Sunday 2 November 2014

The physical states of sandboarding

Hello again followers!

If you were anticipating the 'physcial' states of sandboarding post for this week, then you were right to think that because in this post, in relation to last week's 'mental states of sandboarding' post I'll be blogging about the physical states you need to be in, in order to be a pro in sandboarding. Just a reminder that I'm not a qualified Sports doctor, physician, psychiatrist, health director or anything related to an educated specialist; so if you choose to take my advice, you are taking the advice from a complete lunatic! If you like being social, this blog has its own facebook page now so please be sure to like the official FaceBook page for a more up-to-date feed.

Physical

In this section I'll be having a look and I'll publish some findings I have found on the physical state of mind you'll have to be in to be an expert or an 'amateurish professional' as I may call it.

Building Leg Muscles

Now, the main reason why so many people lag or feel sluggish in sandboarding is the sheer amount of work you have to do in order to just 'survive' (realistically enjoy it) and that is that every time, you have to climb up the dune if you don't have a recreational vehicle or dune buggy to go up the dune in. I would think that building your leg muscles to make climbing the dune easier would be a good start; I would imagine that doing at least 45 minutes of walking, running or an hour cycling would usually make more noticeable leg muscles in a short while. What I'm trying to say is that if you did a standard leg workout, say running, cycling, jogging, walking, etc... that if you took a before and after picture with a 8 week timescale, I think most people would notice how their leg muscles have changed; I haven't done this myself so I can't say for sure but if it does work let me know and I'll blog about your efforts! A little side note here as building your leg muscles are very essential and beneficial for your experience, you may look a bit of a mess if you don't focus on extending the work of your upper body.


Stamina

This relates back to the reason I covered about building leg muscles and it may actually contradict what I said last week about relaxation; However, in order to boost your stamina I have discovered that 'cardiovascular' workouts make your heart function as well in oxygen deprived (anaerobic) conditions, I have done research and according to breakingmuscle.com your maximum aerobic (with oxygen) heart rate which you can perform and function well at in order to burn fat and/or increase your levels of stamina and endurance works out to be like this: take away your age from 180, if you are 38 years old for example then your maximum aerobic heart rate would be 142 (180 - 38 = 142) so if you want to boost endurance and burn fat, aim for a heart rate less than 142 but around that number; personally, I'd say about 10% less than your maximum aerobic heart rate which in this case would be 128, because 10% of 142 is 14.2 and 142 - 14.2 = 127.8 and if you round 127.8 to the nearest whole number you'll get 128. Hopefully my maths skills are just as good as my sandboarding expertise. I think stamina is vital in this sport as you have to climb up the dune and stay active.

Eating & Drinking

Now this subtopic is quite easy, just eat the right foods and drink the right drinks. I would find it essential to have a good breakfast of cereal or a nice cooked breakfast at least 2 and a half hours before your sandboarding session to give your body time to process the food down and for a chance to 'relieve yourself' as it were. I would under all circumstances avoid high stimulant energy drinks, mentioning no brand names; energy drinks cause you to crash and burn later in the day and could mean trouble to you being awake whereas coffee and tea related beverages slowly release energy and are better, try to avoid sugary carbonated drinks but it is vital to get water and a lot of it! If you read the last post, I referred to the amount of water you'll need when taking part in this sport with sand dunes and in deserts, if you do snowboarding in the winter it's the same story as the air is drier and you need to stay hydrated and warm. Avoid Silicon Dioxide as it is a cause for being parched and in a dry region such as a sand dune complex for sandboarding, it's a no-no!


Aerodynamics & Hair

This sub-topic is true but yet again misleading. There is a common misconception that cyclists in the annual 'Tour de France' shave their legs because of aerodynamics. Shaving legs making you go faster is correct but in reality it's not a big difference, an improvement is only at about 0.6% as cyclists with hairless legs can only save about 5 seconds of extra time if they are going 40 kilometres at a speed of 37 kilometres per hour. My personal thinking and logic behind this 'shaving legs theory' is that it could work on the dunes but only by a few milliseconds as the dune is shorter than a 40 kilometre journey but you do go a lot faster so there may be hope. Aside from aerodynamics from shaving legs, legs with no hairs can heal cuts faster because of the ease of applying plasters, easier to clean yourself and women love men with smooth legs (just some short dating advice there)! A body with lower surface area will make you go faster because there's less space for air to hit whilst you're going down the dune.

Final words

My personal thoughts and feelings towards this fitness and physical topic are rather low as I never go to the gym and work out but I do cycle to college every day (when it's not raining) and do at least my half an hour exercise so I don't worry, I eat well and I am in good shape so I feel there's no reason to complain but obviously if I want to prepare before a big event, I do but since my schedule is mainly empty, I don't do much else. On next weeks blog post; I'm going to try something a bit different, I will put up a poll with a question asking you, the loyal readers: "What colour stripes should I have on my sandboard?", I ask you because I'm so indecisive. So don't forget to like the new Sandboarding Nation facebook page, vote in the poll which closes 9th November at 12pm (Greenwich Mean Time).

To our new Spanish speaking blog readers, "¡Hola!" I used to study Spanish in school; now to our English readers and all other readers across the world, Take care of yourself and see you next week. Join me where I'll be blogging about the 'ideal equipment'.

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