Olympic rowing training is uniquely demanding; not only does it require superior cardiovascular endurance, high levels of power and strength are also essential. Because of this, many rowers train to increase lean body mass to raise power output. But how do the power outputs of rowers compare to other athletes, particularly in relation to lean body mass?

To try and understand this relationship, US scientists have carried out an extensive study to determine how power outputs vary across 32 different Olympic and World Championship events contested between 1976 and 2004, in male and in female athletes. Among the events were eight in running, four in speed skating, three in jumping, 12 in swimming and five in rowing. The researchers used laws of physics to derive simple equations relating to each event and then estimated relative power outputs of each sport.

What they discovered was that regardless of the event, the average power output of that event closely reflected the average lean body mass of participants in that event. In other words, higher lean body mass sports like rowing had proportionately higher average power outputs than low lean body mass events such as endurance running. Another way of expressing this is that on a ‘per kilo of lean body mass basis’, the power outputs across all the events and sports were remarkably similar.

They also found that between 1952 and 1972, there was a large difference in power outputs between female and males in running and swimming events, with the females lagging behind. However, in the period from 1976 to 2004, these differences were markedly reduced, reflecting the fact that women were more highly trained and carried higher levels of lean body mass compared to the earlier years.

The researchers conclude that ‘it is noted that efforts in recent years to provide equality of opportunity for female athletes coincide with equalisation of estimated relative power output in competition with the relative lean body mass.’

J Sports Sci 2006 Dec; 24(12):1329-39