Strength tests for elite rowers: low- or high-repetition?

Area of Science:

• Sports Science
• Exercise Physiology
• Biomechanics

Background:

• Strength testing is crucial for evaluating athlete performance.
• Rowers require assessments of both upper and lower body strength.
• The reliability of different repetition maximum (RM) protocols in rowers is not well-established.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the utility of low- and high-repetition maximum (RM) strength tests for assessing elite rowers.
• To determine the measurement precision and reliability of various RM tests in a rowing population.

Main Methods:

• Twenty elite male rowers performed 5, 30, 60, and 120 RM tests on leg press and seated arm pulling exercises.
• Each test was repeated to assess within-participant variation and reliability.
• Per cent typical error and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated using log-transformed data.

Main Results:

• High-repetition tests (30, 60, 120 RM) with seated arm pulling demonstrated unsatisfactory measurement precision (typical error > 5% or ICC < 0.9).
• Low-repetition 5 RM tests showed potential, but only the 5 RM leg press met research criteria (typical error = 2.7%, ICC = 0.98) for small samples.
• 5 RM leg press and seated arm pulling met criteria for general assessment (typical error ≤ 5% and ICC ≥ 0.9).

Conclusions:

• Low-repetition 5 RM strength testing is more suitable for assessing elite rowers than high-repetition tests.
• The 5 RM leg press exercise is the most reliable test for research involving small groups of elite rowers.
• While 5 RM tests can assess both upper and lower body strength, only the leg press is recommended for small squad research.