Upper Body Strength

Question
Hi I'm 15 years old and 140 pounds and my 2k time is 7:47.6. I'm average height at 5'8".

My lower body is to my mind satisfactorily built. I'm a thin person overall but my legs are sort of muscular, I'm able to do a one legged squat multiple times to give you an idea.

My upper body however is pitiful, weak in general, abs back arms all weak.

Is this a problem? Should I be looking into strengthening my upper body for a better 2k time?
If so, which muscle groups, as I don't want to add extra bulk.

Answer
Hi Larry: Sorry I didn't respond sooner.  This e-mail ended up in my spam folder. For lightweights your age, your time is a bit below the average time of 7:26.  So you have some work to do.

I was kind of the opposite of you -- relatively weak legs, but at 145 pounds, I could out-bench press just about every member of my college crew.  That didn't help me much on the erg. The good news for you is that in rowing, the legs generate about 80% of your prime mover muscles in the rowing stroke.  However, if your arms and core muscles in your back and abdomen are weak, they may be causing you to have technical issues that may be affecting your rowing stroke.  A weak back could result in shooting the tail.  Weak abs could result in poor posture at the catch.  This could be robbing seconds off your 2K time.

You most definitely want to develop a weight training routine which emphasizes the upper body.  You don't have to spend hours at the gym.  You just have to pick good overall weight exercises like the bench press, lat pulldown, barbell bent rowing and a few other exercises to build up your upper.  Do 2-3 sets using heavy weights -- enough where you are pushing to get that 10th rep by the last set.  When you are not lifting, do push-ups -- Do 15 every couple hours.  Each week, add a few more.  I did this and got up to 100 or so in a few months.

Good Luck/AP