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Off-Season Training

Whether you’ve just finished your first paddling season, are an experienced paddler that uses SUP as a way to train fitness, or an avid SUP racer, off-season training is something that you’ll want to do through the winter to be ready for next season.  

Even if you live in a warm climate where you have access to open water all year round, it’s worth varying your training so that it is different over the winter months than it was in the summer as this provides a different stimulus that is important.  

So, let’s take a look at off-season training a little more closely – what it is, why you should do it, and what it can accomplish for paddlers of any level.  

What is the “Off-Season”

Virtually every sport has some type of “off-season” in which there are no, or fewer, competitions.  This allows athletes to take a bit of a break from the intensity of in-season training and competing, allowing their bodies to recover and providing them with a bit of a mental break from the rigors of competition.    

Usually the off-season starts with a bit of a complete break from sport specific training in a period called “active-rest”.  This consists of optional, unstructured, activity that is different from the regular training activities.  These different activities help to maintain the athlete’s fitness while providing sport specific muscles and connective tissue a chance to recover from a long season, and provide the mental break necessary to bring a renewed focus to the sport specific training when it resumes.

Following active rest, the off-season work usually transitions into more foundational fitness work that is either general in nature (not specific to the sport) or sport specific.  This foundational work usually isn’t the main focus of training during the competitive season, but is the basis upon which higher level fitness and competitive success is based.  So, the change in focus to foundational work provides a new training stimulus and a platform upon which the training in the next competitive season can be based.  

For less serious athletes and more recreational fitness trainers, an “off-season” is really just an extended period of different types of training than they would do “in-season”.  Again, these different training activities provide a new training stimulus, and regular changes to the training stimuli always promote greater adaptation and resultant gains.  

So, what then, should an off-season for paddlers look like? 

Let’s look at an off-season from the perspective of each of the following:

  1. The novice paddler who is relatively new to SUP
  2. The experienced SUP paddler that trains for fitness
  3. The active SUP racer

This is not intended to be a prescriptive discussion of off-season training with specific workouts and training programs included, but rather a discussion of the importance of training in the off-season for paddlers at each level with a selection of tips and ideas for each to make their off-season training better.  

Off-season trainingOff-Season Training for Different Levels of Paddlers

The Novice Paddler

For a paddler who is relatively new to SUP, paddling is about developing skills and building fitness while enjoying the fun of being on the water, either alone or with other people.  Throughout the paddling season, the focus is simply on getting out on the water, having fun, and perhaps meeting new people and making friends while developing skills and fitness.

An off-season for these paddlers is quite different than that for serious fitness trainers or racers.  It’s not so much that these paddlers need a break, it’s more a case of a break (or at least fewer paddling opportunities) being forced upon them, either by cold weather in northern climates or lack of sufficient daylight hours in warmer climates.  

Ideally, this group of paddlers should continue paddling as they were during the summer.  As their paddling experience isn’t so much about hard training as it is about learning and having fun, there is not the same physiological need to take a break or change the training stimulus as there is for racers.  In fact, continuing to paddle with the same frequency as the summer simply allows the learning to continue uninterrupted, meaning they’ll ultimately master skills they’ve been working on sooner.  However, for most paddlers, continuing with the same frequency just isn’t realistic.  Cold weather and less daylight make paddling less enjoyable, if not impossible.  

For this reason, for most new, novice level SUP paddlers there is a definite off-season.  So, the question then is how best to approach it.  

Novice level SUP paddlers should be approaching their winter activities looking for ways to stay active and replace paddling as a fitness activity.  If paddling is something they do 2 to 3 times a week in the summer, ideally, they should be trying to find an activity with similar fitness benefits which they can do 2 to 3 times a week in the off-season.  

If you’re that novice level paddler, a good place to start is with activities you enjoy.  You paddle because it’s fun, right?  Why pick a winter activity to replace it that you don’t enjoy?  But beyond that, try looking for activities with similar physical demands to SUP.  Let’s consider what SUP offers as a fitness activity:

  • Full body strength and muscular endurance (legs, core, upper body)
  • Balance
  • Agility and coordination
  • Aerobic fitness

Obviously, there are wide range of activities that work on at least a couple of these benefits.  Activities like running, cycling, swimming, and cross-country skiing all provide aerobic benefits and muscular strength and endurance to at least part of the body.  Some, like skiing, provide a range of benefits very similar to paddling, while others, like cycling are more limited when it comes to balance, agility and coordination.  

If you opt for an activity that covers all the bases that paddling does, then there’s no reason other than variety to opt for more activities in addition to it.  If you find you’re partial to an activity that promotes aerobic fitness or strength more than agility and balance, then maybe choosing another activity or two in addition might be in order.  If you like to run but also ski, maybe split your time between running and alpine skiing.  Games are great for developing agility and balance and, since they can’t be performed alone, are a great way to interact with others while you get your exercise.  Aerobics and yoga are activities which can work of agility and balance as well, and yoga will also help with your flexibility.

The point is, you don’t need to necessarily try to replace paddling with a paddling specific activity.  Find an activity, or activities, that provide similar benefits to paddling and replace your paddling with them till you can get back on the water in the spring.  Once you’ve got comfortable on your board again, you’ll find that you’ll be, at minimum, as strong and stable on your board in the new season as you were in the old because of the activity you did over the winter.   

Adding to the Mix: Enhancing Paddling Skills Off-Water

Having said that, if you want to improve your paddling during the off-season without actually being able to get on the water, here are a few things you can add to the mix:

  • Balance and footwork drills.  Get a gym membership and spend some time using the balance boards, stability balls and BOSU balls.  Standing, kneeling or sitting on these while you do your exercises are great for developing balance that will help you on your SUP.  These balance and stability pieces of equipment aren’t too expensive and make really useful parts of a home gym if you’d rather train at home.  Something as simple as walking up and down a 2 x 4 from the lumber section of your local Home Depot is a great and easy way you can develop your balance and SUP specific footwork at home.
  • Do some leg strength work.  Leg training not only improves leg strength but also endurance.  And, if you do plyometric exercises like those shared here , you’ll be improving the proprioception in your feet and lower legs that help immensely with balance and stability on your board. 
  • Do some core work.  If you’re a member of a gym, join a core training class.  If you aren’t, do a little research about core exercises you can perform at home.  You may want to invest, minimally, in a few pieces of equipment like, for example, a stability ball, but any investment you make is sure to pay off in improved core strength and endurance which will directly impact your stability and your ability to paddle with a sustainable, more powerful stroke.
  • Upper body strength work.  Obviously, the easiest way to approach this is to join a gym where you’ll have access to all the equipment you need, but there are a ton of things you can do at home for strength to the point where you’ll notice a difference on the water in the spring.  Do a little research on exercises you can do at home and build a strength program around them.
  • Learn more about SUP technique.  There are lots of resources available on technique that can help you better understand the basic stroke, how to track your board straight, etc.  Set some time aside through the off-season to search through them and learn a little more than you currently know.  It will give you a host of great ideas of things you can try when you get back on the water.  

Doing the types of land-based work described above 3 to 4 times a week should help improve your overall fitness and will make a noticeable difference when you get back on your board in the spring.

The experienced SUP paddler that trains for fitness

If you’re an experienced SUP paddler that uses SUP as a platform for much of your fitness training, you’re going to have to shift gears a bit in the winter.  It is highly unlikely you’ll be able to paddle as much as you do in the summer, even if you have access to open water, due to colder weather and/or lack of sufficient daylight hours.  This is okay.  Look at the off-season as a time to change up your training and introduce some new elements to it.  These should continue to help you develop a high level of personal fitness, but can also support better paddling so that you can paddle faster and/or longer next season.  At the same time, the shift in activity will present your body with new stimuli that will promote new fitness gains and provide you with a refreshing approach to the training you’ve gotten used to.  

If you’re from a warm climate, you can continue to paddle once or twice a week, but I strongly suggest you try to insert other activities into your training program for the rest of the training week.  Look for activities that use large muscle groups and require you to support your own body weight as they will place the greatest demands on your oxygen delivery systems and thus provide you with the greatest aerobic training effect.  In fact, activities that use the legs more than we do in SUP, like running, cycling and cross-country skiing are actually more effective activities for development of aerobic fitness than paddling is.  So, finding a suitable land-based activity to replace much of your paddling for a few months is going to have a positive impact on your fitness, not a negative one.  

If you’re from a colder climate where your water freezes in the winter, you don’t really have a choice.  You’ll have to replace your paddling workouts with land-based aerobic work.  Again, look for activities that use the most muscle mass and require you to support your own body weight as much as possible.  These will be the most effective training activities you can find. 

Of course, paddling SUP does more than just improve your aerobic ability.  Here are some things you can do to both continue to train the fitness elements SUP training does while also taking steps to improve your paddling in the coming season:

Strength Training for Paddlers

  • Strength train.  If you’re a serious fitness trainer, strength should be part of the fitness equation you’re trying to address.  Challenge yourself to take your strength to a new level.  If you aren’t a member at a gym, consider joining one or purchasing some new home gym equipment.  
  • Vary your strength work to include, at a minimum, basic strength, power and power endurance.  Not all strength work is the same.  Depending on how you manipulate a number of variables like load, number of reps, number sets, exercises, order of exercises, rest, and speed of contraction you can achieve different outcomes from your training.  Periodically change the type of training you are doing and the outcomes you are trying to achieve by manipulating these variables.  This will vastly improve the range of your strength and you’ll notice the difference when you get back on your board in the spring.
  • Structure your aerobic workouts in a way that is similar to your water workouts.  Get creative.  Don’t just think because you are running or skiing that you have to go steady for 40 to 60 minutes. Don’t be afraid to bring interval training into these types of activities to add variety and to address different types of aerobic, and even anaerobic fitness. 

Polarize Your Training

  • Polarize your training.  Don’t get carried away with intense intervals.  Just as on the water, doing too much intensity, too often, creates a load on your nervous system which can eventually overcome it.  If this happens, you’ll know it, as both your incentive and your ability to do the work you normally do will be negatively affected.  The easiest way to avoid this is to polarize your training by minimizing the high intensity work to 2 to 3 sessions which are well spread out over the course of each training week, and doing easier workouts and lower intensity sessions in between.  This prevents over-training and ensures that the higher intensity sessions are done with optimal quality, which creates a greater stimulus, which leads to greater gains.
  • Learn more about SUP technique.  Watch more video and comb through all the on-line resources you can find.  Improved technique will allow you to paddle faster, more sustainably.  If you’re going to improve in this area you need to have a good understanding of the stroke and what you need to be working on.

Land Drills to Improve Technique

  • Do land drills to improve technique.  After doing your technique research, do some drills on land that put your body into the correct positions it should be finding on the water.  It is far easier to learn these positions on land, where stability is not an issue, than it is on the water.  If you can find more effective positions within your stroke on land, your body will have an easier time finding them on the water and be intelligent enough to connect the dots between these positions.  Land drills are an extremely powerful tool to use in learning to paddle better.  
  • Work on your balance, agility and core strength.  Engage in activities that promote balance and agility.  Balance drills, footwork drills and plyometric training all directly impact your proprioception which is crucial for detecting changes in stability on the water and responding to them so that you can continue to paddle effectively and uninterrupted in challenging conditions.  Core strength not only can be applied to the work you do against the water held on your paddle, but also is essential in the type of dynamic standing balance you need on your board.  

If you’re really serious about your fitness training, you’ll want to be doing something that contributes to it at least six days a week.  You don’t have to do the same type of training every day.  Aim for doing strength 2 to 3 times a week and your aerobic/cardiovascular work 3 to 4 times a week at minimum.  You’ll likely have to double up some days by, for example, going for a run and doing strength.  The workouts can be a little shorter than those you do on days where you’re just doing one training only.  I strongly recommend one day of rest a week, or at least a day of considerably reduced training load.  Over the long term this helps prevent burnout and overtraining and in the short term usually results in higher quality training in the workouts you do the rest of the week.  

Taking the approach suggested here should allow you to increase your fitness during the off-season and make a noticeable difference to the fitness you bring to your board in the spring.  

The active racing paddler

If you’re an active SUP racer with competitive goals for the coming season, winter training isn’t just an option, it’s a necessity.  There is no better way to improve your level of performance than by putting in a solid off-season of work between competitive seasons.  

Time and time again I’ve witnessed athletes perform and one level and then within 8 months, largely comprised of off-season work, perform at a noticeably higher level.  I’m not just talking about young developing athletes or adult recreational athletes.  I’ve seen this happen at the very highest level.  Even world class athletes, who already perform at such a high level that improvement is hard to come by, can make substantial gains through the off-season.  In many ways, athletes are more likely to improve because of the off-season work they do rather than the in-season work.

Why is off-season work so important?  Well, for starters, it’s the time when you can address anything and everything that you might need in your training.  Off-season work provides you with the luxury of time which the competitive season is short of.  Think about it.  It’s extremely hard, for example, to do extra work on your aerobic base or totally break down your technique to make some required improvements when important races are imminent, perhaps only a month or two away.  However, when the next important event is 6 to 8 months away, you have the time you need to address what you need most in your training, without fear of compromising your performance in an upcoming race.  Also, because you have the luxury of time, you can spend longer, if needed, working on the elements of fitness or technique you need most.  

The first step to effective off-season training is to take stock of your strengths and weaknesses by reflecting on your performance, in both training and races, in the season just completed.  Where are you falling short and what are your strengths?  What are your goals for the coming season?  What areas do you need to improve in to reach those goals?  The answers to these questions should help you develop a picture of what your off-season training should look like.  

It’s worth considering everything that could possibly contribute to improved performance.  What are all the attributes that one needs to be successful in SUP racing?  Table 1 provides an inventory of most of the abilities and skills essential in SUP racing.  How many of the areas do you have room for improvement in?  What elements are your weakest and strongest?  What do you think should be your priorities?  Going through this process should help you develop a plan for your off-season.   

While you’re evaluating everything, it’s also worth thinking about little things that, when considered alone may seem inconsequential, but when considered together can combine to make a difference.  Are you getting enough sleep?  Do your sleeping habits need to change?  Is your nutrition adequate to support high performance training?  Every little element needs to be considered as they can all contribute in some way to improved performance.  

It’s possible that you can find this process overwhelming as there can appear to be so many things you need to improve that it seems impossible to plan for.  I used to pick three big things I’d like to address each winter, and then a bunch of little things that are easier to address.  This was always a realistic chunk to bite off for an off-season and develop a plan for.  Remember, you have time in the off-season.  You don’t have to improve everything at once or in just a month or two.  With a good plan you should be able to improve considerably in multiple areas over an off-season.  

If you’re able to paddle over the off-season, it allows you to address skills and abilities that can only be addressed on the water.  Technique and rough water skills are two things that immediately come to mind.  I’d recommend paddling no more than 2 to 3 times per week for most of the off-season.  You should be able to considerably improve your technique with this amount of on-water work while providing yourself with the time necessary to really improve strength and your aerobic ability in land-based work.  Remember, activities which use more big muscles (i.e. legs) than paddling are going to place greater demands on your oxygen delivery systems and help you improve your aerobic ability more than paddling.  And it’s easier to make strength gains when you aren’t paddling every day as your muscles and nervous system will be more rested when you’re in the weight room, allowing you to push harder in each session and stimulate greater strength gains.  There are advantages to be gained from paddling less, take advantage of them while you can in the off-season so that you can be stronger and fitter when you spend more time on the water during the pre-competitive and competitive seasons.  

If you can’t paddle in the off-season, don’t worry.  This should not be an obstacle to on-water performance in the next competitive season, although you may be a little behind for a few weeks in the spring when you return to the water and are paddling with those that were able to paddle all winter.  

When I paddled sprint canoe, most of the Northern Hemisphere countries, like Canada, were frozen off the water for 2 to 3 months every winter.  We’d all have to go to various warm locations in February or March for on-water training camps to start our paddling work after a winter of land-based training.  This never stopped me or any of the competitors I raced against from being world class.  In fact, in my events, we were always all faster in the competitive season from May to August than those athletes who paddled all winter.  It is possible to perform at the very highest level in summer races without being able to paddle in the winter.  You’re just taking a different path to the same destination.  

If you’re unable to paddle in the off-season, your task should be to try to transform yourself into the fittest human being on the planet so that when you get back on your board in the spring you’ll be fitter and stronger than those who paddled all winter.  This was always the approach I took and, if I did it well, it never failed me.  

So, whether you have access to open water suitable for paddling safely during the off-season or not, here are some tips for off-season training that should help make that training more effective:

Periodize Your Training

Periodize your training.  See The Case for Periodized Training.  If you’re unsure how to properly periodize your training, seek help from a coach who can help you.  It’s that important.

Maximize Land-based Cardio Work

You can’t do enough land-based cardio work.  Actually, you can, but to do that you’ll be doing crazy amounts.  If you’re able to paddle in the off-season, you should be doing land-based cardio work 3 to 4 times a week, minimum on top of your paddling.  If you can’t paddle, your land-based cardio work should be 5 to 6 times a week at a minimum.  Not every workout needs to be 60 minutes or more in length, but at least two should be.  Remember, you can do more on land to develop your aerobic ability than you can on the water.

Build a Comprehensive Strength Program

Start with aerobic base development and then, over the course of the off-season, shift to development of higher level aerobic and anaerobic abilities.  Aerobic base work is foundational.  Build the base first and then build the higher-level abilities upon it.  When you transition to higher-level work, restrict that work to 2 to 3 times per week and polarize your training week so that the higher intensity sessions are well spread out with lower level work in between.

Address your strength comprehensively.  Start with basic strength and strength endurance, then sub-max strength, max strength and power/power endurance over the course of the off-season.  Consider the areas you need the most improvement in, but look at strength development as sequential.  

Incorporate Circuit Training

Do circuit training.  For SUP athletes, especially those specializing in distance and technical racing, I cannot stress enough the importance of circuit training.  It develops muscular endurance, power and power endurance and, if done appropriately, can develop aerobic ability at the same time.  Plus, circuits are hard.  They really toughen you up.  

Focus on Technique Improvement

Technique is the most important pillar of performance. Evaluate your technique and determine how you can improve it.  Everyone can improve their technique in some way.  It should literally be the most important element in your preparation.  I’ve seen lots of extremely fit people underperform because of poor technique.  I’ve also seen lots of people who actually aren’t super fit, overperform because they paddle extremely well.  If you feel unsure of where to begin to improve your technique, consult a coach you have confidence in for an assessment and, if necessary, help implementing the necessary adjustments through land-drills and, if you’re able to paddle, specific on-water work. 

  • Don’t forget about balance, agility and core strength.  If you’ve read through this entire article, you’ll have noted that these elements have already been mentioned.  They are more important to you as a SUP racer, than they are to a recreational paddler or fitness trainer.  Build activities or exercises that address these elements into your strength and cardio work.  You’re better off addressing them a little bit, frequently, then a lot, infrequently. 

Off-season training, whether you’re an avid racer, someone who trains for fitness on a SUP, or a complete novice, is extremely important.  Though it looks different for each, the idea for each is the same – use the time that colder weather, lack of daylight hours, and a slower competitive schedule provide to prepare for the coming summer.  Hopefully, the tips offered here provide each type of paddler with some food for thought when it comes to planning their off-season regimen.  

Though I haven’t provided any specific workouts in this article, in the next few issues of The Catch I’ll include a few detailed articles about workouts that you can do to improve strength and fitness.  So, since the off-season is almost upon us, let’s get started and stay tuned for some workout specifics coming up in future issues.  

Happy training! 

Here are some articles on Land Drills:



  • Mastering the Exit: Fine-Tune Your Paddling Technique Off the Water



  • Mastering the Pull: Overcome Common Paddling Mistakes This Offseason



  • Welcome to Winter Training

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