The Martins Have Landed #3: Keeping Fit

By Dave and Jaja

I was discussing the cruising life with a friend the other day and he asked how Jaja and I keep in shape when living on a boat. This question surprised me. Now that we are living ashore in Colorado, inside a house, we feel that the question is more apropos turned the other way around. When living in a house, how do you keep from getting out of shape? Here in Avon we walk, hike up the hill behind our house, swim laps, and I dabble with light weights. Unfortunately, all of this necessary (but enjoyed) effort requires large doses of time. (Lack of time to do anything while living ashore shall be the topic of another web)

The cruising life (especially on a small boat) is active by default. "Hanging on" is what sailing is all about. While cruising, we spent hours every week walking between boat and town, carrying heavy supplies. Rowing DRIVER's dinghy is superb exercise--not to mention a peaceful mode of transportation. And on a boat you are always climbing and lifting. Getting the grocery bags from dinghy level to deck level requires good upper body conditioning. Then, hands loaded with plastic bags, you have to weasel your way down the companionway without tripping, hitting your head, or dinging the wood work: This involves sound thighs, calves, shoulders, and abdominal fitness. Living on a boat is natural workout, and it is constant.

Reality check: On the third of January this winter I injured my knee while downhill skiing. Part of my "rehab" takes place at the local fitness gym. I've always pooh-poohed gyms. I believe that if your life is active, you don't need an "artificial" workout. Now that we live ashore, I can appreciate how great the active boating lifestyle was that we left behind.

I was bewildered during my first day at the gym. The resident physical therapist told me to pedal an exercise bike for ten minutes while he made some phone calls. He then vanished into his office. In my youth, my parents had an exercise bicycle. It had a triangular seat, handle bars, a spoked wheel, and a brake that created drag. I looked around the modern gym: there was nothing before me that even remotely resembled an exercise bike. The floor was littered with white metal contraptions that looked as if they were broken. The seats were oddly shaped, placed at strange angles, and the spongy handles were all bent the wrong way.

Worried that I would sound like an idiot if I asked the attendant where the bikes were, I tied and retied my shoes a dozen times while surreptitiously looking around. I finally figured it out and hopped on one of the "bikes". It took me a few tries to figure out what all the buttons were for, and what the computer screen was trying to tell me. But once I "got it" I felt like Luke Skywalker, ready to take on the Taliban. The only thing the "bike" was missing were laser rockets and anti-gravity deflectors.

Now that I have become acquainted with these weird looking machines I am no longer intimidated. I go inside the sweat emporium two or three times a week, do my "reps", then return to the clean air outside. I've come to realize that health gyms simulate life onboard a boat. More to the point, workout machines are all about "hanging on". I'm not certain what the "proper" names are for these contraptions, so I relate them to the boating life. First, I build strength in my knee on the "Shove the Dinghy off the Beach" machine, then I tone up my shoulders on the "Crawl under the Cockpit and Try to Change the Gearbox Oil" apparatus. There's the "Carry the Groceries Five Miles Home" device, and the "Lean over the Lifelines with a Long-Handled Brush and Clean the Waterline" contraption.

Even though the gym is doing me a world of good, I'm still a little disappointed with it. There are seven TVs blasting color images at me, and I guess the stereo is turned up full blast in an effort to exercise my ear drums. The real problem is they are missing one important machine. I've looked for it, but it's not there. I long for the "Cramped Foot in the Cockpit, Tiller in Your Hand, and Spray in Your Face" simulator.

Can't have everything.