2024-2025 Winter Conditioning Schedule is being developed.
Stay tuned!
About Conditioning
Woodson Rowing creates a range of opportunities for athletes to get in shape for the season and stay in shape between seasons.
During the summer months, “Green Days” offer an optional, out-of-season opportunity for current athletes to stay in sync and for any new and interested students to see what rowing is all about. These sessions are held at Sandy Run Regional Park and still require an up-to-date emergency care form as well as a sports physical on file with the Woodson athletic trainer’s office. Learn more about Green Days.
During the winter months, the Occoquan is closed for on-the-water training. In order to maintain rowing form and build strength for the spring season, winter conditioning occurs after school, Monday through Friday, until the spring season begins in late February to early March.
Why Attend Winter Conditioning Sessions?
Rowing is a cardiovascular fitness dominant sport. The demands placed on an athlete during a race are like running up the side of a mountain for a mile and half while chained to seven of your friends.
While we do not have tryouts, boat selection during the spring is competitive. The level of fitness necessary for the sport cannot be built in the 4-6 weeks between the first day of practice and the meat of racing season when boat lineups must be set. The better the fitness of the athlete, the better chance they have of making a top boat.
Winter conditioning is not the only way to get in shape; doing a winter sport or having a rigorous researched workout plan that you do are your own are also good options. We have had past captains and rowers who were members of the swim team, played basketball or ran track and were in top boats that medaled at state championships.
That being said, there will always be athletes that claim they are working out on their own instead of coming to conditioning. In our experience, that is rarely a successful plan. Winter conditioning is designed to get athletes into “rowing shape.” There is more more discipline, encouragement, and fine-tuning of form rowing as a team during winter conditioning.
The more athletes that work hard on their conditioning, the faster ALL our boats will be.
RESOURCES
Below are some resources that can help you work on rowing concepts when you can’t join the team for training OR that will help you maximize your gains if you are training with the team!
❖ The Woodson Rowing Training and Conditioning Manual was first created in 2016. We are in the process of updating some of the materials, but it is an excellent source of all things rowing to get you started!
BUILD CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE
❖ Running or riding your bicycle hard for 30-60 minutes is a good way to maintain cardiovascular growth on days when you have to miss winter conditioning
INCREASE FLEXIBILITY
❖ Yoga for Rowers: Focus on Catch and Drive, Focus on Finish and Recovery
❖ Stretching for Rowers
ENSURE YOU RECOVER FROM YOUR HARD WORK
❖ Rest Refuelling & Recovery for Rowers
❖ The Rowers Way: 4 Recovery Strategies/
NUTRITION
This is a difficult subject because individual nutrition needs vary from person to person. All athletes need quality nutrition to fuel the work that they must put in to get stronger and better at their sport. This is as true for rowing as it is for basketball, football, swimming or any other high demand sport. We urge you to use your best judgment while also emphasizing that you MUST eat enough to fuel the difficult training it takes to become good at this sport! Below are some good articles to get you going in the right direction!
❖ 8 Healthy Eating Habits for Teenage Rowers
❖ Nutrition for Young Rowers
❖ 1 Week Meal Plan For Rowers
MANAGING BLISTERS AND CALLUSES
❖ The Blister Dilemma & How to Care for Them
❖ Rowers hands
OTHER RESOURCES
❖ Training info from Concept2