Paddling Warm Up Part 1

Insync Physiotherapy

For kayakers and canoeists it’s important to do an on land warm up for your legs, arms and core before getting on the water. This is going to give you an example which is going to include all three, but it’s important to find what works for you. We’re starting off with just high lunges, feeling the stretch of the front of our back hip. Now we’re adding an arm raise on the opposite side of the front leg. It’s really important to warm up before practises, not just before races so your body is used to it on race day. And it’s also going to lower your risk of injury during practise and help you get the most out of practise. So you’re going to end up making bigger gains throughout your practise. Now we’re adding a rotation towards the front leg.

Instead of doing full arm circles which can add stress to the front of the shoulders, we’re going to do arm swings in three different directions which our shoulders normally move in. So this first one is just across the front of your body; and the next one is going to be forwards and backwards, again not doing full arm circles, just staying in the front; and then the last one is out to the side, just staying in a comfortable range of motion.

The next one is going to be rotations more for your upper back, so you’re going to go down onto one knee, kind of like a canoe pose and you’re going to put that front leg out to the side, put your arm down on the same side as the knee that you’re kneeling on and then you are rotating through your upper back. This one is good to get a little bit of separation from your upper back and your lower body and you’re going to want to do this on both sides.