Specialist SailGP workout brings the challenge of high-performance sailing to fitness fans

Specialist SailGP workout brings the challenge of high-performance sailing to fitness fans © SailGP

Today, the new high-intensity international sailing championship SailGP launched a unique fitness workout that mirrors the extreme physical challenge of the world's fastest sail racing.

Designed for fitness fans looking for a new challenge, the workout demonstrates the immense levels of endurance SailGP's world-class athletes need during a competition, by recreating the moves that they undertake during a high-pressure 16-minute race.

Created in collaboration with SailGP's specialist team of fitness trainers, this high-intensity interval training routine is a combination of strength, conditioning, agility and endurance training - recreating the different pressures that SailGP athletes experience - to prepare them for competition. As the F50 catamarans used in SailGP are identical in design, specification and technology, the racing becomes a true test of fitness and skill. Therefore, these specialist programs are vital to ensure the athletes are at peak fitness to fly the 2.4-ton boat across the water quicker than their competitors.

SailGP is sailing redefined: the only inshore global championship in which world-class crews compete for their countries on the world's fastest sail racing boats, in some of the most iconic harbor locations around the globe. Combining adrenaline-filled racing with innovative technology, this spectator-friendly competition is the new frontier in high-performance sailing. The competition comprises five events in its inaugural 2019 season, with the winner of Season 1 receiving a $1 million prize.

"For anyone out there who's attempting to try this, it's going to build structural resilience that will help your fitness as well as functional strength. The workout involves the physical attributes needed when sailing these extreme flying boats - agility, coordination, strength and endurance," said United States SailGP Team trainer Craig McFarlane.

The specialist SailGP Workout includes four minutes of strength endurance featuring the use of barbell exercises and jumping pull ups. This is followed by a six-minute heart rate-focused conditioning block, with high intensity rowing, burpees and ball slams. In this section, heart rates are elevated to 85-95 percent of their maximum, replicating the levels achieved by the athletes during the races.

The intensive workout ends with 8 minutes of metabolic conditioning training - a mixture of strength, conditioning and agility exercises. With reps of kettle bell swings, dead ball pick-ups, and pyramid shuttles, the heart rate is raised to mirror the athletes' metabolic endurance required during grinding bursts and crossing the boat while travelling at high speeds.

The full 20-minute workout can burn over 300 calories. During the competition, the athletes achieve this level of output three times over, back-to-back, each day they compete. Over the course of a race day, athletes can burn between 1,200-2,200 calories - with the grinders achieving the maximum level.

"Just like our incredible championship, this workout is high drama, high energy and high performance," said SailGP CEO Sir Russell Coutts. "Our athletes are at the peak of their careers with extraordinary athleticism, talent and physical abilities. We've created this workout to allow people to push beyond their boundaries and to test themselves to see if they have the resilience and strength required to be a SailGP athlete."

The SailGP Workout is available in detail at the website for fans to challenge themselves at home.