| Summary: | In the last twenty years there have been various studies that have
examined physiologic demands of rowing for the competitive athlete,
however most of the literature focuses on male rowers. Now with the
growing popularity of women's rowing programs at both collegiate and
national levels, there is a need for research that evaluates the physiological
profiles of highly conditioned oarswomen. The significant contribution of
aerobic work to a rower's performance has been substantiated in past research
(Hagerman, F.C., 1984 ), however, fewer studies have specifically looked at
anaerobic energy release during a simulated 2,000 meter rowing race in
female rowers. This is partly due to the difficulty in quantifying anaerobic
energy capacity in the laboratory. Studies by Medbo et al. (1988,1993) have
validated the linear extrapolation method of accumulated oxygen deficit
(AOD) to determine anaerobic energy release during exercise. Data on AOD
suggest that 2 minutes of exercise to exhaustion is required to use anaerobic
sources fully (Medbo et al., 1988). It has also been concluded by Gastin et al.
(1995) that an "all-out" protocol provides a valid estimate of maximal AOD
(mAOD). Therefore the objectives of the present study were to measure both
the maximal anaerobic capacities of highly conditioned oarswomen by the
AOD method and compare this to the AOD of each rower during a 2K race
simulation (RS) on the Concept II rowing ergometer (RE).
Sixteen highly trained female rowers volunteered for the study. The
protocol consisted of 4, four minute submaximal V02 rowing bouts (20-80%
max), a 2 minute all-out test, and a 2K RS. Each test was performed on the RE
with V02 and power output (PO) recorded every 15 sec. Positive linear
correlations between V02 and PG for each subject were all greater than 0.99.
The mAOD (2 minutes) averaged 3.40L± 0.68 which was not significantly
different than the AOD for the 2K RS (3.50L±1.40). These results indicate that
the subjects maximally taxed their anaerobic energy systems in the RS. Total
time for 2K RS averaged 7.5 min±0.2 and the relative contribution of the
anaerobic energy sources during RS equaled approximately 12% of total as
determined via the AOD method.
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