Fitness and conditioning for kiting?

[plummet]

Well at 42 with 20years of mountain bike endurance and 10 years of kiting fitness I would be happy with a 3 hour session in those conditions riding powered. Note that I still do several 2 hour plus mountain bike riders per week plus several kiting sessions. So I rate my fitness as good.

I think your fitness is fine. You may want to consider equipment. Smoother board to smooth out the chop, seat harness to take the power more easily. As others have suggested stop rest and refuel mid session.

[Dave Whettingsteel]

I think you are worrying too much! 3 hours in tough conditions is full on for any age.

I also think there is a mental component to kiting endurance. How long I stay out is often more related to the intensity of the experience and other stuff going on in my life. Plus the conditions of course.

An hour of challenging wind and waves can see me done sometimes when It's intense. I'm 54.

[waynepjh]

Great info here! Mt biking has been one of the best ways to stay in shape for kiting. Since you ski I was wondering if you snow kite? I have started taking a mineral supplement called concentrace and the results have been amazing! Its a trace mineral supplement with 72 minerals. I started taking it cause I get muscle cramps sometimes and this supplement helps me better absorb the food I eat. Works wonders for me.

[raueda1]

Great info here! Mt biking has been one of the best ways to stay in shape for kiting. Since you ski I was wondering if you snow kite? I have started taking a mineral supplement called concentrace and the results have been amazing! Its a trace mineral supplement with 72 minerals. I started taking it cause I get muscle cramps sometimes and this supplement helps me better absorb the food I eat. Works wonders for me.

Not yet. I'm trying to move to Utah, need to sell the house first. When that happens I'll be all over it.

[Larse]

The perfect summer training program for every athlete who wants to stay fit during the summer break or become better at their sport. It focus on explosive strength of full muscle patterns or nerve pathways. It will make you faster, stronger and more explosive. And even gives you a decent cardio workout as well.

Perfect for footballers, soccor players, tennis, kiteboarding, wakeboard etc...

A dare you to do it

- sumo squat millitary
- drop down step over pushup
- explosive roll out
- horizontal row
- decline TRX push up (legs above head)
- TRX one arm muscle up
- reverse jack knife with weight
- one leg death lift with kettle bell

Do each exercise 20sec with high intensity and then rest for 20sec. Do 1 complete circuits (all exercises) and then take a 1 minut break. Do 4 circuits in total. If you want it tougher, then only do 10sec breakes.

The best way to become fit for a sport is not by the sport. Look at all pro athletes. They all (except for kiteboarders and other low budget sports), they all do training like mine. Functional training to enhance the muscle chains or nerve paths they need in their sport.

So no, mtb is not the best way to become more fit for kiteboarding. It is good. Just like football would be good. But not the best way... And going to the gym to get bulked up is also not the best way... My training won't make you a hulk in appearence. Only in explosive strength and endurence. And that is what you need...

Din't think you can kiteboard at 100% for hours on end. Take a break after 1-2 hours. Carb up (eat bananas or some other healthy food with carbs) and fo out again. That will give you energy and it's good for your health.

And remember to let your recover. The injuries we've seen from the pros lately would in other sports be referred to as lack of recovery. In koteboarding it's "just bad luck" or "the aggressive riding". But in the end lack of recovery really really adds to the risk of injury. Don't go kiteboarding every day...!

[Larse]

Ahh, damn iPhone app. Double post...

[diegowhite]

Larse, there would be far better routines than your one posted! With the work/rest periods in your routine it is more suited to fat loss and 'feeling' like you work out and starting out on that routine if you haven't trained before would be more likely to injure yourself in the workout itself.

Explosive power is not the most important piece in kiteboarding, injury prevention in absorbing landings and crashes is. The more muscle and overall strength a person has the more likely they will be able to absorb impacts without injury and a lot of riders could do well to bulk a little to aid this!

Analyse the sport itself and it is more about maintaining tension in riding, the explosiveness you see is either from using the kite or releasing the tension built up with the board and the water.

Endurance to go 3 hours in kiting will be most easily built using...kiting.

A better training program would focus around workouts which develop maximal strength in the big movements, along with increasing flexibility and maybe trampoline if it's not windy to train on the water.

I don't know where or who you are drawing your conclusions from but NFL, NHL and rugby which are far more similar to kiting than tennis? given the impacts and they primarily train maximal strength and muscle building. Change your routine to something more intelligent and you'll have a far better chance of staying on the water for many years.

[Larse]

It depends on which style, you ride. If you're mowing the lawn going fourth and back with some oldschool tricks, you can just go kiteboarding often enough. That will build up your stamina fine. If you want to reduce injury, you can also do some simpler fitness like I posted before.

But if you you're doing freestyle/wakestyle - you should do more of my training. No doubt. So of course it depends on, what you do. Many pro kiteboarders are doing more and more of my kind of training.

Have you seen a training routine from soccer, handball, football? They actually implement many of exercises like mine to get faster. And then they might hit the gym at another time to bulk up...

A strong core is really the most important in all sports. Not big muscles...

And how you land is also more important than having big muscles. So doing drop jump squats (yes that would also build up muscle) is more effective for preventing injuries than just sitting in a machine doing leg presses, because you can control the impact much better.

[diegowhite]

I never mentioned leg press or what style I was talking about?

I said Bodyweight timed circuits with the exercises you use is like the least important thing you should do.

You can't say that someone who just works on explosiveness is more resilient to someone else who has is stronger (core & overall).

Before you reinvent your own program of what you 'believe' is best, look at what the best coaches are doing with millions at stake a year, in related sports (Mike Boyle, Eric Cressey, Dan John...)

Please don't look at football with high injury rates and the biggest 'actors' in sport

[Larse]

I'm not saying timing your training is the best. If you look at my training guide, you'll see that all most all of them are not timed.

But either way, functional exercises will always lower risk of injuries. No matter how you do them. More than body building or large muscles like you said...