Off season condtioning

[Sacandagalady]

Hello all,

Any recommendations for quality off season training that you prefer. I do not have the luxury of sailing any other times other than from about late April until late October.

I have been doing a lot of weight training and indoor biking but wanted to know what specific exercises you do that would give me the biggest bang for the buck.

I am a 65-year old woman with bad shoulders, a bad lower back and two knee replacements, so please keep that in mind. (I know...I sound half dead!).

Don't know if it makes any difference, but I am a average to good intermediate sailor and usually sail in gusty northeast lakes.

Thanks in advance for all your advice,

Sacandagalady

[techno900]

[dllee]

Be active.
Light weights, lots of repetitions.
Move around.
From a 70 year old man.

[grantmac017]

How frequently can you train? If its 3x a week or less then do compound exercises. If more frequent then its worth splitting up into lower and upper body, or push and pull (not my preference). Then you can recover one set of muscles while working the other.

The bike is great for knees, swimming is good for shoulders.

[NOVAAN]

Lite weights high reps. The goal is not to injure yourself. You need to know your own body but 3/4 times a week. Walking is excellent cardio and helps with your back. Devote 50% of your work out to core and flexibility. If you devote an hour a day or two hours, make it count. Its not social time its workout time. If you only have half an hour, get the most out of that time.
Get a good trainer at your gym to set up a proper workout. You only need to see him/her once a month or less. Find a good workout partner to help push each other. Don't do the same thing over and over. Change it up so you don't get bored.
Make sure you are good at water starts. One unnecessary up haul can end a good session or worse. I'm 70 also and most of us have back issues. I hate to up haul and would rather wait for a gust. Don't be afraid to sit out if you get to your local spot and it crazy ruff and gusty. Sometimes its not worth risking a back injury. That kind of goes against our thrill seeking nature but we need to adjust our thinking as we get older...

[manuel]

Dirt Windsurfing, sail chi, interval training.

[U2U2U2]

You want things that help condition the muscles you use.
The most efficient is windsurfing, NE , not able.
Do things that will stretch your lower back, big ball, stretches any and all will help .
Weights I don’t feel are so important, I don’t overdue that, a rowing machine be good.
I might suggest Pilates, an Orientation class , and advise them of your back issues.
When do you sail NE? I sail in Maine , but August only.

[isobars]

We beat this subject to death a couple of times per year, so there's tons of info on it in prior threads. Consider SEARCHING with keywords HIIT and Superslow as authored by isobars (because I comment in most conditioning threads and often include those two fundamentals of conditioning) and by posts, not threads.

Here's just one of many examples:
http://www.iwindsurf.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=146879&highlight=superslow+hiit&sid=a3df67b697e605bf2a1873991b3a4c23#146879

Using those two keywords can transform your life, including getting far better results than you're accustomed to, in 5% of the time, in total safety.

Now ... hie thee to a kinesiologist. S/he can do infinitely more for most musculoskeletal aches and pains than just about any ordinary doctor. Drugs and surgery are very often just bandaids to treat SYMPTOMS, while a gifted kinesiologist can get to the actual causes of such problems. Just one example: Surgeons wanted to remove half my scapula to free my frozen shoulder; "Steve" fixed it in two sessions by using his skills, hands, elbows, massive body weight, and the strength he developed in setting U.S. bench press records.

OK, second example: doctors said my sciatica might be lessened to the point I may someday walk OK again, but only with extensive drugs and spinal surgery. "Steve" had me running and WSing again in a few sessions by fixing the root causes in my leg muscles and impinged nerves.

Gotta go. This has already cost me a precious hour of sleep or surgery/injury rehab.

BTW, rehab is the only reason people need to stretch. It achieves little to nothing for anyone else besides competitive athletes in some specific sports. Another tip: Aerobics, as in long slow treadmill/elliptical crap, does most people more harm than good. And unless you LIKE lifting heavy weights to complete failure 3 days a week and its attendant high injury and overtraining risks, consider Superslow. Doing it right will get most people, especially you and me, far better results in 5% of the time.

[dvCali]

I do nothing special. Living in California I can mostly avoid the gym that I find barely survivable.

A lot of Mountain Biking, 4-5 times a week
A weekly trip to the gym to do light weights, 12 repetitions x 3 x a dozen of machines.
A weekly walk, about 1 hour long and pilates at home if I remember

This is it. If the weather is bad I just add gym days and elliptical.

But there is nothing special there, and the point is: anything would do, just keep moving and lift something!

[mrgybe]

Perhaps you know the root causes of your "bad" shoulders and lower back. If not, find out in order to spend the cold months targeting those areas with a strengthening and stretching program. Many aches and pains can be hugely improved with the right program. Also consider foam and massage ball rolling to keep keep muscles and connective tissue from tightening up which can also be a source of pain. There are hundreds of online videos for all of this.