Sailing Fitness and Training by Michael Blackburn



What The Authors Say About Sailing Fitness and Training

Sailing Fitness and Training focuses on the human physical factors that affect sailing performance. You’ll discover how to develop your strength, endurance, flexibility and agility for sailing.

Sports Scientist and World Champion sailor and Coach Dr Michael Blackburn has written the ultimate guide to sailing fitness.

This third edition of Sailing Fitness and Training has been extensively tuned up with the aid of another 10 years of experience sailing, training, setting training programs for others and, most recently, coaching at the highest level (including World and Olympic Champion Tom Slingsby).In this edition, there’s more of the training techniques that will help you get fitter quicker and more about what works consistently over the long term.



What we thought of Sailing Fitness and Training

My favourite is sailing fitness book is, without doubt, Sailing Fitness and Training by Michael Blackburn. The edition I first had was ‘Sail Fitter’ which is the paperback version, but this newer Kindle version is more modern, has more information, and is cheaper too.

We are lucky to have Michael Blackburn as it is hard to think of someone better qualified to write about sailing fitness:

  • Firstly, he’s an Olympic medallist, so he knows all about how to get fit for sailing
  • Secondly, he’s a coach, which means he knows how to impart information in a way that is as helpful as possible to other sailors
  • Thirdly, he has a PhD in Sports Science, so he kind of knows what he\’s talking about
  • And finally, he is a good sailing writer. He is widely published on several topics relevant to sailors, and not just on sailing fitness – here are a couple of articles by or referring to him: a) What not to do on the startline, and b) Reviewing your performance for future gains. Have a look, and you’ll see what I mean.

The best thing about Sailing Fitness and Training is that it covers everything you need to know to get yourself in shape for sailing. This means that it is great for club sailors and Olympic hopefuls alike, as you can take it to whatever level is suitable for your own needs and goals.

It is a funny thing, but if most club sailors did one to two workouts a week they would be among the most sailing-fit people at their club. The reason is that a lot of sailors either do sailing as their exercise, or do other exercise that isn’t specific for sailing fitness.

And being sailing-fit can make a big difference to your results. Ask most coaches what they think will lead to the biggest improvements in boatspeed and many will say sail the boat flatter. The best way to sail the boat flatter? Be sailing-fit.

And so Sailing Fitness and Training is gold dust. It has the best training sessions you can do; it has loads of different exercises you can use; it has sample programs, fitness tests and yearly planners; and it is designed in such a way that any sailor can use it to get what they need without having to wade through everything if they don\’t want to.

Don’t just take my word for it, either. Have a look at the reviews on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk – they’re all excellent.

If you’re going to do a bit of work on your fitness for sailing then you probably need this book.



Where Can You Buy Sailing Fitness and Training?

United States
UK and Ireland