Fitness

[Supers0nic]

Hello friends.

I’ve searched the threads and maybe have missed it, but have not been able to find anything regarding staying physically fit while cruising.
My girlfriend and I are full time liveaboards but will not start our cruising until 2020. We both go to the gym regularly and keep ourselves in pretty decent shape for our age (I’m 58 and she’s 50). We mix it up with both cardio and weight training about 5 days a week. Our small 33’ boat has no room for weights or bulky exercise equipment.
Is it possible to stay fit and healthy while cruising? What works for you? Please share. Ty.

[belizesailor]

You dont need weights or equipment to work out, just a little space. Google up "body weight" exercises, isometrics, etc. Some yoga/stretching, body weight/isometrics, and swimming a few laps around the boat is a pretty good combination.

For years I cruised without a windlass...that was pretty good exercise too!

[boatman61]

Wot he sed^^^^^^^^^
Try the Charles Atlas techniques.. Dynamic Tension.

[thomm225]

Your small boat will give you a bit of a workout just handling the winches, anchor, maintaining balance etc.i

I have no dinghy but use a kayak which is another good way to maintain fitness.

Usually when I get to my anchorage, I put the kayak into the water (another workout), paddle ashore and hike/run/trot in hiking shoes.......sometime for supplies.


Getting back into the boat, just getting onboard, without a ladder is another workout. Sometimes I use the kayak for assistance or do a pullup into the boat. It's not easy on my boat

It's like anything else, if there's a will; there's a way.....

Sometimes I will run too much mainsail for speed on a downwind run when the wind is up........to say 20-25 knots. This means the boat will continually try to round up into the wind which gives quite the workout wrestling with the tiller to maintain course.,,,,My autopilot won't keep up in this situation so I'll steer for a while 15-20 miles just for the workout and fun

[txg]

No need for big equipment or heavy weights.
For workouts you can use resistance bands or a drybag that can be filled with sand whenever you're anchored nearby a beach. A 30L drybag will be serious workout weight. For passages it can be emptied and stored away so it uses nearly no space.

[daletournier]

I use one of these. It works in two ways, helps you stay strong and instills guilt when you dont use it,like today.

[SailFastTri]

While aboard, I go with resistance bands and body weight exercises, along with yoga and stretching.
I use the "Bodylastics" bands you can get on Amazon -- easy to combine bands (they snap on and off the handles) and change resistance levels for different exercises. The different weight bands are color-coded and the snap hooks are stamped with a number (approximating pounds of resistance). I use the mast with the bands for pulling exercises, and snap the handles on the spinnaker halyard for hanging above deck with body weight exercises.
PS -- IMHO anyone who thinks sailing a boat is enough exercise is rationalizing and needs to step it up. As Jeff Foxworthy once said about fishing: "any sport you can do with a beer in one hand isn't much of a sport".

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Wot he sed^^^^^^^^^
Try the Charles Atlas techniques.. Dynamic Tension.

Ha ha, reminded me of this:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...0kYNEvImI73SBo

[s/v Moondancer]

Even fulltime cruisers spend more time in port than at sea. I buy cheap bicycles, my last one cost $119 and I am on my 6th in 11 years of cruising and when in port use the bike for exploring, shopping and exercise.

Helmets are mandatory, I got hit by a low-speed car Jan 1st. In 10 weeks in Majuro, a 25-mile long atoll, I have ridden over 1,000 miles.

[boatman61]

Never did get the muscles but.. a bit of that combined with hand hauling chain and anchor instead of using a windlass on boats upto 40ft, swimming and a bit of kayaking/wind surfing/cycling over the years have kept me fit and around the 75kg to 80kg mark.. in spite of over 60yrs as a smoker.
All things that can be carried on a boat.

[Pete7]

Upper body strength will be fine with lots of lifting and winding and pulling. However, I found cardio and leg strength weakens on a long passage. Restores quickly once ashore with running and walking.

Pete

[ReMetau]

Find places that have Hash House Harriers.

[Tayana42]

I think you are both wise to be thinking about your program fitness once on board. While living on and sailing your 30’ boat will at times be a lot of physical work this is not frequent enough or constant enough to be an adequate fitness program. Rather, staying fit by other means will make sailing and living aboard safer and more enjoyable.

Fortunately, exercise opportunities abound. Swimming, rowing, paddling, bicycling, running, hiking are all natural forms of exercise. It’s not a gym membership but an active life. Commit yourselves to doing some exercise regularly.

So, what is the best form of exercise? Whatever you like enough to keep doing it regularly.

Sail on. Enjoy.

[thinwater]

First, fitness does not require a gym. That is commercial thinking, the complete opposite of what cruising should be. You train because you work in an office. Once you are out there, life is training. This is... obvious. Or you are doing it wrong.
* walk
* run
* cycle
* hike
* sail
* fix stuff
* kayak
* row
* swim
* yoga

I'm usually dead tired by the time I'm done playing. Over training, in the form of play, is the more serious problem for me.

But if you feel you must maintain a fixed regimen, there are simple ways for that too. These guys stay cut. They are currently off the boat, on a 15,000 mile off-road bicycle "cruise."

Fitness - Zero to Cruising

[svspirited]

TRX is a great tool and there are tons of exercises that you can do with one. You can build an el cheapo TRX too, plenty of vids on youtube for that. General calisthenics like pushups, planks, etc are great to help keep your strength up and on a rolling and pitching boat they add an extra level of difficulty. As some posters have already said resistance bands are far easier to transport than weights can unless you trying to be the Hulk will do plenty to build and maintain a good level of fitness.

When on land, running, even slowly and for short distances is one of the best cardio exercise you can do with minimal equipment. Cycling is another, though space on board can be a constraint there. Swimming is an obvious one, just get to know the currents in the area before you dive in.