by Sam Ovett

Why get fit for Kayaking? All you are doing is sitting on your butt floating downstream, not much effort involved in that now is there?

The answer is “no” there is not much effort in just sitting on your butt and floating downstream, but then there is more more to whitewater kayaking than that isn’t there?  Awesome moves like catching eddies…peeling out of eddies… ferrying from one cool eddy to the next… And then there are boofs of all sorts! Big water boofs…dry rocky boofs…fader boofs…delayed boofs…auto-boofs…Surfing green glassy waves…throwing ends in playful and not so playful holes.

Oh the joys of kayaking! The list goes on and on.  All the river moves are on our radar but one of the key components of kayaking can be the effort involved in hiking ones kayak to the river.  Whether hiking down 500 steps or walking in a mile or (oh no) having to hike out a run, it pays to get in shape.

Here are 5 Exercises you should be doing that require nothing but floor space and a pull up bar.

If you do 5 rounds of 20 reps of each exercise you will find yourself in better shape and more stoked on hopping in your kayak to shred the gnarr!!

For all the exercises prefer good form over quantity. Rest as necessary without being lazy. See you on the water!

Pull-ups


For pull-ups change to 10 at a time.  Nno worries if you can’t do that many.  Do what you can in the pull-up department, but don’t short change yourself–give it a little extra effort and your may surprise yourself)

Push-ups

(All the way up, all the way down. Keep your chin up)

Plank

(20 seconds instead of 20 reps) tighten your core and hold for 20 seconds

Lunges

Tap that knee to the ground keep your torso straight up and down.

Want a challenge? Make your right leg and your left leg count as one rep instead of two.

Body Squats

Pretty straight forward on this one, keep your back straight. Don’t lift your heels as you come up.

Get started today on this sequence and maybe next Monday morning you will not suffer from Tallulah legs as much as usual!