It’s not just the PWA racers that have been taking their training very seriously over the winter.

British hot shot Adam Lewis has upped his training on and off the water in a bid to make it into the elusive top 10 in 2013. With Pozo just around the corner, what does it take to train like a pro?

Name: Adam Lewis

Sail no: K516

Best results of 2012: 7th PWA Sylt, 9th PWA Tenerife

Aims for 2013: Top 10 Overall PWA Ranking

 

Where have you been over the winter?

I’ve been a little bit all over, but I spent some time in Western Australia and more lately here in Tenerife; WA was unreal I loved every minute!

We didn’t see you at the recent BWA events, is there a specific reason for this? Will you be attending the later events?

I’d like to! I’m really busy developing the next generation of Point-7 Wave sails so I didn’t really have the time to head back. It’s a shame as I love the BWA events, they are a lot of fun!

How have you been preparing for competition this year?

It started right away in January with the Point-7 team training initiative and since then I’ve moved on with a full on training programme with a really great trainer called Tomas Grundahl, he’s based in the Recovery Centre over in Tenerife.

What are you working on on the water?

Right now, I’m just trying to tidy up my double forwards and get them more consistent. For everything else just working on the consistency again, also with the gear just trying to get it tuned in as much as possible to suit how I sail and the conditions we will get for the events.

And off the water?

Loads!! A lot of really specific functional fitness training, not so many weights but a lot of suspended body stuff and more body weight training.

With wavesailing especially it’s all about your power to weight ratio. Tomas is really making me work on my legs too, I kinda have chicken legs so it’s something we work on a lot, much to my dislike 😉 We have worked a lot on my cardio capacity too, using a heart rate monitor and working inside a really specific BPM range for the optimum result.

My balance also needed quite a lot of work so I had to combine the functional training with balance and control based exercises such as standing on a fit ball and throwing weights or resistance training.

 

What is specifically different about the physical training you are doing now, compared to what you did before?

It’s perhaps a little higher in intensity, a lot more specific and we’ve also looked into my diet too.

Before we started we went though a load of clips of my sailing, to work out what muscles I needed, what or where extra strength would be good and really targeting those muscles. We even looked through crashes and to see if extra strength or balance could of helped.

As it turns out actually I’m really uncoordinated, so I am also doing somethings to help with that. Lots and lots more stretching, a lot more real ‘core’ and balance too! I’ve really noticed the difference when I go sailing, I have a lot more power and more focus and I can sail all day, and then do it again the next day which really helps when your trying to learn or improve!

How is your off water training helping you on the water? How much do you think it has improved your wavesailing, and how much do you think this could affect your results?

It really feels like it’s helping, actually I think it’s something that would help all windsurfers, I think the reason most people come of the water is because they’re tired especially on those really windy days! I think just a small amount of specific training would go a long way with most windsurfers.

With the results I guess on time will tell!

Tenerife seems to be training central at the moment, do you think more and more riders are taking a more serious look at their off water training?

I think so, It really makes a lot of sense, the level in professional windsurfing now is really incredible, the things the top guys are putting there bodes through is nuts. When you look at other sports such as surfing the top guys are really athletes and I think top windsurfing is heading that way too. When someones is properly trained and focused you can see it in there sailing, the power and flexibility. Guys like Brawzinio or Kauli are great examples of this they have a lot to power but also that fast and flexible controlled yet totally raw style. Its really important for maintaining your health and preventing injuries. For me I just want to be able to get the best out of my body and also my ability, making sure I get the best of this fantastic opportunity I have been given.

We also saw you’d just injured yourself training in Pozo, has that effected your training?

Well, basically no! What Tomas did was adapt the training to the injury. Then we added physio work to help reduce the scarring, increase the blood supply to help recover. Tomas said, just because your injured doesn’t mean training stops! Pretty cool!