Articles

FLY FISHING FITNESS

By Mike Rice

The older I get, the more apparent it is that I have less and less time to do things that I once did. Personal fitness is something that has been part of my life since high school; it's just always something that I've done. My parents paid for a B.S. in Athletic Training and Exercise Physiology, which helped me in my skiing and triathlon career but did very little when I got out into the real world. Throughout high school and college and into my early thirties, my life was such that I was able to train two to three hours a day. Now I have the responsibilities of a family, a real job and my own side-business to run and have a limited amount of time to maintain some sort of physical condition, as do most Americans.

I am no longer a competitive athlete, that energy is now put toward fly-fishing for striped bass and bluefish. After my fist few full days of throwing a nine weight and wading the local rivers and flats, I realized that fishing for more than an hour or two at a time is actually more physically taxing than I believed it would be. It didn't take long for me to decide that I had to do something to maintain core physical strength and endurance so that I could catch more fish. Like many of us, I don't have the time to go to a gym on a regular basis and every time I get three successive days of running in, something comes up and it's a week before I can run again. I decided on going back to the basics and creating a simple workout plan that I could do in twenty minutes while I watch the news. What I came up with is workout that has increased my strength, power and endurance and even surprised me with noticeable improvements in just a few weeks.

The strength, power and endurance we need when fly-fishing comes from what I call the "core". This encompasses the large muscle groups in the back, shoulders, arms, abdomen, legs and the good old gluteus maximus. The best exercise (ever created I think!) to work all these muscle groups at the same time is the standard push-up. Done properly, this exercise causes all the muscle groups to work together against the resistance of your own body weight. Throughout the range of motion of this exercise, each muscle group takes a turn as the primary "mover" and then acts as a secondary "stabilizer" so that the muscle group has to work in both an active and passive manner. The whole key to getting the most out of this exercise is to maintain an almost rigid stance (basically think about tightening the muscles throughout your body) with your hands spread apart just past shoulder width and doing each push up in a slow, controlled manner.

To build power in the arms, and shoulder complex, add a modified push up where you support your weight on your fists with your hands directly below your shoulders with your arms rotated so that your thumbs are pointing away from your head. It's very important when doing this exercise to keep your wrists locked so that you don't strain or injure the tendons running through the wrist to the hand. Add in a few sit-ups or stomach crunches and you've got a quick and simple workout that I think rivals a "health club" workout.

This is a sample of what has worked wonders for me.

• Standard Push-up:
  3 sets - start by doing as many as you can until you feel the "burn" in your arms. That's the number you start with. Do the same number for the following two sets.



• Modified Push-up:
  3 sets - same as above.



• Sit-ups/crunches:
  4 sets - start by doing as many as you can until you feel like you've been hit in the gut. Do a set in between the sets of push-ups described above (push-ups / sit-ups / push-ups / sit-ups / push-ups, etc.)

As you get stronger, increase the number of repetitions that you do in each set. The whole key to making this work is to do each exercise slowly, keep breathing and try to limit the break between sets to 30 to 60 seconds so that you're body keeps working hard. Women can modify this by doing the push-ups off the knee. Do this routine three times a week with a day of rest in between, through in a 20 minute run or walk on the off days to build endurance and you'll notice a big change the next time you spend a day wading the flats or casting off a rolling deck.