Rowing at the elite level is no simple task. Aside from the multiple sessions per day on the water, in the erg room and at the gym, a lot of an athletes’ time is spent recovering. This means that rowers often miss weddings, family celebrations and social events all in the name of training and well, necessary relaxation. So, what do national team rowers do during their off time? They do what most people do when trying to take it easy…binge watch TV shows.
Seeing as entire seasons of every television show imaginable are streamed online, it makes it easy to watch episode after episode. So, why are elite rowers more susceptible to binge watching than the normal population?
1) We’re tired. Rowing takes a lot of concentration as well as physical energy, so getting horizontal and turning the brain off is just what we need.
2) We have awkward chunks of time. Sometimes we train once in the morning, once in the afternoon. Sometimes we train twice in the morning and not in the afternoon. A lot of time we do both. Squeezing in an episode or two during the day is perfect.
3) We go to bed early. Trying to watch the show when it actually airs just ain’t gonna happen. 9 pm is late!
4) Great shows take our minds off rowing. It’s important to find some balance in our mostly rowing-centered lives. So, why not escape with Homeland or Breaking Bad?
And why could binge watching be a bad thing? Well, there are really only two reasons, let’s be honest.
1) The combination of Netflix, HBOGo, HuluPlus and Xfinity gets expensive. Plus, on a rowers’ budget, food should probably be the priority. But, the positive is that most of us share our login information anyways.
2) A great TV show makes us too excited to sleep. I mean seriously, sleep is essential to performance, but man that next episode is calling my name.
Happy watching!
The National Rowing Foundation is a non-profit 501 © 3 organization dedicated to raising funds to support U.S. National Rowing Teams. Founded in 1966, the NRF has been supporting Olympic atheltes for more than four decades. The funds rasied support year round training, development, competition and preservation of rowing history through theHall of Fame and Rowing Museum Click here to donate: https://natrowing.org/donate