Irish Laser Association - Fitness for Sailing

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Gavan Jones's Fitness Page:

Note:

Do not carry out any exercise without first consulting your doctor or qualified coach. The information and suggestions contained in this article are intended for people who are physically active and have already attained a basic level of fitness.

Background Info - Aerobic Fitness

The importance of aerobic fitness for laser sailors is often understated. The fact that you rarely find yourself out-of-breath when sailing does not mean that hiking is not an aerobic activity. In fact the opposite is true. The fact that hiking does not lead to high heart rates and breathlessness indicates that the activity does requires a solid base of aerobic fitness in addition to muscular endurance.

Aerobic training can be performed at a variety of levels of intensity, usually measured in heart beats per minutes (BPM’s). In order to get the greatest benefit from aerobic training it should always be performed by reference to target heart-rates. Generally there are three levels of intensity determined by reference to your maximum heart rate (mhr); low, medium and high - see below. 220 minus your age in years should give you a reasonable estimate of your max heart rate.

The value of heart rate training is that heart-rates give the most accurate indication of the level of the intensity of the training being performed. Training at predetermined speeds or against the clock does not take into account variations in how you feel, the time of the day you’re training or level of fatigue from previous sessions. Therefore, if you’re going to be training at a reasonably serious level you should invest in a heart rate monitor (hrm)

Once you begin to train with a hrm it is likely that you will find that you don’t appear to be training as hard as previously. Don’t let that fool you – it indicates that you were probably training too hard in the past. Research has shown that sustained training at levels that appear almost “comfortable” is particularly efficient at building aerobic fitness, even more effective than high intensity training. Anyway, its easier than killing yourself every time you go to the gym.

Training Levels:

Low 70% - 75% of max hr

This form of training, referred to as LSD training (Long Slow Distance) is the key to developing real cardiovascular fitness. The objective of this type of training is to work the heart and lungs over a sustained period of time; 30 mins up to an hour or more. At this level of intensity the primary source of energy is fat stored in the body. Such training carries a number of benefits: (1) training at this intensity reduces body fat, (2) this type of training improves the body’s ability to use fat as a source of energy, useful in endurance activities such as sailing, (3) over time the repetition of a exercises in this manner stimulate the growth on additional capillaries delivering blood to the muscles being trained which will improve their efficiency and thus your ability to hike for longer (4) because of the low intensity you will be less likely to over-train and will be able to train more often.

Medium 80% - 90% of max hr

Called AT training for short (Anaerobic Threshold training). Anaerobic threshold is the point at which the demands placed on the body become too great for the heart and lungs to provide sufficient energy quickly enough through the process of breaking down stored energy (fat and glycogen). Beyond this level of exertion the body is unable to remove the waste products produced during exercise by the muscles quickly enough, and lactic acid begins to accumulate in the muscle. Once this occurs the quality of performance will begin to diminish fairly rapidly. Operating at this level of intensity is far less efficient than working aerobically.

The objective of medium intensity aerobic training is to increase the body’s ability to cope with these higher levels of stress and raise threshold point at which lactic acid begins to build-up. This is where AT training comes-in. For a moderately fit person their AT should be around 80% - 90% of their max hr - i.e.. around 165-175 bpms.

AT training should be done in 15 - 20 min “sets” with a short break between “sets”. Two 15 min pieces with a five min break in between (not forgetting an adequate warm-up, warm-down and stretches ) would constitute a quality session that can be completed in under an hour. Don’t stop completely during the break; get some fluid into you and then keep moving slowly.

High 90% + max hr

High intensity training is where the body is pushed to its limits. It is characterised by bursts of high intensity effort and short rest periods - e.g.. circuits, fartlek or interval training. Because of the high intensity of the training lactic acid forms in the muscles and the muscle’s store of fuel is run down. Consequently, it may take the body several days to fully recover, depending on the nature/duration of the training. Of the three levels of training discussed this type of training is the least relevant for sailing / hiking. It should however not be ignored completely but ideally should only become a regular feature of your training once a solid base level of cardiovascular fitness has been achieved.

What’s the best type of aerobic training?

Other than sailing itself there is no single answer to this question. When doing aerobic training the principle muscle that is being targeted is your heart (and related cardiovascular system). Thus any exercise whereby you can maintain a steady heart rate is fine. Running, swimming, cycling, rowing...... whatever it is you are most likely to leave the couch for. Naturally activities which work the legs strongly are preferable for laser sailors. Having said this it’s a good idea to vary the exercise you perform from time to time as this varies the stresses put on the body and helps prevent the body adapting to any one particular exercise. Playing other sports (e.g. the occasional game of squash, football...) is another way to vary your routine and prevent training from becoming monotonous. However, you should consider staying away from any sports where there is the possibility that you might injure yourself, particularly if its close to a major competition. A friendly game of rugby or an afternoon mountain-biking the week before the national championships is certainly not advisable.

It can also be useful for motivational reasons to vary your normal training exercises and thus break up your regular routine. One idea worth trying is when you seem to have a plateau on one exercise, then for a couple of weeks try a different exercise. After a few weeks test yourself again on the previous exercise and hopefully you’ll find you’ve improved beyond you previous sticking point.

General Points

There is no ideal number of training sessions - this will vary on your other time pressures (work, study, demanding boy/girlfriend) and the level of commitment that you are willing to give. Ideally, for those aspiring to compete at the top national level the aim should be to train 5-6 times per week. Always remember, it’s quality that counts, not duration or frequency. And a useful way of ensuring a quality session each time is planning.

Planning. Big cliché but very important. Before you go to the gym you should always know exactly what you are going to do when you get there (and why). Ideally you should plan a week’s training at a time so that you can plan for busy days at work/social commitments/rest days etc. Also structuring your training in advance can facilitate recovery and enable you to train harder and more often. For example, plan to do upper body weights between two endurance sessions that are likely to involve mostly legs (cycling, rowing, running)

In addition, you should have a long term training plan covering upwards from 6 months to a year of more. (talked about in Michael Blackburn’s book - Sail Fit).

Drinking (no, not boozing). Yeah, we all know getting fluid into us before, during and after training is important. However, how often have you gone training and forgotten to bring your drink? I am always amazed at the number of people who go training or turn up at a regatta having forgotten their water-bottle. Furthermore, fluid intake isn’t just something you should be thinking of on regatta days. In the day or two before big event you should be conscious of how much you drinking in order to ensure that you body is fully hydrated at the start of competition. The colour of your urine is a useful indicator of your body’s level of (de)/hydration. Dark yellow in the afternoon or evening is a sign that you should be drinking more.

Eating: Absolutely vital yet frequently overlooked. Research shows that eating immediately after training greatly speeds up the body’s recovery. Always bring food with to the gym or the yacht club for consumption straight after training. You should aim to get 500 calories into you within the first two hours after training. Ideally you should aim to get half of it in to you immediately.

Getting food and drink into your kit bag before training should be a ritual, something that always accompanies your wetsuit/runners. Think of it this way, if you’re going to train hard you might as well get the maximum benefit from it. When training, you should take a small drink every 20 mins if possible. If your water bottle is too small such that you have to “save some” for later then get a bigger one, or bring two. Similarly, if there’s no food in the house then buy a sandwich or two on the way to the gym/sailing club.

Periodisation: Essentially this involves planning a training schedule which involves periods of relatively lower levels of intensity during which the body is given a chance to recover. Periodisation (discussed by M. Blackburn in his book Sail Fit) essentially means building-in a gradual reduction in the intensity of your training at specified times, usually in the run up to a regatta.

Training micro/macro-cycles: Training cycles are similar to the idea of periodisation in that the objective is to vary the degree of training intensity, the idea being that during the less strenuous periods the body has a chance to recover. Thus the message that you shouldn’t aim to train at maximum effort and intensity all the time. In addition, building little “cycles” into your training helps maintain motivation levels. For example, you could train hard for 3 weeks and then in the fourth week ease off a little. If you were doing 6 sessions a week, then just do 3. You could also plan to do some form of fitness test during the “light” week - write down the result and commit yourself to doing the same test in 4 weeks time.

Self-testing: not all fitness tests involve exertion to exhaustion. There’s no problem is doing an all-out test to exhaustion every once in a while but don’t overdo it. Instead, try to come up with alternative types of tests which don’t leave you on the point of collapse and from which it takes a few days to recover. For example: (1) Run/row/cycle a set distance at a set heart-rate and see how long it takes. As your aerobic fitness improves you should be able to cover the same distance in a shorter time but at the same heart-rate. This kind of test is useful for AT style tests where you expect the test to take 12-20mins. (2) Second example would be to run/row/cycle for a set time (e.g.. 30-45mins) at a set heart-rate and measure you performance by the distance you cover. The distance covered should get longer as your fitness improves.

Statistics: Unfortunately there is little published research on the fitness statistics of top level laser sailors. For those of you aspiring to compete internationally or at the front of the domestic fleet a you should aim for a VO2 max of 60Kg/min-1 or higher and a body fat of 12% or lower. Please note, your natural genetic attributes will, to a large extent, determine you individual statistics. Consequently, don’t get hung-up on statistics - they act primarily as a measure of how effective your training is. All you should be interested in is improving your own results. After all, unlike many other sports, laser sailors come in all shapes and sizes.

Weight gaining tips (for the lightweights):

Training with heavy weights is something that you should only consider if you have prior experience of weight training. The ideas outlined below are really aimed at people who have been training with weights for a period of time and whose lifting techniques are correct. If you are intent on trying to build muscle but are not fully confident of your lifting techniques then be sure to obtain guidance from the gym instructor. Always try and avoid training on your own when engaged in heavy weight training.

Split weights program so that you only train specified muscle groups once per week. For example train chest & shoulders on day 1, back & arms on day 2 and legs on day 3

Vary your training routine: change the exercises you perform for each body part every 8 weeks or so. Also, every now and again vary the order in which you perform the exercises. This is quite an important point because you muscles develop what’s known as “muscle memory” whereby your body adapts to the specific movements you perform in training. Also, every exercise will stress the muscle in a slightly different way. Thus, varying your routine will stimulate a greater number of muscle fibers.

The key when aiming to build muscle mass is to exercise the targeted muscle's) to exhaustion and then give them a week to recover: 3-4 days to recover and 1-2 days to actually grow. It is far commoner for people to overstrain than undertrain when the goal is to gain muscle.

Good way to exhaust target muscles is to perform isolation exercise first for the principle muscle and then do a compound movement exercise after that. Isolation exercises are those which only involve one targeted muscle (e.g.. horizontal dumbbell flies); compound movements involve the use of several muscles (e.g.. bench press)

Concentrate on largest muscle groups. Squats, deadlifts and bench press involve the use of approx. 85% of the body’s muscle mass. (e.g.. triceps are approx. twice size of biceps yet everyone loves to do biceps. Quads are the largest muscles you have yet these are most frequently neglected)

Stretching is a vital component of any heavy weight training program. Stretching helps prevent a loss of flexibly as your muscles grow and may help to prevent injury.

Sessions should not last more than an hour to an hour and 15 minutes (excluding stretching) When trying to gain weight its easy to overtrain.

Avoid all aerobic exercise where possible. Consequently this sort of training is best carried out during the off-season winter months. (i.e.. after the national up to Christmas)

Rest: 8 hours sleep per night (or more) is recommended - this aids the recovery/growth of muscle tissue.

Diet 1:

You should aim to get approx. 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. i.e.. 150-160 grams per day is the target (for a 75kg person). Ideally you should split this evenly throughout your waking hours. Your body can only absorb 30-40 grams of protein at a time; any excess is lost via urine. Only when there is an excess of protein in your system will you build muscle. Therefore, aim to take in 30-35 grams of protein every 3-4 hours. (This is especially important in the morning as you won’t have eaten for 7-8 hours.)

Diet 2:

Your normal calorie requirement just to maintain you current weight (75kgs) is probably approx. 2,200 - 2,300 calories per day. This ignores additional requirements for training. As a rough average allow 500 calories per session but this will depend on duration and nature of the training. Thus if you’re training hard you’ll need to eat almost 3,000 calories just to maintain you current body weight.