Effect of rowing posture on body measurements and skin–sportswear interface pressure and implications on garment fit

Abstract

Sportswear should fit well each individual athlete while preserving its ergonomic and pressure comfort upon sport-specific movements. This study aims to quantify the effect of two rowing postures on selected body measurements and skin–sportswear interface pressure for competitive rowers of age 18–35. The results based on average body measurements of a total number of 74 male and female rowers indicate a considerable influence of the catch and finish posture on both body measurements and interface skin–sportswear pressure, regardless of the gender. Back length and across back width were the most affected by posture, and increased especially from the static to catch position by 12% (6.1 cm) and 16% (6.5 cm) for male rowers, and respectively by 11% (4.9 cm) and 13% (4.7 cm) for female rowers. In general, the posture led to the larger influence on pressure than on anthropometrics of maximum 55% versus 16% for male and up to 82% versus 13% for female rowers, respectively. The maximum interface pressure (e.g. 10 mmHg) was rather low, which suggest there was no pressure discomfort. Prototypes were developed and the fit of garments was investigated in various postures. For the considered fabrics and design, an increase of the garment pattern to accommodate the catch maximum changes led to a poor fit of the prototype MR58-CP, which was generally too large, especially in the static posture. On the contrary, prototype MR58-FP that considered some finish rowing posture-related body changes and design adjustments based on experience with the first prototype and input from the test person had the best fit.

Analysis of Dimensional Changes in the Lower Limbs During Movement for Sizing and Fit Development

“…If applied pressures in motion can be predicted, alterations can be made to the knitted fabric itself and the pattern to create optimal fit. 3D scanning allows the capture of the body in static functional postures, which has been done in previous studies [2,4,10,13], to determine functional ease requirements for pattern development. However, there are limitations to the accuracy of the results if the intention is to replicate movement [10,11,14,15].…”

Fit and Pressure Comfort Evaluation on a Virtual Prototype of a Tight-Fit Cycling Shirt

“…Pressure applied on clothing varies according to the design, pose of the wearer, garment material, the wearer's body shape, and so on. Changes of anthropometric body measurements [25] with posture have been demonstrated [26], changes of the clothing pressure with posture have also been reported, and body postural changes have signifi cantly infl uenced the skin pressure profi le applied by compression stockings tested in different body positions [27].…”

Comfort perception of tight winter-based sportswear

“…Although most scholars have evaluated subjective comfort, most of them only analyzed pressure or heat-humidity comfort separately (Troynikov et al, 2013;Havelka et al, 2015;Grujic and Ger sak, 2016;Daukantiene and Vadeike, 2018;Mandal et al, 2019;Cheng and Chen, 2019;Silina et al, 2019;Uren and Okur, 2019;Lee et al, 2020;Vasile et al, 2021). When people wear clothes, comfort is not only caused by pressure or heat-humidity, which may be caused by some senses such as pressure, heat-humidity and even tactile.…”