The Training:
Balance, strength, power and endurance training while having fun? Yes, it is possible! It turned out that they really liked the meditation. I could see their breathing and movements getting more relaxed, and how they opened their eyes once finished with a big smile. We were ready to start the day.
The water was clear and peaceful, the mornings are quiet in Bol and the sun is warm but doesn’t burn your skin. We started with some tips on paddle efficiency and avoiding injury. We did some balance exercises standing in the board, walking and turning around and learning how to make fast buoy turns. Then, we attached our boards to the fitness platform and started some isometric core training with the floating boards adding intensity to the exercise. The second day we added new challenges like burpees and other body weight exercises. At first, we did it with the boards attached to the platform. The following days we did them while touring around so the boards were in movement, which made it a lot harder. This way, our training didn’t have static rest periods, our recovery time was continual paddling.
A very powerful move was to take some harder strokes, lie prone on the board, paddle with the arms and then pop up like a surfer to resume stand up paddling. Then mixed in squats and 180 and 360 jumps, which made it a lot more fun since it got a few of them falling into the water.
We spoke about self-confidence, about keeping calm when we get in trouble in the ocean and about wipeouts in surf. We then practiced some apnea exercises. Inhaling during some strokes, keeping the air inside during some others, exhaling while paddling, then keeping paddling with no air and a few other different combinations. It was four days of intense and hard training, each with two hours of challenging exercise on an unstable surface. I couldn’t believe how fit this group of girls was!
