What excercises for these muscles?

[DIPLOMAT]

Hello I was wondering what specifically should be focused on if I wanted to build functional strength for canoe tripping. Paddling requires not much strength and more endurance however portaging canoe's over 1-3 + mile portages on even ground, uphill downhill with this heavy canoe (80 lbs) supported across the top back part of the neck and shoulders (somewhat). Imagine carrying a canoe.

anyways should i be working BACK heavily or shoulders.... or both?

barbell shrugs?
dumbell rows?

i want the canoe to feel supported better and not digging into my neck as much...... i think building a strong frame below the waist might possibly be mroe important but im not sure... if i had solid solid legs (squats, leg presses) possibly this would affect balancing this canoe ?


thanks for any advice.

 

[Lonewolf]

Your body is made up of many different limbs, muscles, and bones.... However, it does work as one system. When working out, no matter what the cause, everything should be trained with the same respect. Strong biceps means a strong back, as strong triceps equates to a strong chest. So, if you are going to put together a training regimen, train each body part respectively, no matter what your goals may be.

 

[slobberknocker]

Hmm. Maybe the rowing machine. That's a really difficult exercise to do for long periods of time. Are you competing in something?

 

[DIPLOMAT]

no competition, just looking for anything specific to strength building in this area, thanks.

 

[NotorESdsm]

uhhh.....superman, every style fly......lets see.......um
anything upperbody and even quads! Think about it, your not just using your back, your using shoulders, chest, forearms, triceps, delt's, TRAPS of course, you should feel which muscles are the most sore when you paddle a couple miles?!

 

[Intelligent Muscle]

Hey bro. These guys are right. strengthening your entire body will benefit you the greatest. If you feel you need to concentrate on specific muscle groups involved in canoeing, I recommend the following: Definitely establish a good strong foundation for strength and balance by strengthening your legs. Squats, leg presses, stiff legged dead lifts are the three I would do. Remeber that the more you wiegh, the more pounds you are carrying in the canoe, making your resistance even greater. Secondly, I would strengthen back, especially lower back. Do bent over rows, one-arm dumbell rows & lat pull-downs for back. Do lots of ab work and lower back work to strengthen your center of support. This is especially important given the nature of the range of motion and performance of competitive canoeing. Biceps also play a major role. Also, one point to note it that runners run in order to become better runners. Tenmnis players play tennis to get better. The same goes for those who canoe.