RECOVERY
Giuseppe’s and Mark’s work has been really efficient as their successful co-operation meant that both training programs were perfectly feeding into each other. Whilst Giuseppe was trying to get a good overview of overall fitness levels, his main goal here was to help speed up recovery, so that sailors would be able to keep physically and very importantly, mentally sharp. So besides warm ups, cardio training and bizarre sprint tests, we actually ended up doing quite a lot of active recovery in the shape of a mix between yoga and stretching. I really enjoyed seeing the benefits of an hour of proper stretching; the day after 2 hard training days all of a sudden was much more productive. However, after a maximum of 3 full days we would of course still have rest days. During my years on tour and especially during pre season training times I have come to see the importance of rest days. When you do what you love as a job and that is windsurfing, it is easy to forget how physically demanding it actually is and you end up pushing well beyond beneficial training. So having someone to tell you today is your day off, you should rest, can be as important as having someone there to push you during your training when you are not quite feeling it. Having a personal trainer or personal coach for now is still out of budget for most pros as salaries remain low and of course, depend heavily on results. But doing team training like this makes it feasible and in the end is viewed by most as a necessary investment.