Mark Ottobre explains why rowers shouldn't lean back excessively. Instead, focus on thoracic extension, which naturally couples lat depression and shoulder external rotation to protect the shoulder and engage the lats better. The cue reduces shoulder pain.
No one tells you to not lean back too much. Everyone tells you to not hyperextend.
What you're really actually doing is getting thoracic extension. You're not really in hyperextension. Your hips are forward. And the thing is, when you extend the thoracic, it couples with depression of the lats and also external rotation of the shoulders, which is actually what you want when you're rowing, because that's where the shoulder stays protected. So that's why, like, I'll cue this position. I'd rather you be in this position when you row than forward. And yes, you can be in a protracted position and still do your lats. That's fine. But I find, like, bang for buck for ordinary people, they're better off Retracting and depressing. The joint cue, instead of saying retraction depression, the cue is thoracic extension. So if you extend from thoracic, you're automatically depressing and you're retracting.
It just feels very unnatural to me.
But you feel them on your lats. And also the other win was no shoulder pain.
Yes, no more shoulder pain. Yeah, you're right.
