When Tokyo bronze medallist Rowena Meredith was asked to teach someone how to row for a television documentary, she thought it would be a nice way to break up the routine in the wake of a challenging but successful Olympic Games.
Then she found out that person happened to be Hollywood superstar Chris Hemsworth.
“I got asked through a staff member at Rowing Australia, she called me up out of the blue about someone wanting to learn to row and whether I could coach them,” Meredith tells 9Honey Coach.
“I said, ‘Sure, why not?’. Then she said, ‘It’s Chris Hemsworth’ and I thought ‘even better! You know, I’ll see if I can fit him into my busy schedule’.”
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The result was an appearance on Hemsworth’s hit Disney+ series Limitless, which chronicles the actor as he undergoes a series of extreme challenges in an effort to find a way to live a longer and better life.
One of those challenges required the famously ripped Hemsworth, who was in the midst of adding bulk for another Thor movie, to add some endurance to his workouts on top of pure strength.
Not surprisingly, the sport he chose was rowing, whose competitors are among the top endurance athletes in the world and spend countless hours on the water and indoor machines banking breathtaking amounts of kilometres.
It’s one of those sports where I think the professionals make it look much easier than it actually is.
Indoor rowing, especially, has become a go-to workout with everyone from Oprah to the Kardashians singing its praises. It was listed as one of the 12 Workouts to Try in 2023 by the New York Times and Hemsworth has since added it his regular gym rotation.
Meredith thought Hemsworth and Ross Edgley, a celebrity trainer and extreme athlete, may want to get started on the ‘Erg’ (short for Ergometer, or indoor rowing machine), but they headed straight for the water at the Sydney International Regatta Centre.
So, was the athletic Hemsworth a natural oarsman?
“I suggested that we should jump in on Erg first just to give him a bit of an idea about technique. But they weren’t about it and were gung ho, they just wanted to get right into the rowing. And I thought ‘OK, wow, this is happening’,” said Meredith, who is preparing for the Australian Rowing Championships in Perth at the end of March.
“Let’s just say he had a lot of enthusiasm. I think he had a better understanding of how it’s one of those sports where I think the professionals make it look much easier than it actually is.”
The challenges for Hemsworth were the same ones that face many recreational rowers or gym users who jump on an indoor machine: Rowing is more about the legs and core than the upper body.
“When we are training, we have a lot of emphasis on lower body strength. It’s a lot of core work and a lot of leg power. I knew he would have amazing upper body strength, he is hugely committed to fitness and surfs as well, but he needed to understand it is more about the legs than the upper body,” Meredith says.
“But he was so lovely and it was so good to see rowing be able to feature in something with such a high-profile.”
If you want to make rowing part of your workout, Rowing Australia has you covered with some essential technique and tips for beginners on the Ergometer here.
Source: coach.nine.com.au
