Concept2 Forum

Okay, im just doing this out of curiosity. Besides multi vitamins. What are some good supplements and herbs that are beneficial to rowing. specifically on water rowing.

In elite athletes, some studies have shown benefits to leucine and to creatine, although not from muscle building, but as improvements in anaerobic perforrmance.

im in the same boat as you..im looking for a better way to improve my rowing. I've done a bit of research and MUSASHI, an australian brand, looks to be ok. Where abouts do you live?

Breathing training, has and has not been shown to be beneficial. It is typically described as inspiratory muscle training, and some devices might be able to develop better breathing power. Not a dietary supplement, but typically more legitimate than alternative therapies.

I never use vitamins, supplements, medicines, drugs, or any other kinds of harmful substances.

Fresh herbs are excellent.

i live in victoria Canada...i train on the same lake as the Canadian Mens National Team...


And creatine!!!

From my research that is for wieght lifters who need short bursts of energy. Afterwards, you crash.

Although this is not conclusive material, there is some indication that creatine improves anaerobic metabolism. Creatine can improve performance over shorter intervals, and for master's rowers and older, the actual racing distance is often only 1000 or 1500M:

From three separate studies (PubMed and/or Google Scholar using the search criteria rowing and creatine):

We conclude that in competitive rowers, a 5-day period of creatine supplementation was effective in raising whole-body creatine stores, the magnitude of which provided a positive, though statistically non-significant (r = 0.426, P = 0.088), relationship with 1000-m rowing performance.

During the anaerobic test, the athletes supplemented with creatine were able to continue rowing longer (mean increase, 12.1 +/- 4.5 s; p<.01) than Pl-Group (2.4 +/- 8.2 s; ns). No significant differences were found between groups in blood LA after the all-out exercise. The results indicate that in elite rowers, creatine supplementation improves endurance (expressed by the individual lactate threshold) and anaerobic performance, independent of the effect of intensive endurance training.

Rossiter et al [66] randomly assigned 38 male and female competitive rowers to either placebo or creatine supplementation (20 g/day for 5 days) groups in a double-blind manner. Simulated rowing time over 1,000 m was measured before and after supplementation. Total creatine uptake was estimated as the difference between creatine consumed and urinary [creatine] and [creatinine]. Muscle creatine uptake was estimated as 38±10 mmol/kg dry muscle. A significant 2.3-second decrease in 1,000 m rowing time (211.0 to 208.7 seconds) was observed in the creatine group with no change in the placebo group. The authors also reported a trend toward significance in the association between estimated creatine uptake and percent change in rowing performance (r=0.43; p=0.09).

That said, the same review that cited Rossiter, also later wrote the following:

Overall, there appears to be little scientific support for the concept that creatine supplementation will enhance performance in exercise tasks dependent primarily on oxidative metabolism of endogenous carbohydrate and fat.

Its not an herb, and there ae potassium supplements, but foods have much more potassium than the typical suplements. Pill 60 mg, a glass of OJ about 400 mg, and the RDA is 2000 mg a day.

There was an article many years ago in the US Rowing magazine about heat tolerance and summer rowing, by an MD who was a former university oarsman.

Improved hydration and more dietary potassium made a big difference in this research. The explanations by this doctor/author were very interesting, but I've never found the same information anywhere else. It came down to limited available potassium stores were the controlling factor for duration of your max heat tolerance, after sodium. Sweating sodium prevented heat rise, but once sodium losses reached a critical point, the body switched to potassium loss. When potassium losses begin to go critical, dangerous core heat rise is near or taking place. For anyone in extreme heat, the message was that when your sweat changes taste, trouble is on the way by way of heat related illnesses. You find out for yourself what that length of time is. Time to stop soon, cool off, rest, re-hydrate, and have something with decent sodium and potassium. Diluted OJ one of the best things at that point. Diluted, so that the high sugar content does not make you urinate. Recommended was 4:1 or 5:1 water to OJ. The higher potassium level makes it much better than "sport drinks" as a refresher.

On a personal note, in college years ago, my heat endurance seemed better than most. I drank about 8 glasses of milk and 3 glasses of orange juice daily, and ate my vegies along with a well-balanced diet. Milk and OJ are both high in potassium.

I think the following means you need to get enough carbohydrate....

Ribose versus dextrose supplementation, association with rowing performance: a double-blind study.

Dunne L, Worley S, Macknin M.
Sports Medicine Center, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA.

OBJECTIVE: It has been hypothesized that ribose supplementation rapidly replenishes adenosine triphosphate stores and thereby improves exercise performance. We compared the effects of ribose versus dextrose on rowing performance. DESIGN: Double-blind randomized trial. SETTING: Rowing team training area of large midwestern university. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-one women collegiate rowers. INTERVENTIONS: We studied the effects of ribose versus dextrose supplementation (10 g each in 8 oz water) for 8 weeks before and after practice and 2000-m time trials. OUTCOME MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: In the time trials, the dextrose group showed significantly more improvement at 8 weeks than the ribose group (median, 15.2 vs. 5.2 s; P = 0.031). CONCLUSIONS: We doubt ribose impaired, and hypothesize dextrose enhanced, rowing performance. Further research is needed to define what role, if any, dextrose and ribose play as athletic supplements.

now im confused..do supplements help rowing??????

groovydude wrote:now im confused..do supplements help rowing??????

They probably help your body stay in shape (ie healthy) which will indirectly help with rowing.

groovydude wrote:now im confused..do supplements help rowing??????

Only if you're not currently eating a healthy diet.

Caffeine: nature's perfect stimulant. (Unless you're one of the unfortunate few who can't tolerate it, or the puritanical types who won't.)

I believe caffeine works primarily if you don't consume it regularly, but if you're a regular coffee/tea/soda drinker you get no benefit.

Even then, caffeine is technically a prohibited substance, so consumption needs to be under a certain level.

From this thread, overall, the supplements that might work:

- protein (leucine)
- creatine
- carbohydrate (dextrose)
- caffeine