Dragon Boat!

Anyone done it? I volunteered for my company's first ever Dragon Boat team, for a fundraising event for the Heart and Stroke foundation. Despite having only three practice sessions beforehand, we didn't do too badly. Our young steersman was trained only Thursday before last, and he did a splendid job of keeping us straight and smooth. (It's a difficult job, requiring a lot of upper body strength)
And, despite being decades older than my team-mates, I don't think I did too badly at keeping up either. If I do it again next year, I'll prepare a little better. Based on what is sore and tired today I'll do:

• External rotator cuff exercises
• Lateral dumbell lifts, starting from one hip with the opposing arm, raising above the shoulder
• Lots of flip turns and crunches for the upper abdomen
• More butterfly and sprint freestyle, also for the external shoulder muscles
• And most important of all, get a dragon boat paddle and find a way to sit on the edge of a pool and practice. I'm thinking the lifeguards might let me if I pad the blade with foam and do it right underneath the diving tower.

Core core core!

The biggest improvement I found with my paddling came when I focused on pulling with my core instead of my arms. The only thing my arms were for was to put the paddle in the right spot. You should be sore from your hip bones to your shoulder blades. Drop and give me 60 second planks!

-- gnat! (don't do it anymore, but it is FUN!)