This is Joe McMullin’s take on a shoulder relaxation warmup that crews should do before launching to help better engage the lats and move away from using the shoulders are the primary muscle groups for upper body send.

Disclaimer: Joe is neither a medical professional nor physical therapist. Please use extreme caution and care before trying any of this warm up. Please make sure all individuals are comfortable and communicate throughout the warmup. However, he’s coached over 14 years of athletes to success with no reported injuries.

Do this before launching for the next row.

• Have one of the captains count each rep
• Calmly bring the group together in a quiet place. You might need to have them breath through their nose and hold for 3 seconds before exhaling a couple of times
• 20 shoulder lifts up toward their ears. This should be a calm and controlled movement from a neutral position to the high point and back down.
• 20 shoulder rolls forward where the shoulder blades feel like they are being pulled apart. This shouldn’t be full rotations, just forward and back to neutral.
• 20 shoulder rolls backwards where the shoulder blades feel like they are being squeezed
• 20 shoulder pulls down. It should feel like the last digit on their middle finger is being pulled down and then return to neutral.
• 20 Full shoulder rolling rotations hitting all 4 points going forward
• 20 Full shoulder rolling rotations hitting all 4 points going backward

When you launch, stress to the rowers to be a little more upright. You’ll start seeing a lot more engagement under the armpits, and much better hang on the lats. To really see improvement from the relaxed shoulders, do some of catch-release drills by 6s where every 2nd or 3rd round you’re giving them a surprise full stroke pull through after the blade is placed at the catch. I guarantee the send will be off the charts.