Associations of 2000 m Rowing Ergometer Performance With Load–Velocity Relationship Variables Obtained During Bilateral and Unilateral Prone Bench Pull and Leg Press

This study aimed to determine the associations between rowing performance with load–velocity profile obtained during bilateral and unilateral prone bench pull (PBP) and leg press (LP) exercises. Twenty-one competitive rowers completed a 2, 000-m time-trial rowing ergometer test, along with 2 identical experimental sessions to assess bilateral and unilateral PBP and LP load–velocity profile variables: load–axis intercept (L₀), velocity–axis intercept (v₀), and the area under the load–velocity relationship line (A_line). Spearman's rank correlation coefficients (ρ) were used to examine the associations of load–velocity profile variables and interlimb asymmetries with 2, 000 m rowing ergometer performance (total time). The goodness-of-fit of the simple regression models used to determine individual load–velocity profiles was very high for PBP and LP and velocity variables (R² ≥ 0.794). The bilateral variant showed higher velocities than the unilateral variants performed with self-reported preferred (p ≤ 0.031, ES ≥ −0.48) and nonpreferred sides (p ≤ 0.015, ES ≥ −0.61), except for LP v₀. Rowing performance (total time) exhibited moderate to very large negative correlations in 31 out of 36 cases with all load–velocity profile variables obtained from PBP and LP (r_s ≥ −0.440, p ≤ 0.046). In contrast, interlimb asymmetries did not correlate with rowing performance (−0.331 ≤ r_s ≤ 0.422, p ≥ 0.057), except for LP A_line, which exhibited a significant relationship. In conclusion, load–velocity profiles are specific to the exercise variant and are highly sensitive to rowing performance. Bilateral exercises are recommended, because they more closely reflect the bilateral nature of force production during rowing ergometer performance.