Windsurfing makes you fit and trains your body at the same time without the feeling of extra effort.
When the wind bends the trees outside and soughs from underneath the window, Klaas Voget, professional windsurfer, gets fidgety. “I really get nervous and count every second ‘til I get on the water. I might cancel an appointment with my girlfriend then or break a speed limit”, says the internationally successful German.   

Klaas Voget is fit as a fiddle. Being a professional sportsman, he practices hard. “Among the best of the world, you cannot just turn up and surf. I train as often as possible on water”, says Klaas. In case of low wind at his home spot around Kiel, he completes his training with other kinds of sports. However, he sometimes has to pull himself together. In order to stand the effort of the training on shore, the pro as well sometimes has to bring up all his will. “Windsurfing is different. You don’t notice the effort”, explains Klaas, who has studied sports science.  

To what degree windsurfers actually strain their bodies and what efforts they feel in doing so, the wave pro has now proved scientifically in his thesis at the Christian-Albrechts Univeristy in Kiel. The result: windsurfing makes you fit and toughens your body, seemingly without extra effort.

The survey was accomplished last year by Voget during two world cups of the PWA Pro Tour in Portugal and Gran Canary. Thereby, the pros were equipped with pulse monitors not only during free surfing but also while they were competing and their movements were recorded to the second. Right after the effort, the level of lactate was defined and the surfers evaluated their effort on a subjective scale.  

The results reflect Voget’s expectations. Within a normal training unit of 1¼ hours, the pulse rate lies at 136 beats on average, which is within the range of an ideal basic stamina. Against the background of a good cardiovascular training, the windsurfing sport presents an ideal option. Salt water and sun additionally contribute to the all-in-one wellness package.

On the contrary, during competition, things become intense and maximum values of almost 200 beats were reached. Hardly any of the pros reached such high values during free training. The average values of a competition race of 10 to 12 minutes lie at more than 170 beats and the lactate level with 4,4 mmol/l even lies in the intense anaerobic area. Such high values strain the cardiovascular system immensely and with regular training in short time raise the individual performance to a higher level. However, it requires not only broad experience, but also a strong will to fight against muscle burning, which starts at about 4mmol/l.