349).

Whatever topic that interests you, this site is worth a look. It is NOT rowing specific, but the information is pertinent for all athletes and coaches.

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Rowing and Long Term Athlete Development

Rowing Canada has a lengthy document I recently came across about Long Term Athelte Development. It seeks to examine all the factors that go into the development of an elite athlete, and is an interesting read, especially in light of the fact that Rowing Canada has not renewed the contract of thier current National Junior Coordinator and are rexamining the structure of the entire junior program.

While comments were disabled for a while on the blog, I have since re-enabled them. I'd love to know your thoughts on LTAD. How does your country handle it? I have heard several knowledgeable people suggest that the World Junior Championships are not a reasonable goal if an athlete wishes to train in accordance with a proper LTAD model. Some junior athletes are putting in more hours and miles than elite senior athletes - does this hurt their development? Is this setting them up for injury? What about all the other parts of their life that they miss out on?

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More on Rowing with Spinal Cord injury

We first cited an article from the CBC on this blog about using electrical stimulation to allow people with spinal cord injury to row on an ergometer. Here's a followup article from the Edmonton Journal on the same topic. It remains very inspiring to say the least.

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Does the length of a rowing shell matter?

Does the ength of a rowing shell matter? Is the shorter design of the Resolute more effective at reducing drag?

Pocock has a new series of articles and address the issue in todays posting. It does not seem to take a firm position - only discussing therelevant factors - although at the end it becomes clear that they are leaning towards the longer hull with their new 8+.

The discussion of drag as it relates to wetted surface area and wave drag is interesting and clearly shows that there are no easy answers.


A great deal of time and energy and money went into some of the research that has made shorter hulls more popular recently - what do you think?

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New Rowing BioMechanics Newsletter

A new version of the Rowing Biomechanics Newsletter is now available. It is dedicated to looking at the results of this year's worlds - the second fastest in history.

Visit Dr. Kleshnev's site and read the newsletter today.

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One Hundred and Fifty Years of Rowing Faster

We've been waiting since our interview with Dr. Stephen Sieler for his article "One Hundred and Fifty Years of Rowing Faster" published recently.

I encourage you to give it a read. We'll have a review posted here in the next while.

A.T.

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How to handle morning workouts

It's that time of year again, and lots of us are up in the early hours to train. This is far from science - but just thinking about it is fun(?). SO, how can you make it a bit easier?

If you havew any ideas send them to me, please!

1. Have your kit packed the night before and your clothes laid out - I'd sooner spend 5 minutes in the evening in exchange for 1 minute of extra sleep.
2. Have a routine! That includes bedtime. Your body will thank you.
3. Have a commitment - if you're in a crew you get it. Knowing 8 other people are waiting for you will get you out of bed.
4. Buy a coffee maker with an automatc timer. Starbucks isn't open where I live at 5 AM.
5. Get a bit of exercise in - seriously. Warming up is even more important because a) it's colder in the morning and b) you need to get the mental cob webs out.
6. See #5 and mental cob webs. There is a danger in the morning that you will just go through the motions if you are not prepared for the workout. I posted a while back about mentally preparing for a workout and I think it goes double in the morning. Focus - the last thing you want to do is get up early and then waste your workout.
7. Coaches - have a plan, please! There's nothing a tired athlete hates more than a coach trying to figure out a plan for the day while they come up with a plan.
8. Use your journal - you have one don't you? - you will find a routine that works, and certain foods or drinks the night before that agree better with you in the morning and leave yu more alert.
9. Drink water - pretty much applies to any situation doesn't it?

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Another Physiology Site

It seems to have been around for a while, but it's new to me. Check out Fitness Training for Rowing and let me know what you think. I'll be honest and say I haven't had time to review it yet - perhaps in the near future.

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People with spinal cord injuries get fit with electrical stimulation rower

This is an inspiring story from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) web site.

Electrical stimulation enables paralyzed rowers use their legs on the Concept II erg. This permits proper muscle growth in the legs. This has important benefits beyond the cosmetics - lower body muscles support the venous system enhancing return blood flow to the heart. Improved return means increased filling pressures which aid heart function.