Getting Fit2Race

31 May

This article on www.karting1.co.uk came to my attention about
3 weeks ago.
It's all about fitness for karters. In one of my earlier entry in this
blog, I believed I had briefly said that competitive go karting is
really more than a 'drive in the park'... much more!

After the last race, Graeme mentioned this on our Facebook
club page, http://www.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/group.php?gid=45212103499
"I even get out of breath tying my shoelace."

I'm not saying that karters are the fittest 'sportsmen', but there's
always a perception that how tough can it be sitting and driving
round and round the track???

Anyway, let's get to the article by Fit2Race on karting1.co.uk
To be fast is good, to be fast the entire race distance is even better.

The importance of fitness training and conditioning and its influence toward on track performance can often be underestimated. If you spend time away from the circuit to prepare for the physical aspect of your racing you will see resulting performance gains above and beyond what you thought may be possible. Fitness training is often taken as a more reactionary decision rather than a pro-active one. This is understandable as many karters struggle to balance the amount of karting they do against the added pressure of academic studies or work and managing tight budgets. However a small dedication of time will make those hot days in Europe on a rubbered up track a walk in the park.

So what is the benefit of training to karters? And why is it important? Well ask any experienced single seat driver and they will tell you that it is hard work getting in shape and maintaining it as career and physicality of the racing progresses. Yet quite a few will use karting for aspects of fitness condition and to maintain race craft in the off season. So this shows just how hard it can be. But what if you were so well prepared that you didn’t ever consider the physicality of the Kart… whilst others struggle and fatigue after a day of heats, repocharge’s, and finals, you remain fresh and able to push 100% to the chequered flag!

Training for karting is not about becoming big and developing large and inefficient muscles. It’s pointless spending hours upon hours in the gym doing high weight high energy expending activity. As you all know, weight is important so it is key to make yourself strong and effective whilst remaining as light as possible. If you combine an effective conditioning programme with some targeted cardio, then you will be well on your way to fitness excellence. It’s all about training smart.

So what is training Smart?

It is simply about being logical and focussing your attention on planning your training, you need to be specific to your current needs or goals and address highlighted areas of weakness. This will simply mean you don not lose wasted hours in the gym doing pointless exercise that won’t deliver the performance advantage you expect!

Training doesn’t have to be a chore or be a laborious process; it can be fun and easy. Varying your training and keeping your body interested and stimulated whilst keeping it challenging is the key! Change the order and the number of sets, weights and reps and try to be functional in your movements. Think about it, your body rarely triggers muscles in isolation, so why train them in that way? Try to combine different movements into exercises that combine various muscle groups.

To help you get started on your strength and condition, here is a breakdown of what to train when you go into the gym.

If you are unsure of any aspect of training or exercise or are unfamiliar with a gym or piece of equipment you should always seek advice from a qualified trainer.

Lower Back – It is so important to you and your performance, it keeps you stable, protects your spine and helps form a basis of your core that allows postural stability and strength in all movements. As every karter will testify, you take a high amount of impact through your seat and back at every meet regardless of track or competition. Strengthening your back means the impact of the loading is massively reduced, and therefore so is the risk of injury or fatigue.

Get your back pumped with these exercises

Plank – hold your spine and posture in a straight line from head to toe whilst balancing between your toes and your elbows
Deadlift – pivoting from the hips, bend forward controlling movement before using your lower back to pull you back into a standing position
Dorsal Raises – lying flat on the floor, arch your back upwards lifting your legs and arms off the ground at the same time

Core –is the key to strong and functional movement. Your core encompasses your lower back, and it works to stabilise and protect your spine to prevent injury and to allow all bodily movements. The stronger the core, the more efficient your performance will be. The “core” is a name given to the collective group of muscles that include your hip flexors, your abdominals and oblique, and your back and spinal control muscles.

Give these a try…

Pure crunch – from a normal sit up position, fixed heels firmly into the floor and picking a point on the ceiling, reach upwards towards it to a maximum range, hold then slowly control the release
Hip Flexor Bridge with leg extension – starting form the same position as a sit up, push heels into floor and lift your pelvis to form a straight line between shoulder and knee. Lift one foot off the floor and hold out straight and parallel to the body.
Standing Torso rotation – stand sideways on to a cable column, a full arms length away, Take a single handle grip with both hands at a height level to your shoulder. From here keeping a straight arm, rotate through your torso keeping your hips square and feet fixed.

Shoulders and upper back - This is where you will get your strength to drive the kart and throw it into the corners, it will also help you develop endurance to cope with increased grip and hot sticky tracks. It helps form a strong platform for postural strength and spinal protection, and for massively reducing the risk of injuries from impacts. For those looking to step into single seater testing from karting, it is also essential to have strong and effective shoulder complex!

Moves to get you started

Alternate arm shoulder press – sit on swiss ball, with feet wide stance apart. Take weight in each hand and perform alternate arm shoulder press from top of shoulder to a fully extended arm above your head. Maintain your balance!
Seated rear row – place feet into a weight column, and have a bar set level with your chest. Push legs out so they are straight and squeezing through your back, pull bar into your chest, hold and relax. Hold your posture.
Upright row (combined with deadlift) – take a split stance, and with a narrow grip take a barbell and raise it until it rest on the top of your thigh. From here pull the bar upwards until it is level with your chin, and then relax back down slowly. An option to then go straight to a deadlift exists here also

Chest – your chest is not as important as some of the other muscles groups for karting. It will give you added strength in some aspects of your karting fitness, but it needs to be trainer and strong to give you postural symmetry with your strong back

Try these for starters

Bench press – take a bar bell with a shoulder width grip, lying flat back onto a bench. Extend arms fully above your chest, slowly control the bar down until almost touching your chest, then after a slight pause, push back upwards. Raise legs off the floor or widen grip to make move more difficult.
Press ups – press ups are good as can be done anywhere, but try stringing 3 different types of press ups together one after the other. They have a number of variety such as normal, wide, narrow, incline, decline, into a swiss ball, t – press up and split hand position.

Forearms – these are essential as they are the muscles that allow you to grip to the wheel… thy will normally be conditioning with the amount of karting you do, but there is massive benefit in training them as it will reduce fatigue!

Get going with these exercise

Standing straight arm rotation and bent arm rotations – take a light dumbbell in each hand, take arms out parallel to the floor either straight or bent at the elbow and starting with hands palm down, rotate as much as your can anti clockwise, the clockwise.
Steering wheel turns - take a seated position or hold a driving position balanced across a bench. Hold a weight plate in both hands in the same way you hold the steering wheel. Rotate fully clockwise and anti clockwise.

How long and how hard vary… it is dependant on the individual and the level of your competition. Always try to push yourself and make your training a challenge, try to continually push more reps for endurance and when the muscles get used to the weight to the point that your reps are endless, up the weight slightly and try to meet the same. Alternatively you can challenge yourself with minimal rest between sets or combination circuits where you simple move from one exercise straight to the next one doing as many reps as you can.

By Karl Bickley Fit2Race
Karl is a professional motor sports fitness coach with high profile clients like F1's Anthony Davidson, and karters like Alex Walker and Scott Jenkins www.fit2race.co.uk