Bodyfat and erg performance

[Gus]

Yes. and if you use his numbers (2:00 vs 2:00.5) in the calculator...

Being Fat does not help but it doesn't hurt nearly as much as it does in other sports.

Using those numbers you then have a 2 second difference over a 2k. That's significant in a close race. Of course, a 2k is relatively of short duration. The longer the time the greater I would expect the impact of the extra weight.

[Carl Watts]

Yes I think thats the bottom line Nismo, the weight just isn't as big a factor as in other sports which makes the Erg one of the ideal weight loss tools.

The Erg must have helped my mental staying power and being able to sustain a high HR for longer for running but my time is still slow. Exercise can be so sports specific

[Nosmo]

Using those numbers you then have a 2 second difference over a 2k. That's significant in a close race. Of course, a 2k is relatively of short duration. The longer the time the greater I would expect the impact of the extra weight.

Longer races are at lower rates and the loss of moving up and down the slide is proportional to the stroke rate cubed. At 25 spm the losses are only 58% of what they are at 30, and 36% of what they are at 35.

[cjperks]

i am 189 cm tall and weigh 190kg i can row 2k in 7.36.0 if i lost 50% of my weight do you not think my performance would be better having lost the extra fat .

[Carl Watts]

i am 189 cm tall and weigh 190kg i can row 2k in 7.36.0 if i lost 50% of my weight do you not think my performance would be better having lost the extra fat .

In your case , you bet ! For that height you wouldn't want to be any more than 110Kg and you could expect a Sub 7 2K depending on your age.

[hjs]

Yes I think thats the bottom line Nismo, the weight just isn't as big a factor as in other sports which makes the Erg one of the ideal weight loss tools.

The Erg must have helped my mental staying power and being able to sustain a high HR for longer for running but my time is still slow. Exercise can be so sports specific

Of course in erging bodyfat does not play the role it has in running or cycling, but it sure has an affect bigger than you think, and in swimming a high bodyfat percentage is even a plus, but that said you never see fat swimmer also no swimmers with 25% bodyfat.
In itself there is not much wrong with that number although I think if you exercise regularly and have a healthy dieet a somewhat lower number would be to expected. I simply think 25 % is way to high, but that is more cosmetic and my subjective judgement.
Just like yours and some one else in this thread, we simply like what suits us, so the "fattie's" say is doesn,t matter and the more "lean" ones say it does

[Carl Watts]

Have never really worried about the actual numbers, I don't look like I have 25% body fat, not even close so I'm not worried. Could post a pic but probably this is not the appropriate Forum !

[hjs]

Have never really worried about the actual numbers, I don't look like I have 25% body fat, not even close so I'm not worried. Could post a pic but probably this is not the appropriate Forum !

Healthwise I also don't think the actual number is that important (within reasonal min. and max.), not changing much in weight and eating healthy is the most important.
The 25% may be deciving, in my younger days I used to have 6/10% bodyfat, last year I got myself messured (skinfold methode) and the outcome shocked me 18/19%
I immidiatly went on a dieet and got back to 11/12%, and it's time to again do that.

[teddythebeer]

Paul's VO2max calculator tells me a 95kg athlete pulling 6:30 has a VO2 of 57.9. A 90kg athlete with the same time has VO2 of 61.1. 5.5% better for the lighter athlete. Working backward, if a 95 kg athlete lost 5 kg bodyfat without sacrificing any power, he should be able to pull the equivalent of a 95kg athlete with a 61.1 VO2, which would be 6:23.

VO2max calculator doesn't ask about body fat %, just about weight. An athlete with more weight is assumed to have more muscles (not more body fat!). If lighter athlete does the same time as heavier one - it means that the lighter athlete uses his muscles more efficiently. Body fat has nothing to do with VO2max. The calculator was designed with athletes in mind, and athletes basically have same (low) percent of body fat. It's just my guess, of course.

In the same time being fit and being lean is closely related, so in most cases a person with less body fat will have better VO2max It just doesn't say much about body fat effect on performance. The points about inertia, movement restriction, cooling and so on still count though.

[Nosmo]

VO2max calculator doesn't ask about body fat %, just about weight. An athlete with more weight is assumed to have more muscles (not more body fat!). If lighter athlete does the same time as heavier one - it means that the lighter athlete uses his muscles more efficiently. Body fat has nothing to do with VO2max. The calculator was designed with athletes in mind, and athletes basically have same (low) percent of body fat. It's just my guess, of course.

Note quite.
The VO2 calculator assumes it takes a certain amount of oxygen to produce a certain amount of power. It does not take weight into account except to normalize the value. This is a pretty good approximation for each category (trained/untrained and male/female). Basically it is saying that bio-mechanical efficiency doesn't vary too much within each category.

So a 100 kg athlete with an erg of 7:00, would have a VO2 max of approximately 52 ml/min/kg (normalized by weight), or 5200 ml/min (absolute). A 50 kg athlete with the same erg score would have double the normalized VO2 max, 104 ml/min/kg, but the absolute value would be the same, 5200 ml/min.

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

I may be getting the wrong inference from previous posts, but as far as I know the amount of oxygen one can breathe in is not the limiting factor in performance.

From the world rowing website:

5.2 The Major Components of Oxygen Transportation
The first component is the lungs. The lungs can take in 120 to
180 litres of air per minute during exercise in normal people.
Top rowing athletes have been observed with an intake of over
200 litres of air per minute.
Considering that the air we breathe contains approximately 21
percent of oxygen, this means that up to 42 litres of oxygen per
minute can be inhaled by a heavyweight athlete during heavy
exercise. This is considered enough oxygen for the metabolic
demands of the body and does not change significantly with
training.

So your mass doesn't affect your oxygen intake. With less fat you have less oxygenated blood being diverted to fat tissue, but I doubt this really makes a noticeable difference (as long as we're talking about small % differences in fat).

[Nosmo]

I may be getting the wrong inference from previous posts, but as far as I know the amount of oxygen one can breathe in is not the limiting factor in performance.

I may be getting the wrong inference from your post but,
If your point is that gaining weight does not change how much O2 you can acquire/use, then I agree. Gaining weight does not have a significant effect on absolute VO2max, but it obviously effects the normalized value.
The question was how does it effect erg scores which is usable power output during rowing.