How to fix Shoulder Shrug on the Erg when rowing

When you shrug your shoulders on the erg, your finish becomes weak, leading to a decrease in power and wasted energy. In this video, Ken Davey, with the help of national representatives, Ciona and Joel, demonstrates why the shrug is a problem and how to fix it.

Video Transcript

​Here we'd like to talk about a problem that's
quite common it's about shrugging the

shoulders on the ergo at the finish to hold
my shoulders down at the finish of the

stroke on an Ergo I think about holding
my elbows out slightly

I also allowed the handle to come
through to the finish from the speed

that has been generated from the leg
drive and the body opening by doing this

and not accelerating the handle around
the finish I feel as though my shoulders

come through flat off and not up around
my ears shrugging around the back end of

the stroke as you can see here this
particular photo Ciona is demonstrating

how to put a shrug into the shoulders at
the finish it's essentially tensing up

the shoulders lifting them up and then
drawing the elbow through into a high

level and then dropping the elbows ends
up involving a lot of small muscles in

the body and then causes particular
issues of fatigue and also a less

powerful finish Here Ciona demonstrates
how to finish correctly the elbows back

shoulders back and letting the handle come right the way through to the chest

here is joel
during his world-record marathon on the

rp3 nice relaxed shoulders at the finish
very important to be relaxed at the

finish
so here Ciona with the shrug you

can see their handles up high the
shoulders are up high the elbows are

close to the body and then as she pulls
her handle through you can see her body

moves towards the handle at that point
there's an alternate and taking the

stroke correctly you can see here that
as she finishes the stroke off the

shoulders are still and the handle is
pulled in to the body rather than having

the body moves towards the handle very
important distinction much more powerful

finish here you can see the shrug it's
here - it's a weaker movement the handle

gets pulled up high and then you can see
the shoulders up high and then they drop

down at the finish not a very powerful
finish you look and again let's watch

what the elbows are doing see the elbows
end up high to start with

then they drop down a long way towards
the finish I'd say here we have Ciona

from a front view watch what happens to
the shoulders as we can't pull through

to the finish rowing with a shrug shoulders come up and then they drop down at

the finish if you watch what happens to the
elbows you can see the elbows start

going out but up and then what as the
shoulders are up but then as the stroke

gets completed you can see they drop
right in close to the body not a strong

finish at all so here we have Ciona
demonstrating a powerful finish and you

can see here it's done by making sure
the shoulders aren't lifted up the

elbows are out a bit further makes it
easier and you find you get a much more

powerful finish this way you can see
here that the shoulders are not up as

the shoulders are held back the handle
comes through the finish and there's no

shoulder shrug there at all just a clean
finish we watch you can see here

how the body does not move towards the
handle to finish body the shoulders

remain stationary and the handle is
pulled into the body you can see what

happens to the elbow just like in the
previous example but without the shrug

the elbow doesn't have a need to drop
anywhere near as much and it's held

right the way through to just under
finish there so i'd suggest watch your

athletes carefully if you're an athlete
training yourself watching the mirror

and when you see the shoulder shrug
which is very easily seen from the front

on and then work on it by by putting
your elbows out holding your shoulders

down and having holding your shoulders
in stationary position as the arms

finish off