“ I already have your book plus the 9 week plan download but do you do custom training plans. I need something a little more specific to myself and the winter conditions where I live.

I’m 36, a former C1 paddler who gave up canoe at 34 and happened upon sup last year 😉 fit enough/strong/ need to loose some body fat.

From now until the days get longer I will be doing cross training and paddling (SUP)  on the weekend when the weather permits.

Thanks for the note.

We do not do custom training plans. Rather, we refer these types of questions to Jay Wild who runs a custom training plan service. You can contact him at http://jaywildlife.wordpress.com

Before we let you go, however, we would like to take a few minutes and address your comment about needing to lose some body fat. Many of our readers are slightly “older” racers who are coming from an endurance background. Like you, they put on some weight and are looking to SUP to lose weight. In many cases, however, they are paddling their brains out and they are gaining weight or they are at a weight plateau.

Here is the thing. SUP might not be the best way to lose weight. We know that SUP is touted as a great “core and cardiovascular workout” because it is. The problem is that, at least in our experience, it may not be the most efficient route to weight loss.

We know of several stand up paddlers who paddle…keep paddling…then paddle some more and nothing happens with their weight. We know of a few of these paddlers who stopped paddling (or at least paddled less but substituted some of their paddle workouts with things like biking and intense gym based workouts) and they shed that last 5 or 10 they were looking to lose. We know of even more stand up paddlers who treat paddling as a part time endeavor and mix it with as much cross training including running, cycling, and gym work and they always seem to stay shredded.

We do not know why, with certainty, that SUP is not the most efficient way to change your body composition but we suspect that two factors are at play

1. When you paddle, you are primarily using the smaller muscles of your shoulders, back, and core. You, largely, do not activate the large muscles of your legs. This is why, for many stand up paddlers, their max heart rate and average sustained heart rates while paddling often do not mirror what they can do while running or cycling
2. It takes focus and commitment to overload your system while stand up paddling:  Unless you actively do something to change things up while you are on a stand up board such as focusing on your intervals, change paddle blade size to increase your cadence or overload your muscles, or keep going longer and longer distance it is really easy to lull yourself into a false sense that you are progressively overloading your system which, to some degree, is a requirement for changing your body composition.  Stated another way, it is really easy to slack off on a SUP and just cruise along not doing all that much.

An analogy to help all this make sense

Sometimes we compare paddling to cycling. It is really easy to go out and jack around on your bike. Just put it in an easy gear and cruise along on the flats. You will expend almost no energy, burn few calories, and there you have it.

Conversely, to get a gruelingly hard workout on a bike, just find your local mountain and start climbing. If you want to increase things further, step on the gas and do some uphill sprints. Presto you are out of breath and puking on your handlebars.

Stand up paddling is similar to cycling, it is super easy to just plod along letting the currents take you this way and that way. You expend little energy and you get what you get. In our experience, without a heart rate monitor to keep them honest many paddlers think they are doing more work than they are actually doing because they are tired after a paddle. In reality, they are not doing all that much work but they feel tired because they just get dehydrated  and calorie starved because they  just spend two hours on their board and they failed to eat anything when they were out there baking in the sun.

Taking this analogy further, if you look at the maximal and average heart rates you can sustain while cycling vs. paddling, most athletes can achieve a higher maximal heart rate and hold an average heart rate longer (e.g. have a higher LT HR on the bike) than they can with paddling. This is because cycling uses the relatively larger muscles of your legs which taxes your heart more and burns more calories over time.  Conversely, it is harder to keep your heart rate elevated and harder to reach a higher maximal heart rate while paddling because you use  the smaller muscles of your torso which tax your heart less and fatigue faster.

If your goal is to be a faster paddler (especially with distance races) and win races – you might have a problem.

The bottom line so far is that stand up paddling might not be the most efficient route to losing weight. If your main goal is to lose weight and you like paddling, consider mixing in some cross training that uses the big muscles of your legs like cycling and running. Keep some intensity in your workouts and we also recommend getting in the gym.

All of that is good and well. The real problem occurs when we have a paddler who wants to lose weight AND  maximize their ability at paddle racing. Especially if they are focusing on longer distance races like Molokai or Chattajack.  The problem is that training to change your body composition AND training to become a faster paddler (again especially in long distance races) do not always go hand in hand.

As we have said time and time again on this website –  you need to go slow to get fast. Well, going slow for hours and hours on your paddleboard will make you a faster paddler. We do not, however, guarantee that you will lose that last 5 lbs.

This should come as no surprise to anyone. Using an example from another sport, marathon swimming , it is not uncommon to see incredibly fit athletes look anything but ripped.

What this means to many paddlers is that they need to choose going fast/long vs. looking  their best or losing that last 5 lbs.  If you want to look good, do intense workouts, do lots of cross training, etc. etc. That type of working out, however, may not build all of your energy systems, in particular the aerobic energy system, that you need to keep with the big boys at the end of a long or even middle distance race or finish Molokai.

In conclusion

1. SUP might not be the most efficient route to losing weight if losing weight is your primary goal.
2. If your main goal is to change your body composition, do lots of cross training using your big leg muscles, keep intensity in your program, and get in the gym
3. If your main goal is to get fast on the paddleboard, stick with your training program and stop looking in the mirror. The fastest paddler does not always have washboard abs.
4. For many paddlers changing their body composition and going fast on the paddleboard are both important considerations. If that describes you, great.  Now get out there and get on a training program that will help you achieve both of your goals.
5. Don’t forget that weight loss does not happen in a vacuum. You can workout all you want but if you go back home and eat pork rinds and ice cream all day you won’t be changing your body composition any time soon. This article did not address nutrition. Good nutrition is assumed. Please check out our book or other reference for more information about the basics of sports nutrition.

P.S. This article is talking about SUP. It does not address prone paddleboarding. While SUP is like cycling (e.g. it is easy to slack off) prone paddleboarding is more like running (e.g. when you slack off you pretty much stop). There is no hiding in prone paddleboarding. That is why you hear so many paddlers refer to prone boards as “suffer sticks.” It is also the reason, we believe, that we are seeing a resurgence in prone paddleboarding lately. You get more bang for your buck when you prone paddleboard compared to SUP.