The Crew Cut

The New Year and new resolutions will see many of you kick starting 2017 with a plan to get fit. So our friend and Personal Trainer – Baz Moffat – has put together some key exercises to help you on your way… I love to mix up the basics a bit at this time of year. Our bodies move in all different directions and that’s how I like to train my clients – for function. So if you’ve decided this is the year to enter an endurance event which involves doing plenty more than running in a straight line then it’s important that you train your body to move in different directions as well. 1. Warming up: Use rotational movements and twists to get your body ready for movement. These exercises are my favourite to get me ready for action. 2. The squat: A classic exercise and one that I am passionate about, I just can’t walk past someone squatting with poor form! You can mix up the squat by changing your stance, move your feet from narrow to wide squat, one forward one back, and even pointing right and then left. By doing this you’re training in different planes which are far more representative of life and sport! 3. Lunges: Get moving with those lunges and add in these variations. Wobbling on the way up is fine but try to stay long and strong on the way down (so no collapsing around the middle). You can add your own variations into the ones I’ve demonstrated by changing what you do with your arms. Both the squats and lunges can be incorporated into your warm up or warm down when planning a run or as part of a daily exercise routine. There’s no need to get bored with your exercises, there are so many variations out there! If you’ve got any useful or different exercises you’d like to share send your videos here. Baz is a former elite rower and is a Women's Health and Fitness Coach who specialises in pelvic floor and core strength. She uses a holistic, evidence based approach to help women reconnect with their bodies, building strength from the inside, out. To find out more about Baz visit www.bazmoffat.com

Christmas has gone, the goose certainly got fat and now it’s straight into Head season for all you rowers, so it’s time to drop the mince pies and stick your oar in. Our intrepid roadshow team are warming up the silver truck and will be heading to an event near you very soon. In the meantime, make sure you give yourself plenty of time to order team kit for upcoming races. For those of you racing WEHoRR and HoRR on the tideway in March we need your JL orders now to make sure we deliver to you in time for race day. If you need any help with product design or a quote just drop us a line at enquiries@crewroom.co.uk. It’s pretty chilly out there so you’ll want to make sure you’ve got plenty of layers for training too. If you don’t know already, we carry a full range of JL Racing training kit which can be found here.

To mark the start of a new year we thought it apt to give away one of our amazing new products worth £120 – The Yeti! No, it's not a mystical creature from Nepal, it's an ultra-soft Polartec© Shearling fleece jacket with rubberised zips and water repellent pockets. It's also highly breathable, quick drying and machine washable. Wearing this you’ll certainly feel snug as a bug in a rug. Please note that no yetis were harmed in the making of this jacket. To be in with a chance of winning this beautiful product you'll need to find three Yetis on our website like the one below and email us the URL to each page. Simply email your answers to enquiries@crewroom.co.uk. We’ll select the lucky winner on Monday 16th January. So get searching on our website, it's an expedition worth taking!

Here at Crewroom we don’t like to do anything by halves so when it came to the Christmas party we whipped up a feast for the Crewroom team. With everything from juicy turkey to pigs in blankets and crispy roast potatoes, hearty home cooked food was the order of the day. Pulling back the tables on the shop floor at the hub literally made way for the longest dinner table we could fit and set us up for a great night full of fun and food. Thankfully the Crewroom gang have healthy appetites and the left overs weren’t left over for very long!

Winter has finally arrived and it’s getting a little chilly. Luckily, here at Crewroom we know all about layering so we thought this handy little guide might help keep you warm in the weeks ahead.

On 3rd November 2016 at the Guildhall London the Presidents of the losing Clubs from the 2016 Races challenged the respective holders of the two Boat Race trophies. This tradition is the moment that officially starts the season leading to The 2017 Cancer Research UK Boat Races on Sunday 2nd April 2017. As official technical kit supplier to the Boat Races, we were honoured to be invited along to this prestigious event which was held within the stunning East Crypt – one of the largest medieval crypts in London. Ashton Brown, President of Cambridge University Women's Boat Club, challenged Isabell Von Loga, President of Oxford University Women's Boat Club and Michael Di Santo, President of Oxford University Boat Club, challenged Lance Tredell, President of Cambridge University Boat Club. Although this is the formal beginning of the 2017 season, the squads have been together for a couple of months already getting to know each other and starting to compete for seats. We look forward to the next stage of their journey to make it into the Blues boats with Trial Eights taking place at the end of this month.