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Jarek MäestuSports Scientist (PhD),

Ex rower and rowing coach,Rowing Academy Scientist

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METABOLIC REQUIREMENTS FOR ENERGY IN ROWING

85.0%

10.4%

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Main sources of energy during 2000 m competition

At the start phase rowers need an enormous amount of energy to accelerate and overcome the inertia of the boat. This period during the first 1-2 minutes is covered at great proportion by anaerobic lactic and alactic energy as it takes time for aerobic system to „switch on“ at maximum capability.

After that the „dominance“ for energy production comes from the aerobic system (Table1).

Energy system Start – 20 sec 20 – 60 sec 60 sec – finish Total

Anaerobic alactic

70% 15% 2% 10%

Anaerobic lactic

20% 35% 13% 10-20%

Aerobic 10% 50% 85% 70-80%

Table 1. The contribution of different energy systems during a 2000 m race

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The secret of power in rowing is not to try and increase glycolytic power, but rather decrease it while at the same time increasing the oxidative performance.

During the second half of the competition the pH decreases due to the large amount of glycolytic energy production at the start of the race and the resulting blood lactate increase (although the glycolytic energy production decreases during the remaining competition). Special enzymes then block the anaerobic energy supply to prevent further decrement of pH that will lead to destruction of the mitochondria and proteins.

Therefore, to be able to sustain the power, rowers rather need to increase aerobic power to keep lactate within tolerable limits.

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The following theoretical example (Figure 1) displays a possible real-life example. When a rower increases the glycolytic performance from 10% to 15%, it will result in decreased aerobic supply (from 85 to 80%) of total energy production (Hartmann & Mader, 2005).

85.0% 80.0%

10.4% 15.4%

Figure 1. The contributions of energy supply if there is an increase of anaerobic lactic supply from 10.4 to 15.4%. Aerobic energy Anaerobic lactic energy Anaerobic alactic energy

If using further intervals for glycolytic power, the rower´s tolerance to maintain the race pace decreases dramatically because the use of glycolytic energy would be restricted by protecting further decrease of blood pH and the lowered aerobic energy supply can not produce the amount of energy required for the pace.

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In conclusion Aerobic energy is the dominant energy source during the classical 2000 m course

regatta, reaching approximately 70-80% of the total energy production. The increased anaerobic lactic energy contribution results in higher lactate levels in

blood that would result in inhibition of the use of anaerobic energy. It is necessary to develop the aerobic and anaerobic energy pathways together over

a certain period taking into account the individual aspects of load tolerance and adaptation.

Hartmann U, Mader A. Rowing Pysiology. In: Rowing Faster, V.Nolte (Ed), Human Kinetics, Champaign, IL, 2005.

Reference

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