Training Tips for Power Paddling

 

Serious boaters, including 28 year-old professional kayaker Rush Sturges, will tell you the only way to train for whitewater paddling is to go paddling. “This is true,” Sturges says. “But only to a certain extent.” Sturges trains hard off the water, too. And that, he says, has made all the difference when he’s threading Class V.
“My perspective on fitness started to change when I began running a couple years back,” he says. “I felt a big improvement in my overall performance, especially with racing.”
Sturges, Outside’s Adventurer of the Year in 2012, wanted to push himself harder competitively, so he got some help—professional paddler and personal trainer Heather Herbeck of Fitness and Sport Evolution. It seems to be working. He  is now consistently one of the top finishers at the annual Whitewater Grand Prix. We caught up with Sturges after a few laps on the Green Truss and Little White near his home in White Salmon, Washington, and ...more