Summary
Five university oarsmen participated in a determination of mechanical efficiency when rowing in a tank. In the tank, water was circulated at 3 m · s−1 by a motor driven pump. The subjects rowed with the stepwise incremental loading, in which the intensity increased by 10% of the maximum force of rowing (max FC) every 2 min. Power (\(\dot W\) O) was calculated from the force applied to the oarlock pin (FC) and its angular displacement (θH). Oxygen uptake and heart rate were measured every 30 s during rowing. Anaerobic threshold (AT) was determined from expired gas variables by Wasserman's method. AT of oarsmen was 74.6±6.01% as a percentage of \(\dot V_{{\text{O}}_{\text{2}} {\text{max}}}\). As the displacement of the handgrip in the stroke was independent of \(\dot W\) O, the increment of \(\dot W\) O was caused by the increase of both FC and stroke frequency. Gross efficiency without base-line correction (GE) increased with FC with low intensities of rowing. In the region of 124–182 W of \(\dot W\) O GE was almost constant at 17.5%. Efficiency was 19.8±1.4%, with resting metabolism as base-line correction (net efficiency), and 27.5±2.9% when using the unloaded rowing as the base-line correction (work efficiency), and 22.8±2.2% when calculating the work rate as the base-line correction (delta efficiency).
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Fukunaga, T., Matsuo, A., Yamamoto, K. et al. Mechanical efficiency in rowing. Europ. J. Appl. Physiol. 55, 471–475 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00421639
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00421639