Have what it takes to be an Olympian?

A new sport just opened up in the Olympics.

If you’ve always dreamed of being an Olympian, this might be your moment. Almost all gyms have the machine to train for this sport. It’s moments like this where you realise, staying conditioned hands you opportunity.

Historically Olympic Rowing is 2000m.

They’ve decreased it to 1500m.

This is pretty crazy considering I can’t actually find a world record for this distance, it might not even exist yet. If that doesn’t make you excited, this email probably wasn’t for you.

It make me excited. I’m even considering switching to the rowing machine to make my improbable entry to the Olympics.

Here’s the best bit.

You’ve got 4 years to prepare.

Cardio is something you should be doing, it wouldn’t hurt to switch to the rower. To get ahead are some gatekept settings to mimic water, I’m here to hand them to you.

Feels like water settings:

• Weird Slider thing on the Machine on the weird fan: 7.

• “Drag” in the Rower’s settings: 110-130.

That’s all you need to do on the setup.

Before I actually start talking about what to aim for, and how to train, or track progress. There’s something we have to cover first. No one knows how to row 😭

Look I’m not saying you don’t know how to.

But every time I step into a gym, I never see anyone actually rowing properly.

Here are the real 4 steps to rowing.

1. Holding the bar with loose arms and a strong grip, focus entirely on driving backwards using only your legs.

2. When your legs are locked out, pull the bar with your arms to your stomach.

3. Relax your arms so the bar comes all the way forward.

4. Try and kick yourself in the butt so you go back to the starting place.

5. Repeat.

In time this movement will become dynamic and you won’t feel so strange.

If you’ve been doing it incorrectly for years, you’ll probably struggle to learn the proper form. This is how the most power, speed, etc is generated, so it’s got to be done. When you dial in that form, let’s work out how far from Los Angeles 2028 you are.

Alright, who wants to test their 500m against a 2000m’s 500m pace?

This is honestly one of those experiences you have to do, you NEED to be humbled.

• Hop on the rower

• Row as explosively and fast as you can with good form

• Reach that 500m mark

Let’s see how well you did…

So, if you managed 500m in 1:19m congrats!

That’s the 1000m 500m WR pace 😭. If you actually got that, Your machine is broken. That’s only 9 seconds shy for the world record on that distance.

Here’s what you need to know. The 2000m 500m WR pace is 1:24m.

So many m 😔

Remember this is the World Record, the Olympics are out of grasp.

There are Olympians who just competed, with a 1:55m pace.

So for you, I’d set a goal of a 1:42m pace.

First conquer the 500m in 1:42m, then work your way up to 1000m, and finally 1500m.

I’m not saying this will be easy, but it’s a fun thing you can do, and if you commit yourself, you can definitely qualify in 4 years.

The cool thing about rowing is the very low fatigue, you’re not getting a ton of interference that’s going to hurt your gains like with running.

You should follow this basic approach:

• 150 minutes a week

• 80% of the time Zone 2

• 20% of the time Zone 4-5

Do that, I might just see you on my TV in a four years (or whatever devices we have by then).

If you want some more focused advice, just send me an email and I’ll help you out.

Your Hypertrophy Hero,
Fletcher

P.S. Do not do these cardio sessions before your weights, it’ll make you perform worse in the session.