Bioenergetics of cyclic sport activities in water: swimming, rowing and kayaking

In this chapter the determinants of C (the energy cost of locomotion) in aquatic sport activities will be presented and discussed with a particular focus on swimming (with different strokes) and on boat locomotion (e. g. rowing and kayaking). At variance with locomotion on land, a large proportion of the power provided by the muscles is necessarily wasted to transfer water kinetic energy not useful for propulsion. Thus, the concept of propelling efficiency (the ratio of power output useful for propulsion to total power output) is fundamental to understand these modes of locomotion. Furthermore, even if the literature provides all data needed to calculate C in this environment it is quite difficult to estimate Physical Activity Energy Expenditure (PAEE) of aquatic sport activities due to the multiplicity of factors that affect energy expenditure in water (e.g. mode of locomotion, speed, gender, age and technical skill).