Milo and the Bull Staff Portal
Module 3: Coar, Crew and Regatta
We believe rowing is not only a great way to challenge the whole body, but is a form of conditioning that develops mental resilience and determination. Rowing works nearly all of the muscles in the body, and does it with minimal impact, meaning that you support your joint health whilst following a rigorous training programme.
Milo and the Bull members can experience our Waterrowers mainly in our 3 rowing specific classes: Coar, Crew and Regatta. Each one has its own unique aim and style, challenging the body and mind with a comprehensive programme.
Coar
“Coar is one of Milo and the Bull’s signature classes. Expect 45 minutes of high intensity interval training. In Coar, cardiovascular training is combined with progressive strength training on the gym floor. These classes are designed to build strength, stamina and resilience.”
Following the same 12 week cycle as our Strength classes, Coar presents a third day in the week to dial in your lifts and work specifically on improving work capacity, building muscle and developing explosive power throughout the whole body. Scheduled for every Monday, this is the class that kick-starts the week.
From a coaching perspective, Coar has a lot of moving parts and so requires a respectfully authoritative approach to ensure a smooth class experience for all participants. The warm-up itself is split into 2 sections (split the room in two), with mobility on the gym floor and rowing specific drills being conducted at the same time. Similarly, when moving onto the main blocks of work, the room will need to be divided so half are working on the rowers whilst the other half begin their strength work. Any coach who teaches Coar needs to have a comprehensive understanding of the session (our expectation with all Milo classes) and be self-assured in their knowledge base for rowing and strength training.
Often, the Strength work will require members to work in pairs. This is another aspect of the class to take into consideration when reading through the programme document. Below is an example of the Coar programme from the Strength phase of our 12 week cycle (weeks 9-12):
Consider you were teaching a full class at our Peckham studio. In this case, the maximum capacity of the class is 24 people. During your 4 minute warm-up, you would need to divide the class in half, so 12 people on the rowers and 12 on the floor where they will spend 2 minutes on that side of the room. At 2 minutes, you will then need to swap everyone across again so they have completed both sections of the warm-up.
In this example, all of the rowing work is individual but the strength work will need a little more organising. The exercises will need to be completed in a “You Go I Go” style (YGIG) with one partner working and one resting. Considering again that this is a full class, that would mean of your 12 people on the floor, they would need to be put into pairs - 3 pairs on the BB Back Squat and 3 on the DB Bench Press for that 8 minute round.
Remember, every 4 weeks we enter a new phase in our 12 week cycle and so the format of of the Coar session will change. The blocks can vary a lot in size, meaning you may have to swap the rowers with the floor far more frequently over the duration of the class.
Crew
“Expect longer intervals on the rower combined with carefully selected power focussed movements on the floor, designed to help improve rowing efficiency. This class is designed to test your endurance”
Crew is a cult favourite at Milo and the Bull. This class helps our members dial in their rowing form with drills focussed specifically on stroke rate (SPM) and power. Often designed to include much longer rounds on the rower, Crew tests your mental fortitude and pushes you to stay consistent with your technique over greater distances. It’s fairly common for these classes to include time trials; such as 1000m, 2000m and 5000m, as well as a diverse range of exercises on the floor that help further improve an individuals rate of force development.
The warm up section of Crew works the same as in Coar, however your emphasis on certain aspects of rowing technique should be adjusted to better suit the aim of the class. Your floor exercises should also be taken into consideration. Crew doesn’t follow the same 12 week cycle as Coar, and so can change more dramatically week on week. An example of a Crew programme can be seen below:
Let’s consider again that you are teaching a full class in our Peckham studio. You will have to divide the class of 24 people; 12 on the rowers and 12 on the floor. In this example, there will be more changeovers. Instead of 4x8 minute rounds in the above Coar programme, you now have 4x6 minutes and 1x8 minutes at the end.
The majority of the blocks are set up as EMOM’s (Every Minute On the Minute), meaning every 60s the members need to move to the next stroke rate goal on the rower or, if they are on the floor, the next exercise. All studios have x3 Air Bikes and x3 Ski Ergs. Either put everyone into pairs on the floor with one partner on a machine and one on the floor, or if you feel confident, let them choose where to start. Be mindful however, that you can have no more than 6 people on a station as that is limited by the number of machines.
The final 8 minute round involves no floor work at all. Members will work in pairs again going for max distance swapping as quickly as possible every minute on the minute (EMOM).
The better and more confident you feel in managing the room and understanding what the aim is of each block, ultimately the smoother the class will run. Always check the programme document the day before and think how you will structure your classes.
Regatta
“Our Saturday Special. This competitive workout will focus the mind and the body. On Saturday's our Milo Members work as a team. This class will combine rowing based competitions with floor based challenges to complete along the way. Expect a fun and interactive workout with your team mates. Remember there's no “I” in team.”
Regatta is the Saturday morning class that puts everything together that our members have worked on throughout the week. It’s a fast paced, energetic rowing focussed class that is always team based, and always competitive. Typically it is designed to follow a scoring system that uses metres rowed, calories earned or reps completed on the floor in order to determine a classer winner, but it is not limited to these examples.
What sets Regatta apart from the rest is that it is programmed every Saturday by whoever is teaching in each studio. It presents a really exciting opportunity to put your own unique stamp on the Milo weekly programme and challenge your own understanding of class design and for this reason you won’t see Regatta on the programme document. The warm-up block for Regatta still operates in the same way as Coar and Crew - 2 minutes on the rowers and 2 minutes on the floor.
That said, when you begin coaching across our studios, we will provide you with tried and tested formats to get the class under your belt.
If you have any questions regarding programming ideas for weekend classes, always reach out to the relevant Head Trainer.