Just curious about what other athletic/fitness stuff people are into and how does it relate to paddling.
I will start: I lift weights and do mobility work. Does a pretty good job at keeping the weight off (if you do it right), makes me less injury-prone and I recover quicker from other forms of physical activity. I generally find that in my middle age, my body needs to be worked pretty rigorously to stay in shape. I had put together a reasonable lifting home gym over the last couple of years and it’s working really well for me.
In terms of paddling, I really don’t know for sure since I started working out before. Flexibility certainly helps with back pain while paddling. Muscle discipline helps engage the correct muscles during strokes.
I used to hike often and long distances before I started paddling. Now when it’s a hot summer day I’d rather be on/in the water. I do more hiking/showshoeing in the winter when the temperature is well below freezing and paddling isn’t much fun.
Road bicycle. How does it relate to paddling? It keeps your weight down and heart and lungs in good shape. I guess balance is a factor and you pay close attention to the WIND in both activities.
I do the gym five days a week with emphasis on my core for balance and ab strength (needed for proper rotation in a surfski), I hike the mountains, backpack and ride Catrike Speed for fun and cardio. Most of all I eat a whole food diet and run from sugar. I’m thin but if I gain any weight I will not fit in my ski. All around health is my goal. Plus making my wife happy makes me happy.
@DrowningDave said:
I do the gym five days a week with emphasis on my core for balance and ab strength (needed for proper rotation in a surfski), I hike the mountains, backpack and ride Catrike Speed for fun and cardio. Most of all I eat a whole food diet and run from sugar. I’m thin but if I gain any weight I will not fit in my ski. All around health is my goal. Plus making my wife happy makes me happy.
I do a lot of different exercises but I don’t know what they are called. Most of the weight training for the core is done with pulleys. Low weights with high reps to trim and strengthen and not bulk up. There are plenty of YouTube videos that will show you some good choices. Working the core makes balancing much better but so does using the Swiss Ball. I sit on the ball and put both of my feet on a ball the size of a soccer ball and spend ten minutes rowing with a stick while not falling off. Hard as crud but works wonders for balance. Hope this helps.
A mix of Yoga, weight training with hand weights, core work including planks, rotator cuff exercises, weighted squats, balance exercises. I have a spreadsheet listing the exercises, # of reps, etc. We have an indoor walking track in the town where I work so I’ll walk on my lunch hour in the winter months, outdoors when the road isn’t snowy. Am thankful to have good flexibility and not have to work at that.
Earlier this year I replaced my folding treadmill with a Concept 2D rower. The workout I hate but love when it’s over. Had stopped erging this summer, paddling instead, but now working back into it, every other day as a start with the goal of erging six days a week, doing steady state and HIT.
While the training definitely helps my paddling, I do the work for overall fitness and health. It sure made moving and stacking six cord of firewood a lot easier last month. My menu is simple and pretty much organic. But I do have a weakness for ice cream (no sugar added). Walking by the ice cream display takes more will power than getting on the erg. Sigh.
Ice cream! My only sweet weekness so I don’t let my wife buy any (she won’t eat it) and therefore I don’t eat it.
I also practice daily Intermittent Fasting. A great lifestyle choice for health and it keeps the wight off.
@DrowningDave said:
I do a lot of different exercises but I don’t know what they are called. Most of the weight training for the core is done with pulleys. Low weights with high reps to trim and strengthen and not bulk up. There are plenty of YouTube videos that will show you some good choices.
My preference is planks. I do a couple of variations and they work the core nicely.
Nothing wrong with bulking up. I do well with 4-6 reps going fairly heavy. As long as mobility and posture is good it’s fine. Most of us are generally limited in the amount of bulk we can put on anyways.
I am off steady state for good. My consistent experience with it is that it works well while it’s burning through muscle and then it stops working completely. If I have put on a bit of fat at that point (vacation for example) those extra poinds are not going anywhere even if I resume. Once I had a misfortune of stopping at such a point for a few years (kids were born and various other life stuff). In that time I gained an unusual amount of weight.
What works nicely now is lifting heavy on an empty stomach immediately followed by a decent (but not excessive) meal consisting of carbs and protein. It’s a really simple method that I read about in a book. I won’t mention the name of it as I am known to annoy people with unsolicited recerences. The bottom line is that the fat does burn and the muscle mass does grow slowly but steadily without complex variative programming.
Interestingly I never have bad days anymore. The worst that happens is that I hit the same weight/reps as before or a little better. Quite something actually.
Nothing wrong with bulking up. I do well with 4-6 reps going fairly heavy. As long as mobility and posture is good it’s fine. Most of us are generally limited in the amount of bulk we can put on anyways.
It’s fine when you’re young and healthy but as you get older it’s bad for the joints and if something bad happens and you can’t work-out, all of that extra muscle turns into a giant pile of fat. I’ve seen it happen too many times.
@DrowningDave It’s only bad on the joints if you make it so. Lifting correctly is not a simple thing and requires good form and patience in ramping up to decent weights. That alone may take a good couple of years and help of a physio specialist.
Also, I don’t believe muscle turns into fat. These is a lot of bs in the lifting circles with overeating and supplementation. None of that is necessary and quite possibly leads to weight gain if the habits are continued but exercises stopped. Another big factor is age related slowing of metabolism and genetics. Fast gainers often gain fat quick too.
In my case I was quickly turning into a giant pile of fat without lifting. Based on my prior experience cardio alone would not work in such state.
I go to the gym pretty much every day – 45 minutes of cardio, stretching and light weights (mostly shoulders/upper body). I need to be careful with my knees (bursitis) and feet (plantar fasciitis), so the treadmill is definitely out. I alternate between the arc trainer, elliptical and bike. Knock on wood, I haven’t had any trouble recently. When I do the body takes a long time to heal…
I am off steady state for good. My consistent experience with it is that it works well while it’s burning through muscle and then it stops working completely. If I have put on a bit of fat at that point (vacation for example) those extra poinds are not going anywhere even if I resume.>
For me, steady state on the erg is the same as LSD in my kayak. I do it for aerobic conditioning (wearing a HRM).
I downhill ski 3 days a week, 5 hours a day, from ice in to ice out, usually January through March. And ride a stationary bike 40 miles /week year around. Also walk the dog 3-4 miles every day weather permitting. Keeps this 63 year old body in relatively good shape.
@radskierman said:
I downhill ski 3 days a week, 5 hours a day, from ice in to ice out, usually January through March. And ride a stationary bike 40 miles /week year around. Also walk the dog 3-4 miles every day weather permitting. Keeps this 63 year old body in relatively good shape.
Skiing is nice. Thinking of getting back into it myself.
At 74 I ride my bikes a lot, do some workouts with elastic stretch thingies and lots of sit-ups and paddling. I try to keep the muscles I need and not much more. I read a doctors opinion one time when I was a weight lifter that said that building more muscle than you need is not necessarily a good thing. Muscle is tissue that the heart has to service and although it’s better than fat, it’s still more work for the heart. It seemed reasonable to me.
@magooch said:
At 74 I ride my bikes a lot, do some workouts with elastic stretch thingies and lots of sit-ups and paddling. I try to keep the muscles I need and not much more. I read a doctors opinion one time when I was a weight lifter that said that building more muscle than you need is not necessarily a good thing. Muscle is tissue that the heart has to service and although it’s better than fat, it’s still more work for the heart. It seemed reasonable to me.
^ I suspect it’s exaggerated. How much muscle an average “unassisted” person can put on anyways. But metabolically they are good and its important as my metabolism is crap. Not a fan of growing viceral fat, which I do if I don’t lift.
Occasionally drive up into the northern woodlands to check on the health of a few cards/boards for mobile weather/climate-related apps via boot/snowshoe/skinning ascents(AT skigear). Gradually bumping up levels of activity from daily walk(local City Forest) to gym programs. Starting to hit my closest ski resort after a decade+ of very little activity. Hiking the backcountry has always been interesting.