3x4000m/5:00r

The yoga/pilates idea about “drawing the navel into the spine” … is simply not effective. It is far more effective to reverse this; namely, draw the lumbar spine into the navel.
— Gordon Hamilton

The goal this workout was to take Gordon’s advice and draw the lumbar spine into the navel. So after my hands had crossed over my knees, I focused on lifting my chest and permitting my back to arch naturally. Only after I had this posture did I pivot and slide forward.

It is worth pointing out that I stayed relatively motionless while I pushed my hands over my knees, and then allowed the pivot to blend into the slide.So the first part of the recovery was a sequential movement and the second a blended movement — hands away, then blend the pivot into the slide.

One of the things that the Dynamic Indoor Rower has shown me is that whenever I try to blend the three movements into each other I tend to crash against the backstops.

This afternoon I had the fastest erg time since I started Interval:Distance workouts. I should be pleased about this. Instead I have questions. Am I pushing myself too hard? Am I losing focus?

The goal is to row pain-free and practice length, rhythm, and ratio at stroke ratings typical of training and racing on water. I do not want to risk injuring my back by losing sight of the goal. While rating lower and pulling harder may help me to row faster in the short term, if it is not done with proper technique, it will only result in disaster in the long term.