Anatomy of a Rower: Does Damir Martin have the Strongest Legs of any Olympic athlete?

Anatomy of a Rower-Does Damir Martin Have the Strongest Legs of any Olympic Athlete?

Rowing: the full package for an Olympic athlete
Body shape of a rower = stroke rate x stroke length
Elite rowers: tall, muscular and lean
Damir weighs 102.8 Kg
Damir Martins’ sessions: 20K rowing followed by 60 – 100K biking followed by weight-lifting
Damir’s Total Body Fat: 18.4% (lean muscle to match the mass)
Linear endurance athlete: an athlete that repeats the same action over and over again
High strength and symmetry – very important for a rower
In a typical rowing stroke almost 50% of the power produced comes from the leg muscles
Damir’s peak torque on leg extension: almost 400 newton-meters, the highest of any athlete
Damir’s symmetry from both legs almost the same
Rowing => big athletes => big lungs
Rowers must shift between intense aerobic and anaerobic activity throughout a race and efficient and powerful lungs are the basis of everything they do
Rowers have the reputation for having the strongest lungs in sport
VO2 Max also knows as aerobic capacity or endurance capacity is crucial for rowing performance
The anaerobic threshold is the point at which the body can no longer remove the lactic acid. This causes the muscles to burn and exhaustion to set in. Rowers have produced some of the highest-ever recorded VO2 Max readings among elite athletes
Damir’s Maximal VO2 Score: 6.25. Damir consumes 6.25l O2 per minute!
Damir has stamina, strength and a mental conditioning that enables him to push his body beyond the limits.