Archive for year: 2018

Here at the University of Leeds we are lucky to train some of the most fabulous athletes from around the country. However, students don’t just come from the corners of England to use our first class facilities. We are lucky to have some wonderful athletes from across the globe training with us, just like Tyler Smith. From representing our own Triathlon society at BUCS competitions to flag-bearing for Bermuda at the Commonwealth Games we caught up with Tyler to find out what he gets up to in his training sessions.

What’s your sport?

I am a triathlete and compete for the university team and individually.

Where do you train and what competitions do you compete in?

I spend most of my time training around Leeds. Swimming and doing S&C at The Edge, riding in the Yorkshire Dales, and running around various trails in the city. I compete mainly in BUCS events, and European cups, but I have also raced at the Commonwealth Games and World Juniors.

 What does your training schedule look like?

On a regular training week when I’m not competing I usually train just under 30 hours. Usually we do five swim sessions, five bike rides, and eight runs. It seems like a lot but most of the training is done at a steady pace so we don’t get too fatigued.

What Strength and Conditioning (S&C) training do you do?

During the winter  I was aiming to improve my strength and power so I was trying to get in the S&C room three times a week. During the racing season I’ve reduced my S&C to twice a week with more of a focus on mobility to stay a bit fresher for the hard training sessions and races. Most of my S&C is targeted at leg and lower leg strength, but there are also core and upper body exercises in my programme.

What is your favourite exercise?

A back squat is my favourite exercise. It’s an exercise where you can see a clear progression week to week. I also feel helps me improve strength, stability, and my range of motion, all of which are helpful in triathlon.

What is your least favourite exercise?

My least favourite exercise is a box jump. I’m not very explosive and struggle with getting good vertical height which makes it difficult to jump successfully. I’ve also messed up my shin on a box pretty badly before and it still gets me nervous now.

How do you feel S&C has helped you develop as an athlete?

I feel S&C has really helped me to build the base strength and robustness to keep me fairly injury free while I’ve been building up my training volume. When I take breaks from S&C training I definitely feel all sorts of niggles coming on. The increase in muscle soreness after hard bike and run sessions is hard to ignore as well.

Tim Jarrett has been working with Tyler throughout his time at Leeds and gave us a little more insight into how the athlete works:

‘Tyler is a very autonomous athlete and has a strong sense of what he needs to work on in the gym. This makes working with him really easy. I end up giving him ideas and guidance rather than dictating his every move.’

Here is Tyler on one of his training runs with teammate Sam before he headed back home to compete in the Central American and Caribbean Games, placing 6th in the Elite Men’s category.

by Ben Warman

A 1500m running race will last ~3:30 – 5:00min. Picture a typical 1500m runner; slight, wiry and quick across the ground. Conversely, a 2km rowing race lasts between ~5:20 – 7:28min. Now picture a rower; tall, with a thick trunk and very well-developed leg and back muscles. Why the differences?

Although these are both endurance events of roughly similar duration, rowing has a unique strength demand. There is a need to overcome drag in the form of air and water resistance, and subsequently propel they must boat through the water. This means that whilst the rower still needs an excellent endurance base, they must spend significantly more time developing their strength than the runner. Additionally, a good rower must be able to coordinate their body into the positions of the perfect technical model. They then also have to be robust enough to deal with the high force and velocity loading that is characteristic of rowing training. It is therefore clear that strength and conditioning is important to rowers. These factors were all considered when planning the final training phase for the Senior Men’s 8+ in the lead up to Henley Royal Regatta. Here are 5 exercises that rowers follow…

1 – Clean High Pull

As the rower moves up the slide during the stroke, they must apply force through their feet. Whilst doing this they must maintain tension through their legs and trunk. Olympic lifting variations provide a great opportunity to challenge this skill. The movements of the 1st and 2nd pull are like that of the stroke. During the S&C sessions in the lead up to Henley, the first exercise the Senior Men’s 8+ did was an Olympic lifting variation, such as a Clean High Pull.

2 – Front Squats

Rowing is a whole-body, leg and hip driven activity. The rowers’ have therefore spent significant time perfecting their ability to squat heavy loads with excellent depth and technique. For example, the boys completed 5 sets of 5 reps of Front Squats on a 2 min rolling clock. This provided them with ~90s of rest between sets and represents 10 minutes of hard work.

Start Position

End Position

3 – Bench Pull

In addition to this, whilst most of the propulsion during the stroke comes from the lower-body, rowing also requires a contribution from the upper-body pulling muscles. The sessions also include an upper-body exercise such as a Bench Pull for another 5 sets of 5 reps.

Start PositionEnd Position

4 – Bulgarian Split Squats and Pull-Ups

The next section of the workouts involved a uni-lateral (one arm or one leg) and bi-lateral (both limbs) exercise, completed in a superset fashion. For example, 6 reps of Bulgarian Split Squats and Pull-Ups for 4 sets. These exercises act as accessory work to supplement the gains made through the aforementioned primary exercises, and to prevent any muscular imbalances occurring.

Split Squat and Pull Up position

5 – Core training

Finally, the rowers tackled a trunk training section, with a 25s:20s work:rest ratio. The exercises were chosen to ensure that the rowers’ trunks are strong in all planes of motion (i.e. both flexion/extension and rotation). Sesions often involved throwing and catching medicine balls to keep things interesting! This is important because during sweeping, a rower must flex and rotate their trunk to achieve a good catch position. This work was followed by 10min of drills to ensure that the rowers possessed the mobility to hit the positions of the technical model. We often targeted the hips and thoracic spine (mid back).

Russian Twist with med ball

Hopefully this blog has provided an insight into the training demands that a competitive rower faces, highlighting how rowers must develop anaerobic strength qualities through well organised S&C sessions, alongside a significant endurance training load.