Stretching Routine for Kayakers

Did you ever feel stiff or do you just want to give your muscle a nice flexibility to bring your kayaking even further ?

I love stretching with friends through a yoga practice – online or physically together, outside in the summer times between kayaking runs or alone with some music in comfy clothes – as corona can gives many more opportunities than before. I have different needs at different time of the day and of the year and I like to experiment different things to stay motivated, find out new ideas and choose what works best just now. I like stretching during periods when I am training a lot to evacuate stiffness that builds up through big days, or during period when I am less active to keep contact with my body. Some period it makes sense to stretch in the morning, some others in the evening to start or end the day well. Stretching can also be part of the warm up and cool down routines of your kayaking practice.

I put together a stretching routine I love to do myself in a 30 min video. It is inspired by the French Federation of Canoe Kayak and I added some variations that works best for me. It goes through the entire body, so that no part is unfairly forgotten. This give me direct feedbacks of what muscles are actually the most tense to dedicate further attention to them. This is also a real good feedback of your kayaking technics, when you noticed you have more tension in a certain muscle it is a good moment to ask yourself how you actually use it when kayaking and if this is right or how you can improve your technics and posture there.

Here is the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=snmmd4ITMWo

Disclaimer! I am not a doctor, please remember that what is important is to not push yourself hard but be aware of your sensations and breath well into the stretch.

Cheers Capucine