My rowing coach – a gifted oarsman and a lovely guy – told me I needed to strengthen my "core" to be a better rower. Then he gave me this amazingly simple workout, to help. The most interesgting thing, in a way, is the simplicity of the gear: a simple weight bar, a big ball and, maybe, a bench.

The important piece is the weight bar …one of those simple bars, maybe ten pounds, that you can add weights to. It is high rep (3 sets of 25 exercises), non stop so it’s aero bic too. I won’t bore you with all of it except the first couple. 1.) Dead lifts: You bend over, back parallel to the ground and pick the bar up off the ground, raise it to your waist, without moving your back. 2.) Jerks: standing upright, you first bend all the way to the ground, then raise the bar to chest height. 3. Curls: just do three sets of 25, regular bicep curls, holding the bar. 4. Put the bar on your shoulder, behing your head….raise it over your head. Same with the bar in front of your head. 5. Jumps. Stand straight, then flex your knees (not too deep)…then jump up in the air. That’s quite the little workout for most of us. As you get stronger, add weights to the bar. I ain’t there yet.

On the ball, do deep sit ups (lying on your back on the ball) and deep back arches (lying on your stomach on the ball.

There’s mofre but that’s enough for most days. After just over a week of this stuff (alternate days) I can feel it in my rowing. But my guess is it’s good for what ails you. We all tend to neglect our core when we work out. A few weeks of this and you ‘ll remembeer it.