Category: Workouts

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The Friday Lowdown – 13th March 2020

What’s The Best Cross Training For Kitesurfers?

When I first started training people to get fit for kitesurfing, I was all about slow movements and big weights.

It took me a few years to realise that to train for a sport as nuanced as kitesurfing isn’t just a case of going and throwing weights around in a gym or smashing out a few classes of Crossfit.

To efficiently train we must do it at the speed of the sport we are training for, using optimal weight for that sport.

At about the time I realised this I also discovered resistance bands. Portable, much less likely to cause injury, able to be utilised in any direction (not just against gravity) and providing equal resistance throughout the entire range of motion of the exercise (meaning you get MUCH more bang for your buck).

They also allow us to train with the speed and explosiveness we need for kitesurfing and you don’t need to be stuffed in a gym to use them, they’re also cheap as chips! ?

All this makes resistance bands THE perfect tool for training kitesurfers when they’re OFF the water.

And they’ve quickly become my #1 favourite tool for getting people into shape to kitesurf quickly.

I’ve put together an entire kitesurf specific, resistance band workout for you here in this video so you can get fit for kitesurfing with our resistance band workout and exercises. Designed by kitesurfers for kitesurfers.

Here’s a round up of everything you might have missed this week, including the resistance band workout:

How To Learn To Kitesurf 3 x Faster

One of the questions I get asked all the time by people just starting their journey into kitesurfing is, “What’s the fastest way to learn to kitesurf?”

In this second part of a series of videos I start to answer this question giving you some great tips for how to get up and riding in less time with less frustration.

Click here to watch the video.

The Quest To Become A Kick Ass Kitesurfer – #3

Following my quest to become a kick ass kiter…

Genetic testing has opened up whole new worlds to those of us in pursuit of optimal human performance (or just those who want to be better kiters!). For the first time ever we can understand our underlying genetic predispositions and design our nutrition, our exercise, our lifestyle around them and thus radically upgrade our performance nearly over night…

In this video, using me and my results as an example, I show you how I’m going to be using it over the next year to massively improve my kitesurfing and how you can too.

Click here to watch the video.

Kitesurf Specific Resistance Band Workout

No gym or expensive equipment required and build specifically for kitesurfers.

This one’s a doozy!

Click here to watch the video.

Have a great windy weekend!

Sam.

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P.S. Whenever you’re ready… here’s a few ways I can help you improve your kitesurfing:

1. FREE Kitesurf Specific 4 Week Workout?
Most people don’t realise it but the way they are currently working out is probably ruining their kitesurfing. Workout for kiting the right way – Click Here

2. Ride Upwind in 30 Days
Knock weeks (if not months) off your time learning to ride upwind and save hundreds on your lesson costs — Click Here

3. MASSIVELY Improve Your Kiting When You’re OFF The Water
Get our kitesurfing case study “How to Kitesurf More Often, Stay Out Longer, Progress Faster & Have More Energy On The Water” – Click Here

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Why You Shouldn’t Stretch Before Kitesurfing

I have a mate and every time we go to the beach he has to spend 20 minutes stretching before he hits the water. Now he also expects me to launch his kite so inevitably I (being the kind and considerate chap I am) end up sitting through his impromptu Yoga session with gritted teeth waiting to get out on the water. At some point through his contortionist act he’ll no doubt call out,

“You should join me you know, you’ll get injured out there if you’re not careful.”

My answer…

“No thank you good sir.” (I swear I’m that polite!)

And yours should be too if you’ve any sense.

Why? 

I’m sure if you’re like me, since the age of 0 you’ve been told to stretch before you do any form of exercise. To loosen your muscles up and prevent injury…

Now I’ve always had my doubts about this (and to be honest I’ve always hoped I was right as I was often too lazy to be bothered to stretch) but recently science has got on my side at least for the form of stretching that my mate does.

You see he practices something called static stretching. 

This is just the posh way of referring to the stretches which most people do before a workout or hitting the water, you know the bend over and touch your toes type of stretches. To define them a bit better they’re stretches where you get into the stretch position and then hold the stretch without moving.

The problem is that static stretching doesn’t really help your mobility, worse done before a session it can negatively impact your performance on the water. For example a recent study found that runners were on average 13 seconds slower when they performed static stretching right before a one mile up hill run.

In fact several studies have shown that static stretches can inhibit the amount of force a muscle can produce in just about any jumping, running or lifting activity and even worse, it doesn’t reduce your risk of injury.

It all comes down to the fact that making muscles loose and tendons too stretchy before exercise prevents them from producing quick and powerful responses.

Think about it like this, when you’re doing static stretches you’re doing the complete opposite of what you’re trying to achieve on the water as a kitesurfer…

Explosiveness.

That’s not the only problem with static stretching. If your body is already a bit messed up or injured (and lets face it who’s isn’t!) stretching can create more problems.

So if you’re prone to hyper mobility too much stretching can make you…

too stretchy!

Joint hyper mobility, whilst cool at parties, means less ability to produce force and increased risk of cartilage and bone injury.

Another drawback…when you exercise (or kitesurf) frequently your muscle fibres can easily get cross linked, knotted and stuck to one another in a pattern called an “adhesion.”

Think of your muscles as a rope with a knot in the middle. When you pull on the rope at both ends the knot gets tighter and more difficult to untie. This is exactly how static stretching can make things worse if you have poor mobility, adhesions, knots and other tissue issues.

Added to this most people have a set repertoire of stretches they run through again and again meaning that whilst some joints are getting stretchier, other aren’t which can lead to huge imbalances down the line..think of a bicycle wheel with bumps and dents at random spots all over it so it’s really not a circular shape any more at all…

Bumpy ride huh?

But this is effectively what is happening to your body.

So what’s a guy or gal to do?

We’ll be covering that next week but in the meantime I’ve put together a FREE 7 day kitesurf specific workout and I’m giving it away for FREE! you can download it here >>

See you on the water,

Sam.
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Kitesurf Injury Prevention Workout – Phase 1

The most important element of fitness for us as kitesurfers is to have a body that will not get injured. This also provides a foundation for us to later build the specific kitesurf strength and fitness we will need.

Below is the basic routine I use for myself and all my clients to build a body made of iron!

Building Lean Muscle

This phase is designed to prepare you for strength building…why do we need strength as kitesurfers? Well the idea here is to prevent injury, we are NOT trying to build strength for strength’s sake, instead everything we will be doing over the next few weeks has a distinct purpose – To stop us getting injured down the line.

Recommended time in this phase: 6 – 12 weeks.
Less time needed for those in fairly good shape, more for those of a frailer disposition.

Workout frequency: 3 times a week Monday, Wednesday, Friday – alternating sets A & B

Set A

  • Dead Lift – Start at 3 sets of 8 reps – Goal: 3 sets of 20 reps.
  • Curl & Press – Start at 3 sets of 5 reps – Goal: 3 sets of 12 reps.
  • Progression Push Ups (wall, knee, standard raised foot) – Start at 3 sets of 6 reps – Goal: 3 sets of 12 reps.

Set B

  • Air Squat – Start at 3 sets of 10 reps – Goal: 3 sets of 20 reps.
  • Split Squats (regular with weights) – Start at 3 sets of 8 reps – Goal: 3 sets of 15 reps.
  • Overhead Squat – Start at 3 sets of 8 reps – Goal: 3 sets of 12 reps.

Once the goal state is reached in any exercise raise the weight.

Weights Used

I love kettle bells…simply because they’re easy and versatile and recommend you use them for these exercises, dumbbells can be used I would recommend the fixed weight types as you’ll be moving them fast and don’t want bits flying off the ends!

Women

  • Less than 140 pounds: 4 kg & 8 kg
  • More than 140 pounds: 6 kg & 8 kg
  • Athletic of any size: 6 kg & 12 kg

Men

  • Less than 180 pounds: 6 kg & 12 kg
  • More than 180 pounds: 8 kg & 16 kg
  • Athletic of any size: 12 kg & 20 kg