This is one of my favorite workouts because it makes you fast and strong!   20 second sprints are the meat of this workout, with 40 seconds of rest.  It sounds easy, but you will be going 100% all out on each one.    You’ll love the first ones, and be hanging on by the end.    This Lactic tolerance workout pushes through the ATP and Lactic Acid fuel supplies quickly, and gets your muscles ready for high speed kayaking.

An endurance piece at the end helps you process the lactic acid and get the hydrogen ions filtered out of your muscles, preventing them from getting too sore or stiff as well as rounds out this workout for burning more calories and working your cardio longer.

Any boat works for this workout.   The faster the kayak is, the faster your stroke rate, lower the force on each paddle blade.   A Freestyle kayak is a great workout for building muscle due to the large resistance on each stroke.   A Karma Unlimited, or a recreational kayak is good for medium resistance and medium stroke rate, and a sea kayak, or racing kayak is lower resistance, high turnover for developing fast twitch muscles and getting heart rate up.     I prefer to use slow to medium speed boats to develop stronger paddling muscles.   Whitewater kayak racing, in particular is more about accelerating and rarely are you flying at high speed due to the waves, drops, holes, turns, etc..

Focusing on a good forward stroke while sprinting is important for this workout.    You learn how to develop a good forward stroke at different speeds in my Strokes and Concepts program – here is a link to the Forward Stroke section of my program:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdghrGXC944

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