I’m new to T-Nation, I’ve been training on and off for the last 3 years, not making good gains by the standards of other members of this site, but compared to other members of my university gym I would say that I am fairly strong for my weight (75kgs).
Thus far, my training has been geared towards improving my performance in Canoe Polo (not a well known sport I must admit!) and I am curious as to what methods, exercises or training techniques other T-Nation users might suggest to improve my performance. Below is a link to a recent World Championship game for those who are interested.
Clearly the sport is very upper-body dominant, and as I began playing in my teens, my lower body development is quite frankly woeful (as is common with most Canoe Polo players), although not neglected in the gym.
Essentially the game consists of short sprint periods (when counter-attacking for example), one-on-one contests (in the defensive zone, where you battle with your opponent for territory), and general movement around the pitch.
I am aiming to make myself faster when sprinting, which presumably would entail becoming stronger without gaining too much muscle mass, and also to develop a more powerful shot, which is clearly different to other land-based throwing sports which rely on force generation through the lower body, that cannot be achieved when sitting in a kayak!
I appreciate that this is not a typical T-Nation forum post, but if anyone has any experience with the sport, or other kayak disciplines, or simply just an opinion generally, I welcome their input.
What a unique sport! I’ve never heard or seen anything like it. How did you even get into it?
Disclaimer: I can’t speak too much from personal experience, I can only share what I’ve assimilated from a bunch of stuff I’ve read, researched, and observed.
The basic principles I’ve distilled:
Stick with compound barbell exercises as the core of the workout: squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, bent rows, (dips, pullups, pushups are also good)
– specifically, these are good because they build stabilizers in addition to basic muscle… which means reduced likelihood of injury
– they also stimulate more hormonal activity for muscle growth compared to isolation work or machines
There’s nothing particularly magical about all of the 5x5 programs, 3x8, 8x3, 3x10 etc. Doing the math, most of them come down to somewhere between 24-30 total reps. That seems to be the key volume amount.
In general, the reps per set depends on your goals: lower reps (1-5) target strength, higher reps (8-12+) target size, 5-8 is a good compromise (hence the popularity of 5x5)
– this actually varies per muscle group, but is a good general rule for compound lifts
Perform every set like your life depends on it… don’t slack off because you’re saving yourself for later sets
Increase the total load every single workout session, for as long as you can. This means, increase either the total number of reps, sets, or weight… every single time. When you can’t make big jumps, move to smaller increments, until you can’t. Then drop to 80-90% of that for a week or two, and work your way back up.
The rest time between sets seems to matter for size gains; shorter rests means larger muscles, but not stronger (shorter rests = under 90 seconds)
Warmups are important (but you know that).
Stretching is important, but do it after your muscles are warmed up. You want to stretch your muscles, not your tendons and ligaments. Post-exercise stretching is probably ideal, but if you do that, DO NOT stretch the back. Twists are fine. Forward folds/bends are not… while fatigued, you can overstretch the spine and cause serious damage.
Keep yourself tight. Pull your shoulders in, harden your abs and lower back, squeeze/twist the bar.
Give yourself enough time to recover between workouts. If you wait too long, you won’t get stronger. If you don’t wait long enough, you won’t get stronger (and might get injured). There’s a window where you can improve, but it’s fairly wide.
Pay attention to your calorie intake, especially if you’re trying to get bigger.
As far as stuff specific to what you’re doing…
It looks like there’s a fair amount of asymmetrical motion in the sport, but most mainstream weight training is symmetrical. You’re going to want to do some asymmetrical training too:
Jefferson Lifts are good; also known as straddle deadlift and Jefferson Squats. Bar between your legs, mixed grip, keep lower back straight, stand up, repeat.
One armed lifts are good: snatches, swings, overhead press, side press, bent press. Google these.
Circling a kettlebell around the waist and between the legs is very good for training rotation and balance through the midsection. Go one direction, then go the other direction, swapping hands. It can be a dumbbell, just, kettlebells have handles. You can also circle around your head, like a halo, for shoulder stabilizer training.
If you’re willing to take the risk and work up to it, the Steinborn lift is a pretty effective way to get the bar up to squat. But it can be dangerous if your sides and lower back aren’t adequately developed and you use too much weight.
To reiterate, I’m not an expert… I’m barely an amateur. However, I do hope something here is useful to you.
Thanks for the responses! I know it’s a very peculiar hobby, I’ve always been into kayaking and other water sports but also loved contact team sports such as rugby, and fortunately such a sport exists that vaguely combines the two aspects! SO far I have tried to keep my training as simple as possible, using compound movements, so it’s good to see that I’m on the right lines.
How “strong” would you consider to be strong, in terms of percentage of bodyweight lifted in each exercise? I realise this way of measuring doesn’t seem too popular on here, but from my limited experience it seems to be an effective method of gauging how muscularly balanced and athletic someone is.
