Heavyweight Trying to Improve 2ks and 500s

Question
Hi, I am a junior and have rowed 3 seasons of crew on my school team. I weigh about 190 and am 6' tall. Each season i dropped on average about 10 seconds from my time, however my last season I was stuck in the low 6:50's and my time seems to have stopped improving. I run and lift every day but it feels like my muscles just cant push any harder. Also I have never been able to get my 500m dash under 1:30. I'll take any advice you have on how to improve these times, I want to be sub- 6:40 by the end of this spring season and it would be great to break 1:30 on my 500.

Answer
Hi Tyler: The god news is that your current time is well above the average (7:04) for heavyweights your age.  You are in around the 70th percentile.  

I think your body may have  "hit its peak." In other words, you have trained your muscles and cardiovascular to perform at its maximum potential at this stage of your life.  It's like a car that can hit a certain speed and that's it unless you modify the engine.  As you get older, your body may get more muscular and your time might go down a bit more.  There is also a possibility that you could gain weight in the wrong places as you hi your 20s and your time could actually regress.  But that's doubtful.

I also think you may be overtraining.  Running and lifting every day, along with rowing, means you are breaking down your muscle tissue, but not giving it a chance to rebuild and grow.  And what kind of lifting are you doing?  If you want to gain more power, which will enable you to row a sub-1:30 500m, you need to lift heavier weights for lower reps.  And you need to cut your workouts down to 3-4 times a week.  You have to remember that rowing is an activity that breaks your mucles down big time.  If you just row all season and don't lift, your strength will drop dramatically.

Finally, how well are you doing in the water.  If your crew is winning races, then I wouldn't be too worried about shaving a few seconds off your erg.  The ergometer is a means to an end (winning boat races).  Too many people think crew is only about the erg.

I would just suggest you try a lifting routine 4 times a week: MON/TUE and THUR/FRI.  Use Monday and Thursday to emphasize chest (bench press), back and shoulders.  Use TUE/FRI for legs, biceps and triceps and abs.  Aim for 2-3 sets of 90-95% your max weight for 8-10 reps. When you can do 10 reps pretty easy, add more weight.  Maybe run 2-3 times a week.  Unless you are racing, make sure Sunday is a day off.  You need the rest.  In the off season, just put in a month or two of mostly lifting to try to get your muscles to grow even more.

Good Luck/AP