Correlation and dynamics of physical and functional capacity of the Lithuanian national rowing team over an annual training cycle

The aim of this research was to analyze the adaptation dynamics of physiological and functional systems of rowers of the Lithuanian national team over the second year of the Olympic cycle and to analyze correlation among various indices of rowers. The object of this research is rowers physical development, functional capacity, special efficiency and their correlation. Ten Lithuanian elite rowers participated in the research. They were examined at the beginning of the preparation period of the second year of the fouryear Olympic cycle and at the beginning of the main competition stage of the competition period. The data of the rowersÿ research is presented in Table 1. The table shows that the average values of height, body mass, VLC, muscle mass have hardly changed during the period of research. Fat mass was surely (p<0,05) lower during the main competition stage than at the beginning of the preparation period. During the competition period the power of the leading hand force decreased very much. This could be explained by the fact that there was too little training with tools during the competition period and long special aerobic impact workout caused de-adaptation changes in the hand power. The indices of very short work, i.e. the single muscular contraction power (SMCP) and anaerobic alactic muscle power (AAMP), changed insignificantly. The indices of the power of special 10s work increased on average by 51,4W (p<0,01), also the indices of aerobic capacity in the limits of anaerobic threshold (AT) increased significantly; the increase by 21W is statistically reliable. The indices of aerobic endurance when performing work at the limits of critical intensity (LCI) progressed very much; it reached 46,6s (p