The Blue View - Exercising Aboard a Sailboat
/Staying reasonably fit aboard the typical cruising sailboat is usually not that difficult. Living on a sailboat involves a lot of day-to-day physical activity, especially at anchor or in port. We are usually without a car, so most trips to the grocery, laundry or chandlery are accomplished by walking. There are always repairs and projects underway that involve physical exertion. Sometimes it seems like we must climb the stairs from the saloon to the cockpit a hundred times a day, and just getting into and out of the dinghy requires effort. Transporting fuel and water by dinghy is always a workout, and when we are in a warmer local, we spend a lot of time swimming and snorkeling. Even so, I routinely find myself putting on a few pounds if we stay in one place for an extended period. When I have to start wearing my larger “fat-boy” trousers, I know it's time to move on. When on a long passage, if we aren't actually seasick, we will certainly not be feeling well enough to be hungry for the first two or three days. After that, our appetites come back, but we never eat as much on a passage as we do when at anchor. We also drink no alcohol on a passage, so our overall caloric intake is down. To counter the heel of the boat as well as the rolling and pitching motion, I find that the muscles in some part of my body are always tensed - sometimes I think I even sleep with my body tensed up. There is also a frequent requirement for physical activity, when sails need adjusting or reefing for example. And the occasional epic battle with a 700 pound swordfish really takes it out of you... or so I would imagine, but even landing, dispatching and filleting a 25 pound tuna on a moving deck takes a fair amount of work. Usually by the end of a passage lasting more than a week or two, I've lost those extra pounds I put on in the last port.
At least, that's the way it used to be. As I get older, I'm finding that my “fat-boy” clothes are getting more wear than they used to, and it is becoming more difficult to keep those extra few pounds off.
So, a couple of years ago, I began looking for exercises I could do aboard Nine of Cups. It's more of a challenge than you might think. To begin with, there is not a lot of space – neither for exercising nor to store exercise equipment. I'm a bit self-conscious about it, so I wanted something I could do below deck. Jumping jacks on the foredeck aren't my kind of thing. In addition, I have a bad ankle due to an injury a few decades ago, and I needed something that was very low impact.
Then I discovered High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT for short. There are several variations of this type of exercise, but basically, the idea is to repeat an exercise at full intensity for a short interval, followed by a brief rest period. The most common protocol is to exercise full out for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds, and repeat this cycle eight times. When I first came across HIIT exercise, I thought it was another fad for the moment, and I was sure I would find an infomercial selling the book and video on how to do it and “ but wait, that's not all... if you order right now, you will also get a free jar of emulsified fish liver that has been proven to reduce back pain and can be rubbed onto your head to promote hair growth”.
As I did more research, however, I began to be convinced that there is something to it. Several universities around the world have been studying this type of exercise regimen for several decades now. One of the more well known papers was published by Professor Izumi Tabata in Japan who investigated the effects of HIIT on Olympic speed skaters. He tested two sets of athletes over a six week period. One group did 60 minutes of aerobic level exercise a day on a stationary bike, five days a week. The second group did four minutes of HIIT - 20 seconds of high intensity exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated eight times, four times a week. Dr. Tabata tested the aerobic and anaerobic capacity of both sets of athletes before and after the six weeks of training, and found that, while both improved their aerobic capacity, the group doing the HIIT improved more. In addition, the control group showed no improvement in anaerobic capacity, while the group doing the HIIT showed a 28% increase in anaerobic capacity. In other words, doing four minutes of HIIT a day, four days a week will improve your fitness level more than 60 minutes a day, five days a week of an aerobic exercise like biking, jogging, etc. This seems too good to be true, but several other studies done by other universities have shown similar results.
Another benefit seems to be the ability of the body to metabolize glucose more efficiently after a few weeks of the HIIT protocol. More than one study has shown this, and if true, it is of great interest to those of us who are genetically predisposed to Type 2 Diabetes.
There seemed very little reason not to give it a try, and I did. I have now been following my own HIIT protocol for a couple of months, and I am quite pleased with the results. The attached, actual photos of me before and after a few weeks of the program show the amazing results. Well... okay, perhaps they aren't actual un-retouched photos, and perhaps my improvement wasn't this pronounced, but I do feel better and have lost enough weight to stow my “fat boy” wardrobe.
It is something that is very easy to do on the boat and requires no equipment. I chose exercises that were very low impact and easy on my old joints. My protocol is described below, but if you are interested in trying this type of exercise regimen, I highly recommend that you do your own research online.
Here is what I do three times a week:
2-3 minutes of warm-up exercises.
Exercise 1 – Endurance/Cardiovascular Exercise: Total Time 4 Minutes
20 seconds of intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest – repeated 8 times
Rest: 1 Minute
Exercise 2 – Strength Building Exercise: Total Time 4 Minutes
20 seconds of intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest – repeated 8 times
Rest: 1 Minute
Exercise 3 – Endurance/Cardiovascular Exercise: Total Time 4 Minutes
20 seconds of intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest – repeated 8 times
Rest: 1 Minute
Exercise 4 – Abs: Total Time 4 Minutes
20 seconds of intense exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest – repeated 8 times
Rest 1 Minute
2-3 Minutes of cool down exercises
The entire session takes about 25 minutes. There are lots of variations recommended by many different experts, ranging from one minute of full out exercise 3 times a week to considerably more than I do, so do your own research and find a program that works for you. Don't, however, buy the video and the fish emulsion. It did nothing to restore my bald pate.
