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Purpose: This review presents a perspective on the expansive literature on rowing.Methods: The PubMed database was searched for the most relevant literature, while some information was obtained from books.Results: Following the life span of former rowers paved the way to advocate exercise for health promotion. Rowing involves almost all muscles during the stroke and competition requires a large oxygen uptake, which is challenged by the pulmonary diffusion capacity and restriction in blood flow to the muscles. Unique training adaptations allow for simultaneous engagement of the legs in the relatively slow movement of the rowing stroke that, therefore, involves primarily slow-twitch muscle fibres. Like other sport activities, rowing is associated with adaptation not only of the heart, including both increased internal diameters and myocardial size, but also skeletal muscles with hypertrophy of especially slow-twitch muscle fibres. The high metabolic requirement of intense rowing reduces blood pH and, thereby, arterial oxygen saturation decreases as arterial oxygen tension becomes affected.Conclusion: Competitive rowing challenges most systems in the body including pulmonary function and circulatory control with implication for cerebral blood flow and neuromuscular activation. Thus, the physiology of rowing is complex, but it obviously favours large individuals with arms and legs that allow the development of a long stroke. Present inquiries include the development of an appropriately large cardiac output despite the Valsalva-like manoeuvre associated with the stroke, and the remarkable ability of the brain to maintain motor control and metabolism despite marked reductions in cerebral blood flow and oxygenation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to examine the acute responses of serum growth hormone, testosterone, and cortisol to three training protocols in rowing. Six young rowers, members of the national team, carried out three frequently used protocols in rowing, i.e., an endurance, a moderate interval, and a resistance protocol, on separate days in a counterbalanced design. Blood samples were collected before, immediately after, and 4 h after exercise for the determination of growth hormone, testosterone, cortisol, and creatine kinase. All three protocols caused marked increases in growth hormone, the most spectacular being that immediately after the endurance protocol. The change in testosterone concentration immediately after the endurance protocol was significantly higher than the changes after the other two protocols. Cortisol concentration was significantly higher immediately after the endurance protocol than after the other two protocols, but remained relatively low in all cases, suggesting that these protocols did not considerably promote catabolism in muscle tissue. Based on these data, endurance training caused greater responses of the three hormones studied compared to interval or resistance training. In fact, resistance training (at intensities above 85% of 1RM) did not cause any significant changes in the three hormones. We therefore propose that evaluation of training programmes designed for elite athletes should include measurements of hormonal changes in order to ascertain that the programmes do cause the expected adaptations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mentally imaged but unexecuted physical activity has been reported to induce a cardiorespiratory change. In order to test whether the previous experience of the performed exercise was a prerequisite to observe these changes, ventilation and heart rate were recorded during mental imagination of a rowing race in four groups of volunteers: 12 competitive rowers, 10 non-rower athletes, 12 students (22–30 years old) and 12 senior subjects (50–60 years old). Recordings were performed at rest, during the viewing of a rowing race and during mental imagination of this race. Analysis of variance revealed significant condition effect for all cardiorespiratory variables. All subjects increased their breathing rate (mean increase: 16 breaths·min-1 in rowers, 8 breaths·min-1 in athletes, 8 breaths·min-1 in students, and 6 breaths·min-1 in seniors), 29 decreased their tidal volume (mean decrease: 100 ml in rowers, 102 ml in athletes, 120 ml in students and 26 ml in seniors), with an increase in the resulting ventilation in 38 subjects (mean increase: 14 l·min-1 in rowers, 3.6 l·min-1 in athletes, 2.8 l·min-1 in students, 2.6 l·min-1 in seniors). Heart rate was increased in 34 subjects (mean increase: 12 beats·min-1 in rowers, 5 beats·min-1 in athletes, 6 beats·min-1 in students and 5 beats·min-1 in seniors). The number of subjects who exhibited changes was evenly distributed among the four groups. However, mean values of the changes were higher in rowers than in the three other groups, mainly due to three rowers who exhibited extremely large increases in cardioventilatory variables. Analysis of variance showed no significant group effect for heart rate and breathing rate. These results suggest that rowing experience may not be necessary for changes in heart rate and ventilation to be elicited by mentally imagining a rowing race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]