I had a fantastic days sailing yesterday, the forecast as the weekend approached promised strong gusty, challenging conditions. The weather on the day certainly didn't disappoint. Due to lacking a crew I was Laser sailing, inevitably after 2 hour long races in force 4-6 winds I was feeling a little 'tired', consequently today my thoughts turn to fitness for sailing, warming up and stretching after.
How to keep fit for sailing as I get older and my commitments grow, seems increasingly hard. Work commitments keep me off the water a lot of weekends through the year, family and work make time for exercising increasingly hard to find. However there have been a large number of professional athletes that have proven that age in itself is not a reason to give up and accept a future of puffing up stairs and sailing slowly upwind. The case studies show that fitness doesn't automatically drop off as years advance. It is normally the desire and drive (and time) to keep training at the level required that wanes first.
I try to incorporate as much exercise into my daily routine as possible, but it was painfully obvious after yesterdays races that this isn't enough.
My next area of focus is fitness. I will report how I get on fitting training in alongside looking after 2 babies, working and studying for an online degree.
Warming up and stretching is an area that all sailors could and should fit into a days sailing. It takes very little extra time and saves a lot of aching the following day. As I write this on the Monday morning, aside form a sore ankle (need to look at my hiking technique) I have very few aches. I know from past experience this is entirely down to 5-6 minutes spent stretching after the last race. My stretching routine has developed on the premise that if it aches the day after I need to stretch it the day before, and now seems to cover most muscle groups.
A quick rundown on what I generally include in my warm down stretch is, upper and lower back, shoulders, chest, quads, hamstrings, calves and forearms. A quick Google search revels many ways to stretch most muscle groups. I like to use the boot lid of the car to stretch shoulders, and find a laser is a good height for stretching legs and lower back. As was suggested to me yesterday I am going to try to stretch after each race, hopefully allowing my muscles to recover better for the next race.
The warm up I have neglected a little more than the after sailing warm down. A quick jog to the boat and a few exercises while waiting for a gap on the slipway, along with a few minutes of gentle sailing is about it. While searching for a more complete warm up I can across this.
RYA Sailing fitness Warm up
Next time you go sailing try the warm up and warm down. Hopefully it should reduce the Monday morning aches and pains.
Check out a blog by an American sailor called 'improper course' it has some good discussions on fitness, as well as many other excellent articles.
Relating back to previous articles, I am pleased to report my starts are getting a lot better. I am continuing with the starting preparation, and am not only making better starts (most of the time) but feel a lot more confident when starting. I even enjoyed the two starts yesterday.
After analysing my performance on Sunday, 2 things to work on that will make the biggest difference to my sailing.
1. Fitness, this should in turn help my upwind boat speed.
2. Be a bit braver down wind: I could have got more speed downwind by working the boat harder, and sheeting out more and getting my weight forward again in the lulls. Felt I was sailing a bit too conservatively/ safely. (although I kept the rig upright)
