Customer Reviews

Kayaking for Fitness

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First half of book is about selecting a kayak, what clothes to wear, where to paddle and is more geared toward a beginner. The second half is a very detailed work-out schedule with what to do and how long to do it. It would be best for a beginner or advanced beginner - a more experience paddler would probably all ready know and/or be doing these things.

The first half of this book (73 out of 153 pages) is devoted to novice kayakers and has nothing to do with fitness. It covers such elementary topics as the difference between sit-inside and sit-on-top kayaks, the parts of a paddle, what a paddling PFD is, etc. I doubt that anyone who doesn't know such rudimentary things about kayaking is going to undertake a 4-day per week, 40-160 minutes per session, 8 week kayak fitness routine. There are plenty of other kayak books available for novices who have never been in kayak. This book was billed as a fitness book, and that's what I expected it to be. The second half of the book does focus on fitness, and the 8 week plan appears to be a good one. However, some of the information in the second half is sketchy - only half a page is devoted to "Strength and Power Development", there are only 4 stretches, etc. I would have preferred to see the entire 153 pages devoted to fitness. Then maybe there could have been entire chapters devoted to strength training, paddle-specific stretches, etc. I disagree with the other reviewer who says this is one of the few books that teaches the forward stroke. I have several introductory kayaking books and they all teach the forward stroke, and there are some great forward stroke DVD's available, such as Brent Reitz's "Forward Stroke Clinic." Also, the author teaches the high-angle forward stroke, which admittedly, is the preferred racing stroke. But he fails to even mention the existence of the low-angle forward stroke, or the fact that for someone who has a history of shoulder injury, the high-angle stroke isn't recommended. On the positive side, the 8 week plan itself is detailed (49 pages are devoted to it), the photographs throughout the book are excellent, and the author is very knowledgeable and well-qualified to write about kayak fitness.

The book does a great job of introducing kayaking as a tool for fitness.

Its great to see mention of flat water kayaking, and one of the very few place you can see a discussion on the forward stroke, as opposed to all the Sea Kayak stroke books which focus on steering and manouvering strokes, and very rarely cover the forward stroke.