ECCENTRIC TRAINING ON ROWING PERFORMANCE: A CONCEPT PAPER

Abstract

Physical injuries are almost a norm among athletes. In a sport such as rowing, the common injuries among rowers concentrated on the lower back, knee and wrist regions. Henceforth, rowers participate in various training regimes such as aerobic training, resistance training, concurrent training and interval training in order to minimize the occurrence of injuries. Nevertheless, since injuries among rowers are still reported despite this efforts, experts raised questions on the effectiveness on a number of the training regimes. This study gives a special focus on eccentric training. Eccentric training is proven to improve musculoskeletal function in human body such as strength, endurance and physical power. However, with respect to the science among rowers; there are inconclusive results gathered from literature on the benefits given by eccentric training especially at core body section. The objective of this concept paper is to determine the effects of eccentric training in delaying muscle fatigue, changing in physical characteristic and improving physical related fitness performance among rowers. The objective will be achieved by measuring the muscle activation and muscle fatigue of a number of selected muscles among rowers by using surface electromyography (sEMG). This sEMG measurement will be performed during rowing performance 2000m maximal effort. It is hypothesized that eccentric training may appear to demonstrate greater improvement on physical development among rowers in comparison to other training regimes. There are need of studies on benefits of eccentric to confirm the controvert finding especially on rowing population regarding delaying muscle fatigue. This is crucial to reduce the risk of injuries among rowers. The findings from this study such as the type of exercises, intensity and intensity for eccentric training will contribute new knowledge upon prescribing eccentric training regime to rowers.