Dr Karl's Fitness Discussion (moved here)

[aus716]

Posted by : Village Idiot

Question
You have previously mentioned some fitness work went into the campaign. Which particular on-shore/gym exercises did you find were "gold medal winners" in preparation for the OK campaign?

Legs? Abs?



Reply by karl:


Karma: 2


Karl said:

One of the big lessons I learnt from Leba the year before was that I was no where near fit enough, if you look at my results as each day went on my placings got worse. So a
lot of effort went into that for Warnemunde.

During the year I do a general weights program focusing on upper body strength, no leg or ab work. About 3 months before the worlds I changed this program and introduced legs. At this time I also started a cardio program which consisted of 25 minutes on a cross trainer followed by 25 minutes ( the cross trainer started on level 16 averaging just over 20 calories/min and ended up on level 18 averaging just over 24 calories/min over the 3 month course) on a bike using the cardio program (where you have to keep your heart rate at a specified level depending on your age- for me this was 143 but I generally maintained it at 150). I'd do the cardio program 3-5 times per week on weekday mornings with the weight program prob done 2-3 times per week during the evenings. THe upside (or downside depending on how much you like pain ) is that as you get fitter on the cross trainer you have to pedal harder on the bike to maintain your heart rate...the fitter you get the slower your heart beats during exercise as your V02 increases. Hence the program is a sort of vicious cycle. It helped to have a video screen in front of the bike/cross trainer showing music videos containing scantily clad woman to take your mind off the pain.. . It may sound stupid but during this time I also practised mental imagery where I would picture myself sailing over the top of boats if I could just pedal that little bit faster!

Over this last 3 month period I'd also do ab workouts on the lounge room floor while watching tv at night. A real good exercise is to lie on your back and keeping your legs straight raise your heels about 6 inches off the floor. Then rotate your heels, with both moving to the inside for 20 rotations followed by 20 rotations with your heels moving out in the opposite direction, this works your lower abs and legs. I'd also do crunchies to work your upper abs...I'd prob do about 100 reps of each over the course of an evening.

To back all this up I would then sail both days on the weekend weather permitting doing some real long beats (about 20 minutes on each tack, so about 40 minute beats) with a mate of mine sailing a laser or against Steve when he could come out. Having a training partner out there helps you keep pushing yourself. A huge part of maintaining my fitness was getting the lend of Joes Ok to use while our boats were being shipped to Germany...this was absolutely crucial.

Strangely I think one thing that helped was taking a 12 day break from sailing/the gym before arriving in Warnemunde. On the way over Tors & I stopped off at LA for 12 days to visit her sister and do some sightseeing. Over this time we did a lot of walking and some swimming in the ocean which I now think just helped let the body recover. At the time I was worried about losing fitness but actually the reverse appeared to happen.

The end result was a complete turnaround from Leba. It was the first time I've ever been able to hike for 2-3 races straight in 15-20knts with basically no leg pain. In contrast to the year before it was now me getting stronger as the day went on.
« Last Edit: Aug 9, 2008, 6:09pm by karl »

aus716 replied:

Thanks Karl
Pretty much what I was doing how come you were so far in front, lol. To add humbly to what you have said, I could offer these points.

The cross trainer is really useful especially for older folks as it is low impact and shouldn't aggrevate joints and tendons. It is also excellent because there is a lower perceived excertion for the same benefits as compared to other exercises.

My max HR is about 138 bpm and like Karl I took mine marginally above (145) that as I got fitter. Because of time factors I worked out 3 times a week for about 90 mins a session, combining cardio (heart rate) and strength (weights). There is some disagreement about doing these in the same session, I did what I could.

As I have genetically skinney legs I do weight training on my lower back and legs all year. Also the large muscles of the upper legs are the hardest to develop (size, mass, length???) so I spend a lot of time on these.

Not long before the worlds a personal trainer worked with me on starting to develop a program for middle aged sailors, based around some of the stuff Michael Blackburn talks about in his book. What was interesting for me was the concentration on Big Ball (inflatable) work doing core strength exercises. Part of this was protective to avoid or not exacebate lower back problems, an old problem for old OK sailors.

Also heaps of ab/stomach work - this area improves quite quickly.

A couple of safety suggestions:
If you are in any doubt about your fitness capacity have a couple of tests with your doctor prior to commencing rigorous exercise and monitor your heart rate as you exercise.

To find you age ralated maximal heart rate -

www.mydr.com.au/tools/heartrate.asp

is an easy calculator. This is a guide only, take a little while to get up to maximal HR, if you become breathless, dizzy or nauseous take a break. Drink water before, during and after excercise, (kiwi's will think that this means beer -not)


As karl said mental imagery is really useful. Research suggests that neural pathways (related to muscle contraction/coordination etc) can be developed best thru a combination of real exercise and mental imagery. Google something like - mental imagery and exercise and you should find info or MP3's on this area. I most often forget to think.

Again I can supply links to info that might be helpful.
« Last Edit: Aug 12, 2008, 2:53pm by aus716 »

Please feel free to continue thread - aus716 ;D

[aus716]

Dr Karl
I notice you mentioned doing only upperbody work during the year, is there a reason why you did no leg work until closer to the regatta?

Also if others would like to write about their training methods or have questions, don't be shy, here is the place to do it. What about some of the younger helms?

[Deleted]

I only did leg work closer to the regatta as my legs are pretty strong anyway. I preferred to do upper body to try and build some more muscle up there (and hence weight) for better weight distribution when hiked out in the boat. I also tend not to cleat my mainsheet as Iike to play it a lot upwind, so it pays to have relatively strong arms so you can hang onto it.

[aus716]

Thanks Karl
You're only a young fella, once I get my belly button west of the gunwale my stomach comes in to play. Also I have always thought that life was too short to hold an OK's mainsheet upwind. Then perhaps I will need to consider this if I want to go with more whoosh.

Seriously I'd guess that most of the top of the fleet hold onto their mainsheets all the time. I have found that if the traveller has the right bends, so that A: the traveller car doesn't roll into the centre of the boat when you pull the main on and B: the mainsheet tension stays consistent as the traveller car goes towards the gunwale, then playing the traveller works well up until mainsheet dumping pressure.

[Deleted]

The main isn't that hard to hold on to if you,ve got a good ratchet block. I would doubt that half the fleet permanently hold on to the mainsheet during a race, everyone I've talked to seems to cleat it. I may be wrong though, it would be interesting to do a poll and see the response. I think the advantages of continually adjusting it are huge as opposed to having just the one main setting up a beat. This is where doing about 4 years of keelboat mainsail trimming has prob been a big advantage to me prior to getting an OK.

[Glenn AUS 719]

It is interesting after all the years we have been sailing (us older sailors) that fitness keeps coming up. When I first went into lasers (late 70's) I found myself in the back half of the fleet, but with an off season of running and weight training to improve my fitness I quickly moved into contention. Note Skill and talent still lacking.
We all fall into the trap of buying speed, when we could make big improvements by keeping fit and healthy, which should not be just a sailing goal but a lifestyle goal.
For those who are going into the fitness training, after a long break, I really do recommend that you take it slowly, it takes about three months for ligaments and tendons to adjust to new work loads. So to avoid injuries start real early and work up slowly. After six months of exercising your body will tell you if you are pushing too hard or can go an extra rep or weights.
For older sailors, watch the knees, we all know that we need them and by now for most of us they are telling us of past abuse.
Karl you have mentioned that your hiking straps in the cockpit are more inboard, do you have measurements or photos?

[Deleted]

I've been trying to sort out the best set up for hiking on my boat, and I found this article pretty interesting - the moral of the story is the straighter your legs the less load on the knee joints. Seems to suggest that for a given location of your rear, hiking straps inboard and up is better

www.roostersailing.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=hikestyle&Store_Code=1

[Village Idiot]

I have repeatedly tried to change my hiking style from bent to straight knee style. The conclusion i have come to is that this conversion cannot be made successfully without a mammoth amount of fitness training or steroids. I reckon Karl may have had a dose of both.

Seriously though, in the end I have been left to ask myself what is faster: straight leg hiking with breaks every 1-2 minutes or a comfortable slouch which enables at least a modest righting moment to be maintained for the entire beat?

The main argument against the latter is that the knees become crook pretty quickly.

[Deleted]

yeah there's no such thing as a free lunch - either your muscles or the joints cop the load but either way it hurts

[aus729]

I was always a bent leg hiker. I have just recently moved my straps towards the centre of the boat, and am finding it a lot easier. I find that my bum does not hit the water as much, and it seems easier on the knee's. That said, the muscles in the thighs get more of a work out.

[Deleted]

Straight legged as much as possible is the way to go I agree (it's impossible to get laser straight legged but you can get close). You're more locked in to the boat and being higher off the water you don't drag your arse and can spot waves/gusts a little better as well. It is painful but if you put in the hard yards that pain will go, well it did for me anyway. Those yards tho do have to be pretty hard! ;D. Glen I'll try to find a pic showing my hiking strap arrangement and email it to Andre, unfortunately like my rig set up I have no measurements of them! Will try to take some measuremnts this weekend if I remember when I go out for a sail.

Basically tho you want your feet as close to the centreboard case as you can get, so you can still remive them to tack that is! Mine are right in and I have really stumpy legs, if you have really long legs then I guess you'll just me more bent legged unless you move back in the boat and hike from the strap on the opposite side of the cockpit. You really want to be right forward as much as possible tho I reckon.

[Glenn AUS 719]

Thanks Karl,
I am for the more straight leg style as knees are not as good as they should be, muscle I can build knees I cannot.

[Deleted]

Funny you should say that Glenn. You guys may remember that at the Belmont Worlds we had a kiwi sailing called Matt Bismark. Well after sailing the OK for a while (and he was getting pretty good by then as well) his knees packed up and he had surgery. His physio/surgeon told him then bent legged hiking destroys your knees after a while, something about the front bits opening out and the back bits crushing together, he recommended straight legged hiking as preventing that.

[Ok Dinghy]

picasaweb.google.com.au/AUSOKDINGHY/ForumFiles#

Here is some straight legged hiking.

[Glenn AUS 719]

I am convinced, now just need to experiment to get the right location for my straps. Fortnately I have some timber I can make a mock up of my cockpit and turn it into a new hiking bench. This should allow me to try out different positions with out making lots of holes in my old boat.
Thanks for the input everyone.