The Oldest Sport: Which Is The Hardest Sport?

When presented with the question “Which is the hardest sport?” most people might reach for boxing or wrestling (ESPN; Kevin Neeld). While these seem like plausible choices, society forgets the psychology behind sports. When adding psychology, rowing should definitely score higher than 39th out 60 different sports(ESPN). Even based off of physiology most people seem to underestimate how hard repeating and perfecting a rowing stroke can be. Physiology, psychology, and experience prove that rowing is more difficult than other sports. Lactic acid is what supposedly causes muscles to burn so painfully after the initial adrenaline rush, but according to Dr. Trent Stellingworth, it isn’t actually lactic acid that causes the muscles to burn. What actually causes the muscles to burn is the build up and separation of the lactic
What most rowers understand is that they produce a lot of lactate quickly, but most don’t even know why. A 2000 meter race for a rower has 98-110% of VO2 max (maximal aerobic activity). Once you reach that max you start using your anaerobic metabolism. This means that rowers are constantly training for anaerobic exercise which is much harder than aerobic exercise. In comparison professional marathoners are only 85-90% of VO2max, and their lactate measurement typically ends up under 4 millimoles. Rowers typically end up at 15-18 millimoles, maybe even higher (World Rowing). According to this information I, a 16 year old in high school, experience more pain from something that lasts about 8 minutes than my 51 year old grandmother who runs marathons in about five hours. There was research done by three Czech scientists comparing rowing and cycling machines. In their findings they found that rowing