Rehab, Injury Prevention, Sports Performance and Pain Relief Tips
RowPhysio’s owner Doctor of Physical Therapy, Greg Spooner, was interviewed by Rebecca Caroe of RowingChat, the most downloaded podcast for masters rowing. Rebecca Caroe features doctors, athletes, coaches and coxswains since 2013. Listeners describe RowingChat "it's like a coaching workshop once a month". This episode is about dealing with injuries when training for rowing races.
Just like you, for years I believed that a proper warmup involved taking multiple repetitions of the sport at hand - layups, practice swings, rowing strokes. Follow that with some static stretching to loosen the muscles. Stick to that prescription and there's no way I'll get injured...
I’m not just a Doctor of Physical Therapy… I row “a little bit” in my spare time as well.
This year as “Team IMUA”, my teammate Thiago Silva and I raced and won the 2nd annual Seventy48 race in Seattle, WA. We trained for months, emphasized an enhanced training regimen including better sleep (and more of it) and better nutrition. After 10 hours and 49 minutes, we crossed the finish line 1st, beating the 110 other human powered rowing and paddling craft. Here’s how we did it…
You know those stretchy, brightly colored athletic tapes we’re seeing on the Olympic athletes and basketball players and the like? They’re not just for show. And I use RockTape with my athletes and physical therapy clients for a number of reasons… most importantly, less pain and better performance.
Paddlers like expert Connor Inslee (Seattle, WA) appreciate this RockTape taping strategy... 40 miles and finally a pain-free forearm for the SEVENTY48 race. Here’s how we did it:
Tight hamstrings and tight calves are too often the culprits blamed for catch compression challenges in the rowing shell.
Yet while male and female rowers alike suffer from the common malady of tight muscles, there's an unexpected, lesser known and more complicated neighboring body structure implicated:
The ankle.
