11 Jan 2014
Posted by mattwright
First off, congrats on a great site. Since the old paddleboards.com site went down a few years ago there was a real lack of good paddle info online. Your content’s been great and thanks for including both prone and SUP info. I wish some of your articles had been around when I was training seriously for event.
So here’s the question: It seems that the best way to increase the amount of time you can knee paddle is just by training on the water as much as possible. Do you have any suggestions for exercises or stretches you can do off the water to improve your knee paddling. Water time has been limited lately and it would be great to stay in paddle shape.
Eric, Wherabouts Unknown
Hey – thanks for the support!
First – the obvious. When it comes to knee paddling there really is no substitute. You already know that. There are, however, some things you can do out of the water so 1) you don’t lose everything when you cannot get out and practice your knee paddling and 2) correct imbalances, build strength, inrease flexibility, etc, so when you can get out and paddle you can maximize your time on the water. We apologize but all of the things we can recommend require purchasing some equipment.
- Go Chuck Norris and get a Total Gym . Yup- remember that thing from the early 90’s. You can pick them up for cheap and stick one in your garage. Try the 2 arm kneeling exercise. It will help build strength, mobilize your spine, shoulders and scapula, and you actually have to have a little in the way of balance to pull off the motion.
- Resistance bands : you know those rubber bands swimmers use to help build strength on land? Use them. They wont help your balance but they will help a bit if you cannot get in the water.
- Work on your core and hip strength and balance with a swiss ball. The move below is one of the foundation moves in the strength training program included in our book. Basically kneel on the swiss ball and twist from side to side. When you get good – do it with a medicine ball. When you get real good – bounce the medicine ball in front of you.
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There is no substitute for getting out on the water and knee paddling but if you cannot get out those are some things you can try.
UPDATE: one of our readers just sent us this link:
http://www.kayakpro.com/sls/
WHOA! This looks interesting.
Roch
