Thoughts on Sailing Fitness

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down with Harry Legum, owner of Annapolis Sailing Fitness, for a discussion about just that — sailing fitness. 

So, you may be asking yourself why this guy is qualified to comment on fitness – especially sailing fitness.  During the conversation, I learned that Harry spent time as a lifeguard, in the army and as a paramedic,  and training in martial arts before he became a personal trainer.  For him, it all connects through an aspect of taking care of people.  He’s been a professional trainer 25 years – 8 years ago moved back to Annapolis and came up with the concept of sailing fitness.  Before, the usual sailing fitness programs (if you could find them) were short workshops, but no programs like what Annapolis Sailing Fitness offers.  Now, Harry trains locally and travels internationally to train pro sailors, junior sailors, and sailing teams.   At the Annapolis gym, training is typically  one on one, one on two, or teams.  Although, he has trained as many as 40 people in an active session moving through workshops.  This was more than enough to convince me that Harry is someone I should listen to about sailing fitness. 

What I didn’t expect is that we didn’t discuss just fitness.  Our conversation went everywhere from philosophies on life to reading to fitness; and how it all comes together to make a person who they are.  Here are some of the thoughts that I brought from that conversation.

General Thoughts on Life
• You’re a product of the people you meet & what you listen to.  Reading books is important too (and more than just training books too).
• Don’t be afraid of no
• Action conquers fear
• It’s easy to be brave from a distance

General Thoughts on Fitness
• Fitness is within an individual’s goals.  It’s very personal and is specific to each person.
• Training schedule needs to be tailored to the person — time management is important.  Someone could ideally work out 2-3 times a week weights, and 3, 4, or 5  times a week for cardio.  But, you can’t overwhelm someone.  Take the first step, get the ball rolling, then build from there. 
• Soreness is NOT a measure of success.  Train smartly, don’t over train.
• Work large muscle groups first, but a trainer has to approach each person individually — be mindful
• Single joint exercises are typically used earlier in a training program, then move up to multi-joint exercises.  Use things that are relatable — push ups, bands.  You don’t have to have fancy equipment or any equipment to be fit.  Different variations can change a simple exercise — example of variations on push ups.
• Do something! It starts with one step.  All factors play in to an individual — mental and physical.  It’s a balance of mental, physical, and nutritional.
• If you’re in better shape, you recover more quickly — e.g. If you sailed 3 days on a Laser on in San Francisco, you would be more prepared for the next day if you were in better shape.  
• Physical strength helps you handle mental stress (racing or otherwise)
• Chris Carmichael wrote a book called Food For Fitness.  It offers a lot of tips about how to fuel your body for different types of physical performance. 
• Exercise gives you benefits psychologically (feeling better less stress), the extra strength and confidence & clothes fitting better are all a side effect.
• The workout is a tool that helps you tap into the mental aspect of confidence.
• Training changes over life and based on experiences — different goals in different stages, different goals after injury or life events.  The key is to evolve.
• Don’t get too caught up in just a machine or just an exercise.  It’s about the whole experience.
• Go for good pain not bad pain — good pain is muscles working & growing.  Bad pain is overtraining or poor form.
• Give muscle groups 48 hours to rest in between work outs — e.g.  don’t work the same muscle groups two days in a row.

Sailing Fitness
• First thing in Harry’s training programs is evaluation — not just sailing fitness – everybody has something they’re working on or fitness goals / personal goals
• Sailing comes in later.  What kind of a boat, what position, each position has different muscles that are needed and different exercises you would focus on. Crew, trim, main? Need to make sure that you handle the load.
• Grinder — has to grind a lot but work on other things first — balance, cardio, explosive power.
• Tailor the exercise to the position, type of boat along with individual person’s needs.  Sometimes evaluate with film
• The way to be a good sailor is to sail A LOT

You can find out more at the Annapolis Sailing Fitness web site.