Sailing Fitness.

I do various different sessions - weights, cardio and those resistance bands.

Received a copy of 'Sail Fitter' (cheers Dave!) and also bought a copy of Jon E's book......not that i'm taking this particularly seriously! 

Originally posted by Jamesd Originally posted by iGRF  Off road mountain bike riding is good exercise, stomach, bit of upper body, aerobic and anaerobic all dealt with on a reasonable ride. If you get one of these modern bikes, they have a set of pedals for your feet! that way you can exercise your legs as well!

they didnt have pedals when he was a boy!

Personally, I don't think you have to be 'that fit' to sail or go sailing, however it wouldn't do any harm to exercise regularly for your day to day existence and the physical act of sailing itself should or could be considered good for our general fitness.

So what to do without going to the expense of a gym and a personal trainer?

Go for a run or bike ride to warm up, then have a set of exercises with a one minute rest between them, not sure how able you already are, but say twenty sit ups, then say ten press ups, then twenty squat thrusts, then thirty burpees and if you have something to hang off ten chin ups, then repeat the sequence three times, at least twice a week, it'll tone up all the other muscle groups you tend to use and will cost you nothing financially.

As you get fitter simply increase the number, I'll give you the target of what I used to do back in the day, which was.. 150 bombing sit ups, 100 press ups (or one to ten count i.e do one then get up then do two and so on) 30 burps (they're boring) 100 squat thrusts, thirty chin ups mixed handed, over, under and one arm each way) times three with one minute rest period, this used to then be followed by running up and down a steep shingle beach as part of a training sequence with some local footballers, then I'd run home. (Footballers are fairies in the fitness world) Windsurfers you will note were deemed to be the fittest of all atheletes in a survey they carried out at the time of the Athens Olympics, because of all the air rowing, which didn't surprise me.

The other group I used to work out with were rowers, they're a fit bunch.

Until recently I still do pressups and sit ups every morning, but lately have relied purely on my twice daily bike ride with the dogs to keep reasonably supple. Off road mountain bike riding is good exercise, stomach, bit of upper body, aerobic and anaerobic all dealt with on a reasonable ride.


Edited by iGRF - 19 Dec 12 at 9:48am

Originally posted by Jon Emmett It is also worth noting that you do need to do some non sailing specific training to avoid muscle imbalances which can lead to injury as loss of function. For example in sailing you tend to do lots of pulling, so it is very important to do some pushing exercises and have very good shoulder stability. Likewise if you hike it is very important to strengthen the "back" of your legs as well as the "front" and good core strength will protect your lower back.