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Unlearning the Habit of Pulling on the Handle

John Thornell

by Robert Kendrick, cyclist and rower

Many of us grow up swinging bats or racquets or clubs. We go to the gym and lift barbells and dumbbells. We open cabinets and doors. Give us a handle, we want to pull. 

Unlearning this habit is the first, best step on the erg for a novice rower. Unfortunately, many who go to the gym or buy an erg for home are on their own with technique. This can create some frustrations with fitness, or worse, lead to muscle injuries.

I found that out after buying a Concept 2 rowing machine in early 2020. I've been a bicycle road racer since 1980, and I'd used the erg at a local gym occasionally during the winter. When gyms closed down and bike races were canceled due to COVID, I bought an erg for home.

And I pulled on that handle.

My cycling fitness allowed me to rack up meters and post some good times on the Concept 2 leaderboards. I had the erg bug. But, I also began to have problems with strains of my scapular stability muscles in my right shoulder—that I separated in a bike race crash years ago. And I began to get some rib stress. Both had the same roots—leading with my shoulders and hitting the beginning of the drive hard. That sent a lot of stress to all the muscles that connect to the scapula, turning what should be stabilizers into heavy-duty pullers. They got overworked and passed stress on to the ribs.

I found Neil Bergenroth and worked with him to correct my errors—leading with the shoulders and breaking the arms too early. I was still thinking, “pull the handle.”

He recommended the Grok Rowing suspension strap, and it's made a huge difference. Isometric hangs taught me how to relax the shoulders and let the abs brace the torso on the drive. In turn, in my never-touched-an-oar-in-my-life experience, the strap teaches that it's not about legs-back-arms, but about shifting weight over the seat. 

With the slides, this really began to make kinesthetic sense. I felt my weight coming off the seat at the catch and through the drive as I kept the weight on the handle. I rotated the weight over the seat at the hip swing and shifted it back as I finished. That feeling is there on the static erg, but it's more pronounced on the slides, and it’s the hangs with the suspension strap that teach that it's not about "pulling the handle," but shifting the weight.

I still have to keep most of my training volume on the bike and not do too much on the erg because of the underlying shoulder issue, but the technical improvements, and strengthening of the scapular stability muscles from doing isometric hangs with the suspension strap have allowed me to get in five or so hours a week on the erg without overloading the shoulder. 

A proper catch and drive with relaxed shoulders and straight arms is what you want in a boat, but it's also the least stressful way for your musculo-skeletal chain to spin the flywheel. The Grok Rowing suspension strap is a great first accessory (well, a necessity for a novice erger) for a gym or a private owner.