Tel's Tales Shorts – All the flavour, half the calories.James Reid: Recently I was giving instruction to a member of the health club where I work on using the Indoor Rower when another member on a rower, (whose technique was inadequate), interjected when I came to the bit about 'body roll' from the hips. She said it was bad practice to have the shoulders 'leading' the hips after you've completed the stroke, (legs straight and the body roll is starting to come into play at the rear of the monorail). I tried to point out to her that's the way to row and that the erector spinae muscles have the spine braced and also that the spine is in a straight line from the pelvis to the neck. What made it worse was that she was 'quoting from a position of professional expertise as a therapist'. Terry O'Neill: The only thing that I can think of that would cause concern to a physio was if you were insisting that the legs were held flat by locking out the knees while the body is swung over. This could cause soreness in the lower back especially to someone with tight hamstrings.As long as the knees are not locked as you rock over at the finish of the stroke what you are teaching is standard technique. On the recovery there is no load and by shifting the body weight slightly forward you take advantage of the slope on the slide and you do not have to work to get to the front stop.----------------Dan Flavin: Did you ever notice that belching while working on the erg lowers the heart rate by a good 30-40 beats per minute, even when it's in the high 180s. The effect is only transient (around 30 seconds) but an interesting quirk. I seem to belch a lot on the erg so have had plenty of time to analyse this.Terry O'Neill: You can't belch and breathe in at the same time, so belching has the same effect as holding your breath. If you hold your breath for about twenty minutes your heart rate would fall even lower. On the other hand, flatulence has a siphon effect and draws in extra air, which causes an increase in the heart rate and a reddening of the cheeks, especially if it happens on a crowded train after a curry.----------------Frank Birch: I've been thinking about adding weight-training to my program for next year and have just read your weight-training programme [http://www.therowingcompany.com/rnr/rnr_tp_horr.htm fact fans]. I'd like to try it out but would appreciate guidance on (i) how many times a week you should undertake the sessions you describe and (ii) how to spread them over a 48 week period rather than the 24 week one they were designed for. Do you just do each 6-week block for twice as long or maybe two 24 week cycles? Terry O'Neill: I think it would be good for you to introduce some weights if it doesn't involve too much aggro.I believe that training in blocks of six weeks is the most effective for the simple reason that if you focus on one aspect of training for too long then you can lose performance in another area. To stretch it from 24 to 48 weeks is no problem but I think it would be better to rotate it rather that double the length of the periods for the reason stated above. The only thing I would change is the weeks 1-6 which are really meant as a starter if you have been away on holiday or not trained for some time. In your case you would benefit from doing the other three periods three times to give you 48 weeks. Three times a week would be ideal, twice a week would give some level of improvement but less than that would be a waste of time.