Project North Pole

In 24 days, I’ll take the Eurostar to London, then fly to Keflavik, spend the night there and continue to Greenland the day after. Which means that I have 24 days to get in shape for two weeks of kayaking.

So, I did the seemingly impossible: I signed up with a gym. In the middle of summer (OK, not that the weather has been so great so far, but it’s good enough to spend the evenings on a terrace with my friends).
And apparantly, I’m not the only one willing to sweat my ass off. The place was packed! Fortunately, the rowing machines are the least popular in the cardio arena, so I could workout for an hour without the inevitable impatient looks from fellow fitness fans dying to get on the treadmills (this will be a problem tonight though, as I’m planning to run…)

So, the rowing machine. Not quite the same movement as for kayaking, but with a little creativity, you can get close. Note so self: bring gloves next time. My hands are blistered now.

After one and a half hour, I had done the following:

• Rowing machine: 1 hour (alternating between palms down, palms up and “twisting” every 5 minutes)
• Twisting crunches: 2 sets of 25 (need to do more next time)
• Hammer curls: 2 sets of 15 using 5 kg (too bad their lowest weight is 5 kg… it hurt)
• Wrist curls: 2 sets of 15 using 5 kg (same thing… this even hurt more)
• Shoulder press: 3 sets of 25 using 5 kg (OK. 5 kg is not a lot. But I have an old shoulder injury, so 5 kg will do for now)

I found the exercises here, but changed the routine a bit to better fit my liking.

All in all, not bad for a first time. My lower body strength is quite reasonable, but upper body is a totally different story. However, my body was somewhat grateful: I spent the night watching my ceiling, buzzing with energy. And this morning, I hardly felt the lack of sleep this first workout in ages had caused me.

I’m very motivated now

Tags: Greenland, Kayaking, Workout

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