Photo: Veganjunction.com
Ignoring the silly politics and stigmas, there are few things as head-clearingly awesome—or as good for you—as a long SUP downwind run or catching mushy waves at a lonely beach break when the surf sucks. But unfortunately, as with any pursuit in the water, the realities of our daily schedules often cut into free time, and you just need to get a quick paddle session in.
Fortunately, exercise science shows that you can develop certain energy systems and power output in very short, intense, purposeful workouts. Here are a few options that will quickly send your heart rate soaring, help boost your red-line capacity and, if you’re a racer, give you that incredible, Danny Ching-like sprint finish (OK, maybe not quite that fast, but you get the point).
With each option, make sure you warm up for a few minutes before hitting warp speed, and add in a cool down and post-paddling mobility to encourage recovery. As high intensity sessions are so demanding (just as with Olympic lifts and some kettlebell workouts), it can take your central nervous system up to 72 hours to fully recover. That means that two of these workouts a week will see you right. So you’re not looking at your watch/smartphone every two seconds, find an app that lets you pre-set the go hard/go easy periods.
Tabata
The most well known of the high intensity interval options is named for Ritsumeikan University Graduate School of Sport and Health Science dean Izumi Tabata. In researching the minimum required dose to improve anaerobic capacity in speed skaters, Tabata found that you simply need to go as hard as you can for 20 seconds, and then very slowly for 10 seconds, and repeat the cycle eight times. This method isn’t just valid for skaters, but applies to paddling, too. You sometimes see people bragging on their social media feeds that they’ve done double or triple Tabata (no matter what toy they’re powering, ie road bike, skiing, etc), but if you’re doing it correctly just one cycle should leave you too fried to try a do-over.
Photo: Annepagano.com
1 Minute On, 1 Minute Off
They might not give you the “holy crap, I just blew up my lungs” feeling you get post-Tabata, but slightly longer intervals still enhance anaerobic capacity and improve your high end “gearing” between speeds. If time is really of the essence, go hard for a minute (say 8 or 9 out of 10 on the intensity scale, if Tabata is a 10), then slowly for a minute.
Rather than just gliding during the rest period, paddle slowly to encourage your body to either flush or re-absorb byproducts and to continue pumping oxygenated blood to the muscles that need it. Also try to get into some controlled diaphragmatic breathing (aka belly breathing) part way through the active rest so you’re taking in more oxygen that panicked panting/stress breathing. You can also tinker with work/rest duration to challenge adaptation with slightly different stimuli (e.g. 1 minute hard, 75 seconds rest like the Little Method, or 90 seconds hard, 75 seconds active rest).
Of course there’s always the two-hour distance paddle out of the harbor or on the lake (maybe even a river). Which is awesome. But these two options give you a solid workout in a minimal amount of time.
