Importance of Height in Rowing

[mattflint49]

Can anyone underline the mechanics behind height in rowing. I'm aware that the taller you are obviously results in longer levers like arms, legs, trunk etc and especially bigger lungs. How strong and fit does a certain 172cm rower have to be to be equal to a 185cm tall rower?

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

I'm aware that the taller you are obviously results in .... and especially bigger lungs.

You may have more massive lungs, but that doesn't have any effect on your fitness. Otherwise any and every aerobic event would be dominated by giants. Fortunately, organ size is relative to body size and body demands, so there is no advantage to having "bigger lungs."

How strong and fit does a certain 172cm rower have to be to be equal to a 185cm tall rower?

I don't think there has ever been a study that looks at this. The shorter you are the higher you have to rate to make up for the lack of length. That only works to a certain extent, but unless the height difference is very substantial, it won't make that big of a difference.

[bisqeet]

from a physic point of view you wont to produce as much force at the catch as possible.

f = m.a

(thank you newton).

2 factors there - mass (body weight) and acceleration.

so with your body weight 5x kg - you will have to accelerate ~twice as fast as a 100kg person...

easy you might think - im very fast. but for how long ?

without wanting to sound cruel
@ 1.72 56kg you might become a "good" rower, and it will keep you fit and you can have all the fun you want - but you will find it very hard in a competitive world if that is your wish...

[mdpfirrman]

You've not asked this one before. Height and strength are both incredibly important. Currently, you have neither. You must be low body fat to have rowed a 7:40 something, which is great. As for strength, you need a lot more than you have now if you want to improve (and weight).

The good news is I would imagine that you don't have a ton of body fat. Have you ever thought of wrestling? The reason I ask is that they train incredibly hard and lift a lot of weights. My son (your height) was a talented high school soccer player. He was smaller and shorter. He started wrestling and gained nearly 20 lbs of muscle. While he didn't end up playing either soccer or wrestling in college (he got an academic scholarship) he was offered scholarships in both soccer and wrestling for a D-1 school (Air Force Academy).

Find guys your height (I've recommended this to you before) and look at their 2K times. If they have strong times (like Remi or Glenn as two examples), watch what they do each day. They both post often in the thread "Post your Daily Training". Both have been training with heavy weights for years (I would imagine). You don't get that strong overnight. The good news is when you are thin and don't have a lot of muscle, it's easy to pack on for the first year or two, but you do have to work very hard at it and dedicate 3 or 4 days a week to compound lifting and really challenge yourself.

Many guys in the gym think they challenge themselves and are kidding themselves. I'm 51 and outwork everyone in my gym but maybe 6 guys (and I'm 51 years old) in the weight room. Most American football players I've seen sit on the machines and don't do a whole lot of anything but text while they're there. You won't get really strong looking at your phone. Look into programs like 5X5 or read anything that Pavel wrote. Buy BodyBeast - if you really want to row (against the odds with your height but I respect that) you'll need to get quite a bit stronger. Wrestlers know how to lift. They are insane in the weight room. At least at my son's school, they put the football players to shame. Very few high school athletes truly know how to lift. You also need to eat well too to pack on muscle and eat the right foods - whole foods, healthy fats and quality proteins. You don't need 250g of protein a day. You probably only need 100g or so a day (assuming you're training hard). Any more is a waste of money.

Good luck. I won't respond again to your posts. I'm out...

[gregsmith01748]

How does being tall help you row faster? There are two main contributors.

First, as mentioned above, you are likely to have more muscle mass and can generate high peak and average force.

Second, and I think more important is drive length. The pace that you can achieve is related to the work done in each stroke. Work is force times distance. If you are pulling the oar through a greater angle (or pulling the chain a greater distance), then you go faster. The OTW crowd talks about taller rowers having "longer levers".

If you use use a tool like ergdata, you can get a measurement of your drive length. If you know a 185cm tall rower, you could get the same data for them. A lot of this has to do with things like inseam length, arm length and other stuff. But at the end of the day, if your drive length is 10% shorter than a taller rower, you will need to be able to hit 10% higher average force on the handle.

[G-dub]

I'm always looking for reasons to blame my times on my height! And it has to matter if you look at those that are doing it at the world class level. It (being short) may not exclude someone from competing or being great, but it sure would seem to mae it easier to be so. You and I have to pull that chain more times than Bisqueet does for the same distance.

[Tim K.]

http://www.c2forum.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... t&start=15

[EFMAX]

I am 1.70m and always use to think that the tall guys had it all in rowing..

I use to row and try and extend my overall reach by pulling the bar too high.

Then I watch Chris Larkman who is about 1.75ish, destroy a whole group of pro rowers at the 2002 BIRC and what he lacked in height, he made up for in sheer strength and seriously good lungs.

The thing with lungs is not just about how much oxygen you can draw in but how much you can convert into useful energy.

Funny enough, for a long time, most of the non-pro but top rowers were all rugby players - strong legs, massive upper body size and all six foot plus.

When I was training at Concept, their trainer asked me my goals and they ended up saying that my VO2 Max needed to be better if I wanted to do a sub six 2K and he was right.. on paper I was fit but in reality there were still a few things missing.

For a while I tried to copy Chris Larkman's training but the bottom line was, my physical disposition was always going to work against me - when I row correctly, my stroke length is approx 0.95-1.05mts and I have to match that to the brute force needed to get the appropriate power into the flywheel - so what this means for me (or what it meant as I am not trying any more) was that getting a sub six was never ever going to be easy for me, and I accepted that fact.. and stretching me was never going to be an option, I dropped the silly rowing technique, corrected my rowing position and just rowed as I was shown and enjoyed it.

[Carl Watts]

The tall guys do have it all in rowing.

Sure you find some shorter rowers who are way outside the "Curve" in terms of performance for there height, but your just freakish in other areas to compensate. Fact is if your were taller you would be faster still.

Its like a normally aspirated car engine, doesn't matter how good you make it its always going to produce more power still with a turbo added to it.

Height makes a big difference on the Erg as it affects your stroke length. Simple math you end up putting in the power for longer. The shorter you are the more power you have to put in during the drive for it to average out to be the same as a taller rower putting in same or even less power for longer.

Its no coincidence that elite rowers are typically all tall, you only need to look at what makes an elite rower get to where they are to realize the body type required.

[bisqeet]

I am 1.70m and always use to think that the tall guys had it all in rowing..

I use to row and try and extend my overall reach by pulling the bar too high.

Then I watch Chris Larkman who is about 1.75ish, destroy a whole group of pro rowers at the 2002 BIRC and what he lacked in height, he made up for in sheer strength and seriously good lungs.

The thing with lungs is not just about how much oxygen you can draw in but how much you can convert into useful energy.

Funny enough, for a long time, most of the non-pro but top rowers were all rugby players - strong legs, massive upper body size and all six foot plus.

When I was training at Concept, their trainer asked me my goals and they ended up saying that my VO2 Max needed to be better if I wanted to do a sub six 2K and he was right.. on paper I was fit but in reality there were still a few things missing.

For a while I tried to copy Chris Larkman's training but the bottom line was, my physical disposition was always going to work against me - when I row correctly, my stroke length is approx 0.95-1.05mts and I have to match that to the brute force needed to get the appropriate power into the flywheel - so what this means for me (or what it meant as I am not trying any more) was that getting a sub six was never ever going to be easy for me, and I accepted that fact.. and stretching me was never going to be an option, I dropped the silly rowing technique, corrected my rowing position and just rowed as I was shown and enjoyed it.

hmm - there is a difference between rowing (OTW) and training on the erg. I beleive you are reffering to training on the erg in general, where as the topic poster has maded several posts all reffering to OTW.
the legnth of the stroke OTW is more important than that on the erg. This is where the body size plays a major role.

[hjs]

The tall guys do have it all in rowing.

Sure you find some shorter rowers who are way outside the "Curve" in terms of performance for there height, but your just freakish in other areas to compensate. Fact is if your were taller you would be faster still.

Its like a normally aspirated car engine, doesn't matter how good you make it its always going to produce more power still with a turbo added to it.

Height makes a big difference on the Erg as it affects your stroke length. Simple math you end up putting in the power for longer. The shorter you are the more power you have to put in during the drive for it to average out to be the same as a taller rower putting in same or even less power for longer.

Its no coincidence that elite rowers are typically all tall, you only need to look at what makes an elite rower get to where they are to realize the body type required.

Except Emax, the fastest 5k man ever inch for inch

[jamesg]

In rowing and sculling, height counts for nothing.

Yesterday, out on my lake in a K2 with the wife, we were passed by a girl in a 1x. She had a quick catch, kept the blades in all the way in to clean finish and recoverd slowly in perfect sequence with the blades off the water. Pure envy, not least for how her boat must sing. I guess she was 5'5 or 5'7.

[hjs]

Height is of no importance in rowing. To row well you have to know how: technique.

Height is weight..

You can have great technique, against an other guy with that seem technique but more body you will always be beaten. But it will look good though

[bisqeet]

The tall guys do have it all in rowing.

Sure you find some shorter rowers who are way outside the "Curve" in terms of performance for there height, but your just freakish in other areas to compensate. Fact is if your were taller you would be faster still.

Its like a normally aspirated car engine, doesn't matter how good you make it its always going to produce more power still with a turbo added to it.

Height makes a big difference on the Erg as it affects your stroke length. Simple math you end up putting in the power for longer. The shorter you are the more power you have to put in during the drive for it to average out to be the same as a taller rower putting in same or even less power for longer.

Its no coincidence that elite rowers are typically all tall, you only need to look at what makes an elite rower get to where they are to realize the body type required.

Except Emax, the fastest 5k man ever inch for inch

you missed the 10k
there are world champions that can't boast those times...

[hjs]

you missed the 10k
there are world champions that can't boast those times...

Sorry

Also look at 2k/5k "gap" , no slow down whatsover... He keeps that pace going like a flatline. He much be slowfiber all over...

Oops, almost missed those sprinttimes, again no other 1.70 guy can tough does. The man is a wonder