Physical conditioning

[Rob Hogenmiller]

I highly recommend Body For Life, www.bodyforlife.com If you can spend 20 minutes one day and 45 minutes the next rotating thru the week with one day off to pig out and be lazy your good to go in the kart seat. You should be able to keep up with any young gun conditioning wise afterwards.

With training for karting unless your doing endurance racing, I question if you need much endurance beyond 20 minutes. Training your lungs is probably the most important thing. Cycling is a great thing but not just going out and keeping a steady pace. You have to have burst of speeds that pump your lungs up followed by easy moments to refill your lungs (such as a straightaway might do).

Lack of oxygen normally causes lactose to build up and giving quicker tensing muscles and fatigue. Also sports drinks like Ultima Replenisher do make a difference in your stamina, www.ultimareplenisher.com

If all else fails joing the military or get a job as a sheetrocker. LOL

[Larry Ferguson]

I keep Randolph on fairly regular program.
Every other day, he runs aproximatly 6 miles, which includes one mean *** hill, then on the other days, he is hitting the weights. It helps when there is someone there to keep the push going. Especially on the days where all you want to do is sit in front of the TV, playing GT3 on your PlayStation 2. If he's agood boy, I let him have Sat and Sunday off. Now drop and give me 20...

[Jussy Rusit]

couch... we'll that's there for a reason
I use that for the mental aspect of the sport i.e., GT3 enduro's on a PS2 with a cold one on the table hehehe. I'm certain I'll be ready for Laguna Seca and Monaco when the time comes Brant "Shooter" described the importance of concentration. imho, doing enduro races with GT3... does help me on this mental part plus the hand-eye coordination. This is another thread in itself...

To summarize this so far .. I would assume that physical exercise is much dependant on one's "free" time and there are several factors that one can address.

For starters. It's safe to assume that any body aches' after a race is the key to one's exercise program; for example neck strains. After several laps... the helmet do tend to lean on the heavy side. Doing neck exercises help in improving this... and the same would be true for a lighter helmet... But one thing that helped me a bit is having a thicker neck collar. Instead of the neck getting all the lateral forces... the neck collar spread it down to the shoulders.

Another is lower back and upper back. Well, for those that have seen me... I tend to be on the lighter side of the scale, though my teammates would argue that With that in mind, my heavy kart is a big reason why I don't want to loose anymore weight. Just imagine, I have to add a pound of lead to my kart for every body fat I lose. Now, why would I be motivated with that hehehe. besides... worst case, don't want to be pinned under by a heavy kart if I can help it.

Going back to the "backs", in road racing a sprint 80, I find myself leaning forward to the steering wheel most of the time for a more aerodynamic form and it does pay toll at the latter end of the race. Crunches do help in this department... but the big flab do get in the way also...hehehe.

Next are the arms, biceps, shoulder, chest, etc. Again, imho, this are more focused on steering and CG control of the kart (sprint shifter for this matter.) Steering is pretty much straightforward but not CG Control...aka weight transfer. Again, another thread. I agree with Pete that having a very easy kart to drive with and the one that fits do make a huge difference. On another note, tire balancing also (right Larrry Dobbs?)

Finally, you have the legs and thighs.. in a very broad sense , running, cycling, hiking can address.

Now, am I missing something else? FYI, my schedules allow me to spent half-hour on cardio, and another hour on the other machines (Tues, Thurs) and spend half-day mountain biking on weekends. Of course... that schedule get to be skewed once in a while.

[Larry Ferguson]

Personally, I have most recently discovered that by lifting Sierra Nevada Pale Ales (one in each hand of course!) to my mouth several times, followed up by a few quick sets of Vicodin swallowing, that I feel as if I could probably kick all of your butts, on or off the track. However, my newly discovered cockiness is being tested. Randolph has just informed me that I don't even drive a car well. And when I attempt to do that, I simply get punted out of the way by young girls while talking on their cell phones. I guess I will just stick to watching T.V. and pretend that I am great!

[Glenn Holland]

When EKN doesn't take too much time (which it usually does) my routine involves weight training (I give special attention to the back, as they are important muscles in driving and also an injury area for me) and cardio.

Cardio is usually 20-30 minutes with a non-impact device or activity preferred (elliptical trainer or swimming). That duration works well for me not only for my body type and metabolism (ectomorph) but allows me to train my concentration for the duration of the workout to coincide with the races, which are about the same duration.

When I don't have time, I flee the EKN control center and run around the neighborhood, usually screaming.

I only have one gym in the area that has a good neck machine, which works all four sides. I tested my Rotax yesterday, and I've noticed my trapezius muscles are quite sore, so that's at least a personal area to work.

G.

[Chris Ortenburger]

Mountain biking is a fun form of conditioning. I find that it employs alot of the same techniques of racing. Braking, proper line, and concentration.

I also use a hear monitor to train with. I am told that unless you keep your ticker within a certain range - you are not really benefiting yourself very much.

[Chocolate Drummer]

Larry, I practiced a similar regimen that you described except I substituted margaritas with the Vicodin. Although the conditioning aspect of it was phenomenal, one side effect for me was waking up with strange 'persons' next to me so I had to had to move to a much less effective workout (running).

Seriously, to respond to Chris, finding a target heart rate is important...I was told this by a personal trainer. You also have to vary that 'target' as well though.

KH

[Brant Williams]

Chris,

Mountain Biking is OK...but if you want something really intense...go for Mtn Biking at night. Get a Night Sun or Night Rider Halogen system with extra batteries & hit a really technical single track. Nothing beats a high speed single track decent at night. Try it...you'll like it.

[Saro Marcarian]

When I first got my shifter in mid 95, I was pretty heavy. I think I weighed in somewhere between 230 and 240. I couldn't drive long enough to finish a sprint race.

Then, my cousin did me the best favor that he could for me - he crashed my Tibi. It took MONTHS to get parts. I spent those months on mentally driving tracks and psychotically dieting. I was 23 or 24 years old I think.

By the time my kart was driveable, I was around 180 lbs and could outlast the fuel load in my 125 at a tight sprint like Amago. Cool. No workouts beyond abusing myself at the track.

Well, genius boy stopped driving his 125 and started frequenting Itallian restaurants and wound up in the 215 neighborhood. At 29, it seems considerably harder to lose weight - and I now work out! The same deal that gave me results in a week or two no longer seems to do the trick. Can't break past around 203-205 now.

My focus since November has been on cardio training on an Eliptical thingie. Don't really know how this measures up, but the machine tells my I burn off between 1000 and 1100 calories in 55 minutes + 5 for a cool down on days when I decide to abuse myself silly. How does that measure up to what we do in a kart?

If anyone out there feels like shooting me some advice (or just shooting me!) please feel free to contact me offline... I'd like to race again...

-Saro

[Pete Muller]

Saro,

As in karting... there aren't really any shortcuts.

Hour-long workouts don't really give your body time to switch over to burning off fat, regardless of what the calorie counter is telling you. You are mainly running off glycogen stores.

Longer workouts at a lower intensity is what it takes.

Contact me privately if you want more info.

PM

[Pete Howarth]

Really??
More than an hour? What about all that...20 min a day stuff I hear all the time?

-Pete

[Pete Muller]

quote:

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Originally posted by Pete Howarth:
Really??
More than an hour? What about all that...20 min a day stuff I hear all the time?

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Well... it's a great sales tool if you're in the business of selling exercise equipment on infomercials... but it doesn't have any merit if you're looking to get into good physical condition.

{disclaimer}- If you are doing nothing for physical conditioning/exercise... then 20 minutes per day is a huge step in the right direction.

Gaining strength for brief periods of time is not too difficult, however gaining endurance at that strength takes a lot of work and consistent, systematic exercise.

Check out: http://home.hia.no/~stephens/permodel.htm for an overview.

Pete

[Terry Tilton]

Pete-
You are not a professional personal trainer. If you were, you would not have made the comment that and hour of cardio isnt long enough to burn body fat. The facts are that it takes about the first 10 minutes of constant exercise for your body to get into what is called its steady state, which is when your body begins to switch over from glycogen for its energy to fat. There are a lot of factors that figure into this as well such as level of conditioning, training heart rate, etc. But the bottom line is that one hour of cardio performed in your target heart rate (which does vary from person to person) is more than enough to burn a significant amount of fat & greatly improve ones cardiovascular strength. I will be willing to bet that few people here can actually maintain a training heart rate for one full hour. How many people here can jog for one hour straight without stopping? That should be at least 6 miles, if not 7 or more. 20 minutes might be way too much for someone who is just getting back into shape. It is usually a good starting point but you have to know what your target heart rate is and also know that if you get way out of breath you must slow down.

[Pete Muller]

quote:

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Originally posted by Terry Tilton:
Pete-
You are not a professional personal trainer.

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You are absolutely correct.. I am not.

However... I do ride a bike a fairly substantial amount, and have quite a bit of experience training. Obviously what works for me is not necessarily going to work the same for anyone else.

I think the studied facts indicate that it's more like 20 or 30 minutes until a body "gets past" glycogen stores, not 10. (a fairly significant difference if someone is working out for the aforementioned "20 minutes") It's also fairly accepted that at anything beyond about 60% VO2 max, the percentage of total energy coming from triglycerides starts to decline. In short time periods, (or rates of 90% VO2 max or more), I believe triglycerides play only a very minor role... the former being more significant in this particular topic.

Generally speaking, it's a symptom of modern society to do things "quick". (Whether that means eat, exercise, or drive a kart ).

That usually means that most people tend to exercise at too high a level, for too short a period of time... thinking that intensity will "replace" time. It doesn't.

As I mentioned previously: if someone is doing nothing, then 20 minutes a day is a big step to getting started, and as you point out: there aren't many people that can go an hour at a significant rate.

Oh...all the above: IMO.

PM

[ August 14, 2001: Message edited by: Pete Muller ]

[Scott McFadden]

Not sure of the technical/physiological facts but here is what I have done and do that has helped me on the track.

I started with cross-country skiing but you need snow for that. When the snow melted I switched to running. I established a "course" for myself (some of it off-road) that took me 1 1/2 hours to run/walk the first time. These days I do it in 40 minutes or so. For my upper body I do push-ups, chin-ups and for my stomach I do sit-ups (not full just lifting shoulders off or legs up). When I started last year I could do about 20 repetitions these days I stop at fifty in the morning and fifty in the evening. For my Neck I lay on my side on the couch with my head over the side and do 100 "head-lifts" each side. No weights, no machines not much time spent.

After almost a year of this I arrived in JAX this spring, did ten laps of practice (S1) and was pretty much spent! (there simply is no substitute for seat time to build strength, but also to get you relaxed in the kart).

One thing I noticed was that for a day or so after a race or a run, my body seamed to continue to burn fat, which was probably no a good thing. It points out the importance of monitoring your intake. I’ve found on race day it helps greatly to stay ahead on water and caloric intake and I often skip a practice session to preserve strength (sometimes the only way I can stay with the young guns).

At 43 I’ve shed 15Ibs, my resting heart rate is below 60 and I feel great but most importantly these days I can do a 25 lap feature and my 25th lap is as good as my tenth and fifth.