Peaking in Team Sports - 2007 - USOC Olympic Coach E-magazine, Winter Issue

The 2007 - USOC Olympic Coach E-magazine, Winter Issue arrived recently in my inbox. The various articles focus on teams. A few stood out as having some relation to rowing:

For coaches and athletes: Peaking for Team sports.

For coaches in particular : You were Hired to: Win Now Oo Win Consistently.

Sport Psycology - Great Groups, Great Coaches

Physiology - What Every Coach Should Know about Energy Systems.

There is a lot of great information there for you. If you would like to see back issues or subscribe you can receive future e-magazines via email by going to their main page.

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Peak Rowing Power Predicts 2000 m Erg Performance

The latest issue of The Rowing News contains an excellent article by Ed McNeely describing peak power and how to measure it on the erg. McNeely's article raises some intriguing points, but it also fails to mention one important factor - body mass - and how it affects this measure.

Peak Power is essentially the highest wattage obtained when setting the drag at 200 over 10 strokes. Others use slightly different protocols, but they all measure essentially the same thing. Refer to McNeely's article for a complete description of how to use it in your training.

McNeely mentions that several studies confirm that peak power is one of the best predictors of 2000 m erg preformance. This would seem somewhat counterintuitive. Rowing is 80% aerobic, while peak power is a measure of anaerobic performance - and mostly the ATP-CP system that works for only a few seconds. Yet McNeely is right.

One study found the correllation between peak power and 2000 m erg performance at r=0.92 p<0.0001.There are others that have found essentially the same result.

This is not isolated to rowing, and also holds for other aerobic sports, even ones where the athlete must carry his or her weight even more than in rowing. Similar findings have been reported for 15 years in cycling. this article from South Africa by several authors including Tim Noakes, who recently was a keynote speaker at the Rowing Canada Coaches Conference found a strong correlation between peak power and both VO2 MAX and a 20 km cycling time trial. Interestingly another cycling study found that peak power increased from 864W to 940W or almost 9% after ingesting a controlled amount of caffeine.

In rowing, researchers have seen a 1.2% improvement in 2 k erg time and a 2.7% increase in mean power with caffeine ingestion. The same researchers in another study saw similar results with most of the improvement coming in the first 500 m - perhaps suggesting the effect was largely anaerobic, as is peak power.

Implications for You - and What McNeely Missed.

Peak Power is simple - perhaps for many even fun - to measure. Athletes don't seel the same pressure, or pain, that they do in a 2K erg test, yet the feedback it gives may be largely the same. We won't eliminate the need for 2K tests, but this may be a simle way to monitor training more regularily.

Train for power - McNeely describes how in his article and there are several other ways to include power training in your plan.

What he missed - the article I cited notes that the strong correlation between peak power and 2k erg times is true only when you consider lightweights and heavyweights separately so be cautious in how you use it to compare athletes. It would be better used to compare an individual athlete's progress in
training.

Don't forget our recent post on weight adjusting erg scores. First - the same formula cannot be used to adjust a measure of peak power. Second, well - weight matters. In fact the article that found the strong correlation with peak power also reported a significant correlation between body mass and 2 km erg performance!

Finally, remember that this information is derrived from studies on elite athletes. MCNeely points out that it may be a good measure because elite rowers are all so comparable aerobically and anaerobic measures may then be an important determining factor. I seriously doubt that this is true for club, masters or junior rowers.

That said, in my coaching experience it can be a useful measure with elite junior athletes, although whether peak power has the same correlation to 2K time in juniors I can't say. It would be interesting to have some coaches take both measures on their next round of testing and report the results here to our readers!

Interesting Study on Fight in the Dog

Thanks to JW Burk over at Fight in the Dog for this interesting link. It suggests that ancient rowers of Greek Triemes may have been as fit, or fitter than today's elite rowers. I expect there are a lot of holes you could poke in the assumptions and informtation sources used in the article but it still makes fun reading.

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BMI and Rowing

There was a post today over at Row2K of an article from a newspaper about the BMI or Body Mass Index. It mentioned rowing only briefly, referring to the GB 4+. The article was skewed to the viewpoint that the BMI is not a useful measure for athletes. That had generally always been my belief. Last year though, I had an opportunity to look at it differently and presented it in this post. I calculated BMIs for US National Team Rowers and a Cambridge University Men's Crew. In both cases BMIs were normal, in contrast to the article posted today.

For more information see my post and wikipedia.

Note that the article points out several athletes as "overweight" according to BMI, but the GB rowers just squeek into this definition. Of all the athletes mentioned in the article, only two came in as obese - aside from the entire offensive line of a university football team - and who would question their status?

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Recovery Faster in the Morning

So if you ever wondered why rowers so often train in the morning, here's another good reason. No, I'm sure this isn't why we train early. But perhaps this bit of knowledge justifies it somewhat more. A post over at the SportSci Blog reports on a study that has shown muscles may recover faster after morning workouts than evening workouts.

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8 Seconds...reference anyone?

OK, over on that other rowing site we all frequent they linked to a newspaper article on 8-second intervals being the key to weight loss.

I'd like to be able to comment on this study, but the article has no reference to a published scientific paper. I have not been able to find one. If anyone out there has found a reference, would you please leave it in the comments section for all of us? If you have read the article - what do you think?

One of the researchers has a web site. He notes ongoing research in this field but does not list it amongst his publications. I have a feeling that the newspaper is taking liberties with his work and exaggerating things a bit...legitimate scientific work is taking on an air of "too good to be true" in the press I think.

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Water Intoxication

The recent news of a tragic death in a radio contest by drinking too much water was a shock to many. In the summer we posted on the dangers of excess water - Hyponatremia. This might be a good time to review it, even if it's too chilly to be overdrinking while training!

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More on Caffeine and Training

Another recent study fromthe University of Georgia and published in the Journal of Pain looked at caffeine's ability to help recuperate from training. CBS News reports on the study:

a new study suggests drinking the equivalent of two cups before exercise may reduce post-workout muscle pain by nearly 50 percent. Researchers say that's more muscle pain relief than commonly found with pain relievers like aspirin.

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Fight in the Dog - Posting on Weigh Ins

If you re interested in more on weigh ins and what is safe check out this posting (and others!) at the Fight in the Dog Weblog as well as another post on what is best in terms of length of time for a weight loss.

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Influence of Nutrient Intake after Weigh-In on Lightweight Rowing Performance

From Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise via Row2K

Thanks to Row2K today for posting a link to this article. It is however quite a handful to make sense of, so I have provided some interpretation here. Your comments would be appreciated.

This is an interesting article looking at the best recovery methods after weigh-in for lightweight men needing to reduce body mass for racing.

The first effort (2 km erg test) was at their base weight - this is used as a control to see how they would perform without having to make weight.

Subsequent 2 km efforts had to be made at 5.2% below this weight - simulating a rapid weight loss - with 48 hours between efforts.

Different recovery drinks were used in the two hours between weigh in and the 2000 meter effort to simulate what many lightweights do - drop weight fast for the weigh in in the morning and do their best to recover to a better racing condition before hitting the water.

The three strategies tested were essentially:

Water only (and a small amount of sodium).
Carbohydrate/Sodium with little fluid.
Water/Carbohydrate/Sodium.

What did they find? Not surprisingly athletes with restricted fluid intake (carbohydrate and sodium only) after making weight performed slowest compared to the other two treatments. Having carbohydrate and sodium in the fluid didn't help recovery much, compared to water only.

What does this tell athletes and coaches?

Well - not much really - no athlete in their right mind would restrict fluids as part of their recovery, so the message that fluids are needed is far from earth shattering. Of course this was hardly the authors' point. They were more interested in whether or not the carbs will help - and they didn't seem to.

Does this mean athletes should just make weight and drink some water before racing? No it doesn't mean that either. More to the point as long as the fluids are there the individual's own recovery strategy can be personalized - so do what feels right.

On the other hand, we need to wonder if the study tells the full story. I'd say no - it only opens the door for more work which I'm sure the authors realize. For example, how did the athletes make weight? Did they eat well-balanced meals and simply make weight by dropping fluids (restricting intake and/or a "sweat run")? Loss of fluid is the fastest way to lose weight and really nobody loses 5% of their mass any other way so quickly. In this case clearly replacing the fluids would be the most important part of recovery. On the other hand, if the athletes restricted calories as well, especially carbohydrates, as many inexperienced or junior lightweights often do, then I would be surprised if only taking water on board leads to the best performance. A measure of how depleted the athletes' glycogen stores were before weigh in would be the only way to tease this out.

What would I be interested in seeing tested after this study?

• What amount of weight can be lost before weigh in while maintaining performance - 5.2% is a fairly significant amount. If a lightweight male came in at 162 pounds, for example, that equates to almost 8 and a half pounds. How would that compare to athletes only having to drop 2 pounds - or none at all?
  
• This study looked only at men - there could easily be gender differences that would affect this study - so repeat this with women, please.
• Does the athlete's intake of food before racing affect how hard it is to make weight (and maintain performance) for the next race?

So it is interesting work. Food for thought (pardon the pun). But carry on as normal - after weigh in replace fluids and take on some nutrients.

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More on Protein and Exercise

Dr. Gabe Mirkin has been referenced on this site before. He has an interesting health site with several articles on Fitness. One ties directly to the last post on protein and exercise. Although he seems to put more stake in some of hte research that the previous author discounts, he does refer to genuine research in all of his articles. It's an interesting and worthwhile read.

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Protein Nutrition and Endurance Exercise: What Does Science Say?

Last summer this site included a good deal of information about the use of creatine in rowing and other sports. In addition to creatine, many rowers take protein powder as part of their training. Is it useful? Is it advisable? What does research say?

The following is a summary of an interesting article from the Gatorade Sports Science institute web site. Up front I'll say I am sure that some would be skeptical and suggest that Gatorade has something to gain by their own formula reporting as the best in any research. While this is true to some extent, on this topic I would think not. Like all companies Gatorade is probably looking for new markets and new products for existing markets. If they could show that including protein in a particular drink would help, I am sure that they would be quick to go to market with something new.

The article is divided up into three significant sections:

1. Protein during exercise:

Two recent studies report that adding a small amount of protein to a sport drink improves endurance capacity. This article criticizes these studies and then reports on a better-designed trial that ensured optimal carbohydrate delivery and a more relevant sporting test. Importantly, the study was "double-blind" meaning neither the researchers nor the athletes were aware of which treatment (with or without protein) they were receiving during a given trial. (One wonders if athletes could not tell the difference between them by taste). This study confirmed the importance of carbohydrate in sports drinks during competition (admittedly 135 minutes of cycling not a 6 minute rowing race) but showed no significant improvement when protein was included.

2. Amino Acid supplementation:

Again the author of this review suggests no specific advantages in consuming a given amino acid or mixtures of them during exercise.

3. Protein ingestion during recovery:

Research about protein promoting carbohydrate replenishment is unclear. However the authors’ summary at the end of the article does report that:

"Consuming a small amount (10-20 grams) of high-quality protein after exercise promotes muscle protein synthesis compared to CHO alone and may enhance the body’s response to long-term training."

They also report that there is little evidence that protein improves performance in immediately subsequent exercise bouts (second or third workouts in one day, or perhaps later racing during a regatta). Any improvement seen in studies is probably linked to the extra calories these protein-containing drinks provide, and not the protein itself.

In other words, it helps with "muscle repair" and though it does not make a big difference for your next workout, it may well make a difference over the long term.

What does this mean to me?

1. Don’t pay extra for a sports drink containing protein for use during exercise, or to enhance recovery for your next workout.

2. To enhance recovery ensure that you are consuming enough calories - though obviously not too many!

3. Add a bit of protein to your immediate post-exercise recovery meal for long term benefits. It doesn’t need to be in a drink. It may well improve the rebuilding of muscle tissue over the long term.

What about protein powder supplementation – especially in weight training?

Lots of young athletes - and National Team athletes - feel a need to consume protein powder. A review of this topic is for another day; however, consider this: the Gatorade Sports Science Institute also provides a "round table" discussion article. In it William Kraemer, Ph.D. of Penn State comments on the need for protein in "elite (weight) lifters" - who all presumably need more than your average rower. He says:

"It doesn't appear that supplements are necessary, because most lifters get plenty of protein in their normal diets."

I would assume that several of you have opinions on this based on experience - please add your comments and direct this topic.

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Body Mass index and Rowing

I am just back from an interesting chat by Dr. Tony de la Mare who is doing research into the use of the BMI both for health and in comparison to athletic performance.

For those who are not aware the BMI is a simple and very general measurement taken as the subject's mass in kg divided by (their height in meters - squared). For more information see the entry at Wikipedia.

Now as many readers will know the BMI receives a great deal of criticism as being too general and not taking into account differences in body composition and genetics. Much ofthat criticism is valid but the general message of Dr. de la Mare's chat still holds:

Those outside the healthy range (certainly above 30) are at significant risk for disease and early mortality. Notable with the huge increase in risk for Type II diabetes as one's BMI increased. He explained that we are seeing a significant increase in dabetes in kids as young as 15 who overeat and undertake little or no physical activity.

One criticism is that large, well-muscled, athletes have their BMI skewed. The belief is that thier extra weight is muscle - good weight - and that it might put them intothe so-called "obese" levels of BMI.

Not so, in general. Dr. de la Mare presented BMIs from a variety of elite athleetes and all of their numbers were in a similar range - for men typically 20-24 and for women typically 20-22. Even ice hockey players and rugby players who are more muscular were in the 26-28 range - still well below so-called obese levels. There would seem to be an ideal BMI for aerobic performance at least, with runners (20), mountain bikers (22), and X-C skiers (23) all in the same range.

BMI and Rowing

As there were no data on rowers presented I did a little digging on the net. Data presented for the 1992 US Olympic Team at Dr. Stephen Seiler's excellent site suggest a BMI of 23 for both male and female rowers and data presented on the Cambridge University Crew from 2005 on the BBC web site puts them at 24. Again, despite being taller and more muscular these elite rowers have a BMI in the same healthy range as for other endurance athletes.

What does this mean for you?

Well, for the recreational athlete a high BMI is not likely to be because you are "big-boned." Don't fool yourself, and check with your doctor. At the same time, these are data for elite athletes. Most of us cannot expect to match them, but we should all aim to be in the healthy range nonetheless.

The BMI defines a place to be for both health and performance - but there is no correlation beyond that. If one were to rank the BMIs and erg scores of National Team athletes one cannot at all expect BMI to be a performance predictor within this group! In otherwords being in the ideal range is necessary for membership in this elite club, but it does not predict how you will perform once you get there.