Winter Workouts

Chris Love 3 years ago

For many, winter is a busy sailing season, constantly flying to Miami or Key West for regattas and then home again, wherever home may be. But for most, that's just not an option. When the home waters get frozen over, or at least too cold to go sailing (of course some people might argue over where exactly that point is), theses unfortunate sailors must resort to some alternative to keep themselves on their game. If you are in this majority of seasonal sailors, what do you do during the winter to stay sharp? Do you have a hiking bench? Read a lot of Dave Perry? Go on a diet? Or drink beer and hook up Sailgroove to your big screen TV? What effect does your winter regimen have once you finally dust off that hull and unroll those sails for the first time? What can the season sailors do now, to prepare for that glorious day?

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6 comments

Carson Turowski 2 years ago

Bronze pass at Wachusett Mt. has already helped me get five more days of skiing so far this season, and the season aint over.
I'll do a little bit of frostbiting and surfing as well. water activities pretty much go year round for me.

Chris Princing 2 years ago

Anyone have plans for a hiking bench?

future husband 3 years ago

Vanessa- keep it tight...

Vanessa DeCollibus 3 years ago

Better late than never--sorry Chris!

Back in my college days, but specifically when I tried too hard as an underclassmen, my friend (and later crew) Eva and I decided that we didn't want to lose our fitness level from the fall, and have to start all over in the spring. (This was particularly on account of the fact that one of our first regattas that spring was at Navy, and we had painful memories from hiking our asses off at Navy Fall.) So we came up with the Super Crew workout plan. Really dorky, but it definitely worked. So I guess my first advice to crews (and skips) trying to stay in shape for the spring season is this: Find a buddy. Having a friend to work out with is great for company and motivation. Also, our workout sessions were Eva and my times to catch up on each other's lives and gossip. Very key.

So here's what I can remember of our workout plan. You'll notice it's pretty mild. The reason for this is because we a) didn't have a TON of time as busy college students and b) justified this fact by saying that we didn't want to get TOO bulky, because that's scary and also you know... muscle weight.

MONDAY: Run for 30 Minutes. Do 100 sit-ups. Discuss the weekend.
TUESDAY: Weight Training: do a lot of reps of small weights of whatever's free at the gym. Focus on either legs or arms. Then do some ab stuff if time.
WEDNESDAY: Bike/elliptical for 30 mins. Then, 100 sit-ups, or maybe some wall sits.
THURSDAY: More weight training. Do whatever we didn't do on Tues (legs or arms). Then Abs.
FRIDAY: Run for 30 mins.
WEEKEND: A long run if motivated enough. And then... kept our drinking muscles in shape.

Even this relatively small amount of exercise really helped us maintain our motivation and fitness from the fall into the spring. I guess the last bit of advice that i have is that if you set goals that are too lofty, you'll never get them done. If they're too low, you'll feel like an idiot going to the gym for 10 minutes. So, take a good hard look at yourself and decide what's reasonable for you. Maybe that means joining an intramural soccer team. Or... maybe something less structured than the workout plan i outlined. I think that regardless of what you decide, the trick is to stay active! Your sailing can only benefit.

Summer Sailor 3 years ago

I try to stay in shape year round, but mainly just for health, not specifically for sailing, and I definitely keep up with what's happening in the sailing world, but that's about it. I usually get my Etchell out for its first sail around Memorial day and sail through September. It definitely takes a few weeks before I'm comfortable with how I'm sailing, but a lot of that is tuning and stuff. What more can I do?

AJ Jones 3 years ago

I run and drink a lot of beer, and eat low sodium pretzels