Things I’m testing & trying out in Rowing this year.

Every year I take a look at a few things to experiment with. All with the aim of improving my personal performance. In this post I’m sharing what I’m experimenting with for rowing, across different aspects, and over the coming months, I will share updates in my newsletter.

New Carbon Pack from Filippi

I’ll be testing the new ‘Carbon Pack’ from Filippi Boats with the Filippi F22 single scull. I first learnt about these developments in late 2020, when I spent some time with David Filippi at the Italian Championships. I’m curious to see Filippi’s new developments in carbon fibre footplate, seat deck interface, rigger and gate technology. More information will be revealed as I share the process of the new boat build and interview David Filippi on the Faster podcast about the new technology.

Clothing

Testing 776BC rowing clothes for comfort, durability and how their ‘Motion Technology’ works. The 776BC Motion System highlights key biometric markers and lines on the body. The aim is to show how you’re moving whilst rowing on the ergo or in the boat. To achieve this, 776BC developed a motion sensor app, that you can use to film the session, and observe how the biometric markers line up vs the desired technique.

I have order some 776BC customised kit for a few willing masters and juniors to try at my club. Will update how the kit looks, feels and how it is to work with the Motion App for filming and providing feedback.

Hydration & Pre-Loading

I’ve been paying more attention to how much and what I’m drinking  during training, especially with the increase in time on the ergo, and this year I will be experimenting with how my performance is influenced by how hydrated I am when I start exercising.

Precision Hydration have a protocol they call, ‘preloading‘ and the practice has been widely studied in the last 20 years. There’s strong evidence that taking in additional sodium with fluids before you start sweating is effective in promoting increased acute fluid retention and in improving endurance performance, especially in the heat.

I will be working with the team at Precision Hydration, to dial this in over the coming months and I’ll share updates along the way.

Monitoring HRV

On the advice of masters champion, Greg Benning, I will be monitoring my Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and using this metric to measure my response to, and readiness for training. I’ll be using and comparing the Oura Ring and Elite HRV app & heart rate belt.