The physiology and human performance across sports

The human body has unlimited potential. We are lucky enough to live in an era where sports physiology has been studied and applied for a long time and has demonstrated with scientific rigor how exercise duration, intensity and frequency can affect muscle composition, capacity, efficiency, energetics and ultimately, human performance.

Kayaking shares many aspects with swimming because they are both highly technical sports and require a vast cardiovascular capacity and engagement across all types of muscle fiber no matter the distance or duration of the event. In terms of performance, there is always a fine balance between technique, muscle development (and proper engagement) and cardiovascular ability. The holy triad of any sport as I call it, gives us the opportunity to continue to grow as athletes in any and all of those three aspects continuously. All three are tightly interconnected and while during specific training periods we may focus more on one or another, they all deserve attention throughout because they all contribute to each other and as a whole to performance. 

Swimming was introduced to the Olympics in 1896 and although kayaking was introduced only about 30 years later (1924), it has not managed to reach the attention that may deserve perhaps due to its increased complexity (involving paddle and boat) or other reasons. However, kayaking can still learn from its popular and highly studied sister-sport of swimming in all aspects of the holy triad of sports physiology. 

And although you may find many schools of thoughts and coaching styles, the principles of human physiology remain the same across sports.

I will outline a few below related to cardiovascular ability and let the rest open for debates ~

Short-term performances [10sec to 3min]: these performances require predominantly the anaerobic system (>70%) but when max effort is extended to 3min about 60% of energy comes from aerobic processes.

Moderate-length performances [3min to 20min]: in a 3min effort 60% of energy production is derived from the aerobic system but this value jumps to 90% in a 20min all-out performance; max aerobic capacity (VO2 max) plays a crucial role but not the single determining factor for performance.

Intermediate-Length performances [21min to 1hr]: in all-out efforts that last in this range the athlete works at less than 90% of their max aerobic capacity. This is where the VO2max can play a role as a number but other factors come into play as well such as "athlete's economy or efficiency".

Long-term performances [1hr to 4hrs and above]: such efforts involve little anaerobic energy production and rely heavily on athlete's efficiency as well as other factors such as athlete's ability to store, supply and utilize glucose (muscle and liver) and other environmental factors (tactics, heat, humidity, waves, etc.).

It is worth pointing out that in any performance, from short-term to long-term efforts, the aerobic system plays a role and needs to be trained and maintained. For a swimmer that specializes in 100m sprint races (46-50sec), 60% of their energy may depend on their aerobic system whereas a swimmer that specializes in a 400m event (~3-4min) approximately, 90% of their energy may rely on their aerobic system! Equivalently, a 500m sprint kayaker (~1min and 35sec) may still need 60-70% of their aerobic capacity, whereas a 1000m sprint kayaker may jump to 80-90%. Aerobic capacity is enhanced by many ways involving targeted quality workouts in combination with long sustained efforts of increasing volume for improving economy. 

Don't forget that the cardiovascular and muscular energetics delineation above is only one aspect of the holy triad that affects performance. Not only technique, muscular development and proper engagement also play a role but equally, the mental capacity, attitude, effort, grit, nutrition, race-day nutrition (if distance requires), race conditions (and many others); they all construct an athlete's performance - oftentimes one playing a heavier role than others depending on the individual.

 

Reference

"Exercise Physiology Theory and Application to Fitness and Performance" by Soctt K. Powers and Edward T. Howley