diet, training and exercise

If you need to make a substantial "tune-up" to your body, I recommend looking into the Body For Life routine. It really does do wonders if you can stick with it. Basically, you eat 6 times a day - small low-fat portions and focusing on making each meal from one portion of carbs and one portion of protein. You work out 6 days a week (in the morning preferably) but it can be pretty short. I alternate between aerobic and strength training days. You are supposed to sustain that for three months and then get into a more laid back routine.

I've done this for about 2-3 months a year for the last three years ... but then I get soft and don't do much in the gym afterwards. This year, I've trimmed 20 lbs and am a lot more fit and I hope to go to a 3 day-a-week regimine after the Tybee to try and maintain for the F18 North Americans.

Been playing hockey 3-5 days a week over the winter.
Still need to keep in shape thought during the summer.

cardio is the way to go

also a lower calory diet. For isntance if you eat 2500 calories a day shoot for 2000.

Once you reach your target weight, just keep doing cardio.

Loosing weight

Loosing weight is very simple you need to burn more calories than you eat. These are very simple equations to calculate how much you are eating, just addition. You can calculate how much you burn resting, exercising or whatever. Then you want to make sure you eat less than that. Not too little though you only want a deficit of like 500 calories per day to loose a pound a week.

If you eat out it is easy (I eat out every lunch and cook dinner) because after doing these calculations it becomes clear how much a portion is supposed to be. Two additional tips, if you want something like a dessert eat it (just don’t eat a whole cake). Never let your self get hungry you will pig out.

Bulking up

If you are planning on adding muscle do that first. Eat a lot and lift weights. Once your muscles are there you will burn the fat in no time. Just sitting around with big muscles is equivalent to running (not really).

Exercise

It helps if you get excited about a sport like biking or running or soccer. Studies have shown for slimming down it is not intensity, but how long you do it. So a hard short run is not as good as a long jog. Unless of course you run really hard, growing your leg muscles (see bulking up).

You can make it as complicated as you wish, but this is the right way. No matter what Richard Simmons or that Atkins clown (who may be destroying people’s livers) says.

I have tried many types of exercise over the years to help with sailing. I find that Yoga and some cardio work best for me. The Yoga keeps your muscles stretched out so that you won't get so sore after sailing. Yoga is great for strength training as well. I can't say enough about it. Give it a try. It is not easy, as one might think.

Two summers ago I played street hockey about 3-5 nights a week. I lost about 15 lbs. It was the easiest and most fun way to lose weight that I've found.

You sound like a forward, thinkers play D-Fence!!!

Head up in the neutral zone, dude!!!

Come to Madcatter XXX. The only regatta with a Friday morn skate & shoot. Bring your Synergy ~/)

Jon we'll get you a boat!!!

TikiPete,

I'm guessing you may have found that singlehanding is a handfull....especially during a distance race. I sail an F17...........sometimes with the jib also.

I have found that cycling is the ticket for me. I try to ride between 80 and 140 miles per week. Actually, on the weekends I don't race , I do a club ride which is normally between 40-62 miles....... Mix that in with some running, pushups, pullups, and a few dumbbell curls and you're all set. I am 50 btw.

We just had our Sea Buoy race yesterday. It's about 20 miles are so. Except for the first 3 I-20's , it took over 3 and 1/2 hours. Over half of that was trap time or holding the spin sheet. A lot of that in the Gulf. I could tell that the biking had really helped.

Also with cycling, you can eat about as much as you want. A normal 60 mile ride averaging about 20 mph will burn around 2500 calories or more. 18-20 mile training ride can burn nearly 1000 calories if accomplished at a good tempo. If you are trying to lose weight, ride slower.

Tom Turlington
F17 #12

If you’re looking for weight loss then the Eat Less Move More program should work out fine.

Bicycling is an excellent way to drop weight and build up endurance. Biking will give you an aerobic and anaerobic workout depending on the type of roads you ride. Aerobic is when you keep you heart rate below 75% of maximum. To determine MHR use the following formulas:

Male
Non-athletic 220 – age = MHR
Fit 205 – (age/2) = MHR

Female
Non-athletic 226 – age = MHR
Fit 211 – (age/2) = MHR

Riding below 75% MHR will burn fat. If you stay below 75% then you probably won’t need any carbs to avoid bonking. You will need to keep hydrating and replacing electrolytes and sodium. If you sweat a lot then sodium intake is a MUST! DO NOT take in a huge amount of water all at once. It will dilute the sodium in your system and can result in death. The easiest way to keep hydrated and the electrolytes and sodium at good levels is drink a low sugar sports drink. If you stay on the flats then you’ll probably find it hard to exceed 75% unless you do occasional sprints.

Anaerobic riding gets the old heart pumping, which stresses and improves the cardiovascular system. The best way to see if you’re improving is to check your resting heart rate first thing in the morning. Non-athletic types probably see a number above 70. If you keep up a consistent program, you should drop into the 50’s quite easily. Medical types may freak out if they see anything below 60. Tell them you’re a biker/runner/etc. and they’ll quiet down.

I ride about 800 miles a month. My resting heart rate is 44. Lance Armstrong is in the low 30’s. Miguel Indurain, the previous five-time winner of the TdF, had a resting heart rate of 26. Talk about a huge pump!

You can go anaerobic by sprinting or climbing. Sprinting will improve cardiovascular conditioning and build up fast twitch muscles.

The downside of going anaerobic is you will switch from fat burning to using glucose stores. There is not much on the shelf so to keep from bonking, you’ll need to keep hydrated, replenish electrolytes and sodium and consume carbs. The easiest way is to use a full strength sports drink. Gatorade is good. I prefer Cytomax. Power Bars and Gels are also good. They’re easy to digest and loaded with carbs, electrolytes and sodium.

The best ride is one that mixes aerobic flats with anaerobic climbs and an occasional sprint. You need to ride for at least one hour to get the full effects of biking.

BIkram Yoga for me about 4 to 5 times a week. It is 90 minutes of intense exercise in 105° room. It kicks my butt every time I walk out after the routine. I have been at it for about 4½ years now.

Other things that really help:
Surfing (Californian after all)
Bicycling
Sailing (as many as three days a week)

Eat only or mostly organic foods so you do not put too many poisons or unnecessary hormones in your system. Drink lots of water.

Eileen is giving me a 50th birthday present of spending a month in Europe including sailing in the Formula 18 Worlds and the Tiger Worlds. We had to figure out how we were going to keep up. This is it.

Later,
Dan

I've been thinking about riding, also yoga. Thanks for the information.

Pete:

I looked at your avatar and could not see it well you might try this one: tikipete 80 X 80. I would have sent it to you but you have not posted your email address.

Later,
Dan

Pete,

If you do take up riding, WEAR A HELMET!!! The day before Thanksgiving 2004 I hit a wet spot in a corner and went down hard. I was probably doing around 15 MPH. I got a fractured clavicle, multiple fractured ribs that caused a punctured lung, bruised heart that, at one point, got my heart rate down to 36 BPM, a possible ruptured spleen and a bruise that ran from my shoulder to mid thigh that was about nine inches wide.

Other than a scratch on my forehead I had no head injuries as I was wearing a helmet. All the doctors said I would have either been a veg or dead without it. Take a look at the attached to see the impact the helmet absorbed.

Wear sunglasses and gloves too.

Holy S**t! Maybe I'll do a stationary bike in the gym.

OTHER THAN THAT!

damn, cant get any worst man! good thing you are alive!

Back in my late teens, early twenties I used to surf like four or five times a week. My heart rate was in the 40's I remember the docs freaking out on me. LOL Until I told em about my surfing habits.

I knew a guy who had a stationary bike but it didn’t start out that way. Seriously, biking is a fun way to get in some exercise, see a lot of stuff and meet people. I get stopped by tourists all the time asking for directions, places to eat, where are the turtles, etc. I was back on my MTB a week after I got out of the hospital. I was only doing three to five miles a day but it felt great!

Surfing is a great way to get a workout. For sailing maybe better than biking as you’re getting a great upper body workout. If you think about it 95% of surfing is swimming with flotation.

One doctor told me that if someone’s normal heart rate is under 70 they’re a candidate for a pacemaker. Go figure.

Pete,

what is it you want to train for? Is to prolong your life and improve your health, or do you want to do something spesific like racing your F-16 competitively? (when is delivery btw?)

Of the sports I have been active in, catamaran racing as a skipper is the least physically demanding. Crewing is harder, but not really something you need to train hard to master. (except the guys doing Tybee/Worrel, archipelago raid and other similar events).

If you are over 50 start slow and if nothing else just walk
Do yoga or Tai Chi to gradually build flexibility and boost muscle tone
If you have back problems do Pilates exercises to rebuild core strength especially for the abdomen. I know cat & dinghy sailors who gave the sport away because trapezing was agony. I last about 10 minutes but am working on it.

Hide the TV remote or put it where you have to stand up to get it.

If you are an office worker get up and walk around and stretch every 20 minutes.

Why would trapezing be agony? Hiking can be agony, but trapezing is usually very comfortable and easy, with no stress on your back or your stomach or your legs. I could easily fall asleep on the trapeze -- it's almost as good as lying in a hammock.

Strangely enough I found that the best training for sailing is actually sailing itself. It builds up just the muscles you'll need.

Other then that cycling is a good way to boost overall physical condition.

Wouter

Wouter took the words right out of my mouth! And single-handed spinnaker sailing is more workout than any job on a double-handed spinnaker boat. On a double-handed spinnaker boat, the crew job is way more workout than skipper!

This weekend, the Alum Creek Regatta in Columbus, Ohio was a great workout! We had two fleets, High Portsmouth (mostly M4.3s with a mix of H16s, H17 and TheMightyHobie18) and Low Portsmouth (eight F17s and a N20), on a relatively small race course. They ran eight races on Saturday and three races on Sunday. Most races were twice around and lasted about 20 minutes for the Low Portsmouth fleet. We got lots of starts, tacks, gybes, spinnaker sets and takedowns, and lots of neck work looking around for other boats! All the muscles that need to be in shape for the sailing season got a workout this weekend and I am feeling it today! Tomorrow will be better! It couldn't have been a better way to get in shape for the siling season .

The problem with this is that sailing you do use all the muscles in the body and so you can end up "unbalanced" - so you can damage yourself. Last time I went for a review (ages ago) my trainer asked what sports I did (skiing and Sailing) and he said, OK, that explains why you can legpress so much and pull so hard, also explains why you cannot press any where near as much. You need to focus on sume of the "pushing exercises" on your upper body, and pulling (curling) on your lower body.

BYW,

means something totally different this side of the pond.....

I'm supposed to take delivery May 19. Training is for all of the above. Although I find racing can be very fatiguing. For some reason I'm usually very stiff at the end of the day and have to do some stretches to get comfortable again.

Basically, I'm just in the worst physical condition of my life. Too much ice cream!!

Young people! Don't ever allow a tv in the bedroom! CSI re-runs and ice cream are a serious prescription for galloping decrepitude!

I would agree with Les and Wouter that sailing to get in shape for sailing is a good idea. But I have found, after four years on the F17, that the addition of cycling has really helped. Also, cycling has taught me what fuels to use. I was always old fashioned about that aspect in the past. Now instead of water and a sandwich on board, I use gatorade, gatorade endurance, power bars, and some water.

The cycling has made my legs and heart stronger. Not only does it help me on the boat, but now it is easier to pull my "heavy !?" boat (2000 I17R) over than first hump on the beach after the boat is on the wheels!

I guess the only negative thing about the cycling is the cost of the new clothes I will soon have to buy. I have lost about 7 pounds this Spring. If I didn't have on a belt, my pants would be " sagging " so much that I would look like one of those Hip Hop guys with his underwear showing..............

Tom Turlington
F17 #12

Don't knock ice cream. My father ate ice cream every day of his life and lived to 92, played tennis until he died, and died skinny and in relatively good health. His secret was to eat and drink everything he wanted but in moderation (small portions).

I'm doing a basic survival mode of "workout". Up to 60 crunches now every morning, five days a week (weekends are for sailing). Having read all the statistics of around 50 year old US males, back injuries are way up the list. That would obviously end the sailing career. Doesn't take long and can do almost anywhere, has become routine (that's the trick, make it routine)

Thanks everyone for the tips of other activities to add.

I'm not sure which addiction ranks higher with me, ice cream or sailing

Ice cream, yes! Ice cream in bed, while watching tv, no!

means something totally different this side of the pond.....

Over here it’s called boinking.