Canoe/Kayak 4 week programme

[James Evans]

I promised this to Peter last week.

Just some words of explanation: If ever I come across something of interest in a magazine, newspaper, journal etc. I cut it out and it goes into my well indexed archives (ie a pile of papers on the floor next to my desk). The routine below was written up in Men's Health a couple of years ago. I didn't recall where it came from when I mentioned it to Peter last week. Now that I do, I'm a little embarrassed to mention it.

Men's Fitness in the UK is not a bad magazine. Some of the stuff comes from the US edition but mostly it is independent and I think it's a pretty good read.

On the other hand I think the UK Men's Health is garbage. I've stopped buying it ever now. I find reading the back of toiletry bottles to be more informative.

Have you ever noticed how a magazine routine based upon the moves of the stars is always programmed to fit hypertrophy? You wanna play Octopush like Jack Studd, Offensive Snorkel Suck of the Plymouth Hosers? Here's how kids:

DB Curl 3x10
Squat (to parallel and no more you monkeys) 3x10
Bench 3x10
Nose Pinches 3x10
etc.

Once in a while something stands out as being different and I have cut the odd thing out of MH that has depicted rugby players doing ball slams and the like, guys doing complexes like the Bear. MH was also the first place I heard about kettlebells and the awesome Stan Pike (who made mine) - http://www.intensefitness.co.uk/

So the article on kayak/canoe training caught my eye for these reasons. It actually looked tougher than the stuff normally pitched at guys wanting bar muscles. I'm still embarrassed to reveal the source though....

It's a four week programme and it was written by Shaun Craven, UK Junior coach and Ian Raspin, a double Olympian and head coach for the British Canoe Union World Class Programme.

I set this out in a beautiful table but it won't copy across, sorry if this is confusing.

Week 1

Monday

am Rest

pm Power Weights Session 1

Tuesday

am Run 30 mins

pm Paddle Time Trial 6km (record time)

Wednesday

am Rest

pm Paddle 6 x 2,000m
with 5 mins rest after each effort

Thursday

am Run 30 mins

pm Power Weights Session 2

Friday

am Rest
pm Rest

Saturday

am 5 mins paddle fast/2 mins paddle slow
x10

pm Run 40 mins

Sunday

am Paddle 75 mins

pm Rest

Week 2

Monday

am Rest

pm Power Weights Session 1

Tuesday

am Run 30 mins

pm Paddle Time Trial 6km (record time)

Wednesday

am Rest

pm Paddle 6 x 2,000m
with 5 mins rest after each effort

Thursday

am Run 30 mins

pm Power Weights Session 2

Friday

am Rest

pm Rest

Saturday

am 4 mins paddle fast/1 mins paddle slow
x12

pm Run 40 mins
(4 mins on/1 min off)

Sunday

am Paddle 60 mins

pm Rest

Week 3

Monday

am Rest

pm Power Weights Session 1

Tuesday

am Run 30 mins

pm Paddle Time Trial 6km (record time)

Wednesday

am Rest
pm Paddle 6 x 2,000m
with 5 mins rest after each effort

Thursday

am Run 30 mins

pm Power Weights Session 2

Friday

am Rest

pm Rest

Saturday

am 8 mins paddle fast/2 mins paddle slow
x7

pm Run 40 mins
(4 mins on/1 min off)

Sunday

am Paddle 60 mins

pm Rest

Week 4

Monday

am Rest

pm Power Weights Session 1

Tuesday

am Run 35 mins

pm Paddle Time Trial 6km (record time)

Wednesday

am Rest

pm Paddle 6 x 2,000m
with 5 mins rest after each effort

Thursday

am Run 40 mins

pm Power Weights Session 2

Friday

am Rest

pm Rest

Saturday

am 4 mins paddle fast/1 mins paddle slow
x12

pm Power Weight Session 1

Sunday

am Paddle 80 mins

pm Run 35 Mins (1 min fast/1 min slow)

Generally I don't think there is much to explain there. Fast/slow intervals mean jog recoveries if running, gentle paddling if on the water. On/off means run then walk recovery.

The weights are as follows:

Power Weights Session 1

Power Clean*

4 sets of 5 reps

Back Squat

4 sets of 5 reps

Lunge (with dbs)

4 sets of 5 reps each leg

Deadlift

4 sets of 5 reps

Chin ups (but they mean pull ups - overhand grip)

4 sets of 15 reps**

DB Bench Press

4 sets of 12 reps

Lat Pull Down

4 sets of 12 reps

Single Arm Row

4 sets of 12 reps per arm

Military Press

4 sets of 12 reps

* I have to give you the description for the clean:

"With your feet shoulder-width apart, grab the barbell with an overhand grip. 'Snatch' the bar to your shoulders and press it upwards. Slowly lower."

The accompanying photographs are confusing. Photo 1 has the guy in the bottom position. Fine. Photo 2, the bar is racked but he his in the bottom of a lunge position with his right leg out behind him. Photo 3 the bar is locked out above him.

I'm not sure how much of this is typically bad MH editorial work. I tried this out the other day and it felt weird. If anyone has seen cleans done like this let me know. I propose you just power clean and press normally.

** This is bloody typical. 4 x 15 pull ups are put alongside other exercises that are perfectly manageable. I see this in magazines all the time. I think the journos never do them so they have no idea how hard they are for the average man. However, a bit of canoe experience is going to make you a stronger puller than the average man.

Power Weights Session 2

Set weight is now prescribed. If you can't manage the weight given scale as appropriate but stick to the same proportions throughout. So if you start the first week benching 30kg, start the second benching 60kg. I'm not sure I understand this now I give it more thought. Well I understand what they are saying but I'm not sure it makes sense in application. Anyway:

Barbell Bench Press

Week 1: 50kg - six sets of 20 reps
Week 2: 80kg - six sets of 7 reps
Week 3: 70kg - six sets of 10 reps
Week 4: 60kg - six sets of 12 reps

Barbell Bentover Row*

Week 1: 30kg - six sets of 20 reps
Week 2: 30kg - six sets of 12 reps
Week 3: 50kg - six sets of 8 reps
Week 4: 40kg - six sets of 10 reps

Barbell Curl**

Weeks 1-4: 30kg - six sets of 10 reps

Dips

Weeks 1-4: Six sets of 10 reps

* This is f@cked up. I can row much more than I can bench. This is a training programme for a pulling sport and bench is taking priority. Originally the weights being used for the bench stood out for me as making the article a little different bearing in mind we are talking about the world of beach muscles and bullworkers here but the row numbers are low. Using the same weight for weeks 1 & 2 suggests a typo to me.

** Amazing how many athletes do curls. And not just in the magazines because 'that's what the people want'. Forget your functionality. Curls still dominate.


So there you go. I think there is some interesting stuff here. I might try this using a C2.

[Rick Deckart]

Thank you James! I will comment later on it, too busy in the moment. I may actually calculate the tonnages as well and post them...

[Rick Deckart]

First random batch of comments, Looks tough but perfectly doable. BTW I collect gems too, but have lost some of the articles over the years. No idea where they are...

Originally Posted by James Evans

...awesome Stan Pike (who made mine) - http://www.intensefitness.co.uk/

Hey my first kettlebell was made by Stan Pike too. Got it (16kg, steel(!)) very cheap from a powerlifter who once placed an ad on the site of Herrmann Korte (www.k3k.de)

Originally Posted by James Evans

If anyone has seen cleans done like this let me know. I propose you just power clean and press normally.

Sounds like a split clean & press/pushpress/jerk? to me.

Originally Posted by James Evans

* This is f@cked up. I can row much more than I can bench. This is a training programme for a pulling sport and bench is taking priority. Originally the weights being used for the bench stood out for me as making the article a little different bearing in mind we are talking about the world of beach muscles and bullworkers here but the row numbers are low. Using the same weight for weeks 1 & 2 suggests a typo to me.

But it is perhaps not a bad idea to balance all that paddling/canue work with benches to avoid imbalances.

Originally Posted by James Evans

So there you go. I think there is some interesting stuff here. I might try this using a C2.

If you do, you should create a worklog for the rest of us interested...

[Chris Lowndes]

Thanks for posting james.

I am unsure about parts of the programme i.e. the barbell curls [better off doing some functional movements or just getting time in the kayak/canoe or recreating in the gym similar movements] also the distances "Paddle 6 x 2,000m" and "Paddle Time Trial 6km" when canoe slalom run times are 80-200 seconds and following tv pressures tend to be around the 80-100 second [2 runs of the course] mark, courses being anywhere around 200-400 metres [dependant on course set/speed of water etc etc etc]

I would have though better to train for endurance in and around the times/distances you were going to compete at? Any thoughts?

Chris

[James Evans]

Chris,

I would have to defer to your knowledge on the basis that I know very little about the sport. I will say that I think this is a 4 week booster session to get you firing. And it is written for the readership of Men's Health so...

When I originally read it myself and a friend who is a rowing coach wondered if we could adapt it for rowers. That's partly where the C2 idea came from.

Agree on the curls.

Peter,

Split clean seems perfectly viable, just surpised that got thrown into a Men's Health article. Still, you do see full snatches and the like stuck in amongst lat raises and bench flyes from time to time with absolutely no explanation as to how to do them.

I get you with the balancing chest against back. What a wonderful world it would be if everyone needed to bring up their chest work to match their backs...

Sadly when you buy kbs from Stan directly they are not that cheap but I think they are totally worth the money in the sense that he is a guy making them by hand and running his own business, not a marketing machine importing them on mass from Asia.

And he looks like a viking.

[Rick Deckart]

Originally Posted by James Evans

Chris,
I get you with the balancing chest against back. What a wonderful world it would be if everyone needed to bring up their chest work to match their backs...

An ex-collegue of mine is a competing rower, he dropped deadlifts and invested in bench work if memory serves as he saw very little transfer of increasing the former into his rowing.

Originally Posted by James Evans

Chris,
Sadly when you buy kbs from Stan directly they are not that cheap but I think they are totally worth the money in the sense that he is a guy making them by hand and running his own business, not a marketing machine importing them on mass from Asia.

That powerlifter offered three bells, a >50kg custom desing bell with thick handle, a 35kg bell and that 16kg, I only wish I had bought them all. That sixteen is by far the best bell I own. Indestructible, I think you could wreck a house with it. Excellent craftmanship and you can see they are made from hand and with passion.

[James Evans]

Interestingly I was arguing with my coaching friend over the relevance of deadlifts for his crews. I reckoned they should be taught to clean. He thought that deadlifts had more transfer.

I think it came down to him not knowing how to coach the clean. In the end he brought in an excellent O lifting coach and now all his athletes clean.

[Rick Deckart]

My ex-collegue had a team mate, they had approx. the same times in races and this other guy focused on a deadlift cycle...well despite uping his deadlift 40kg this did absolutely nothing for his racing. So I would ask if I am into racing and spent that effort and time and see it does nothing? As far as I understood him, he wrote his PhD about someting like the influence of pulling force curves and synchronicity of the pullers in a fourer boat on the speed of the boat---brute strenght work does not help (in this case), on the contrary you could spend the time with more valuable training...