Dave’s beach workout is almost as famous as Dave is. He’s been developing it since the mid 90′s as a way to meet the challenges of his demanding lifestyle. You might think a workout that meets the needs of such an outstanding athlete would be far beyond anything you or I might consider. You’d be wrong. It’s a great workout for me, and it would be great for you, regardless of your current condition. Here’s what Dave says:

Somehow my workout has gained a reputation of being incredibly difficult–but it’s not. I don’t think a workout that is just a nagging chore, or some kind of gut-buster is going to change your life. I started out with one simple thought: A workout that you stop doing won’t do you much good. So I designed and perfected it as a workout I would never stop.

That means no gym membership, no equipment other than a slightly tricked out rope, and a lot of choices about intensity, time commitment, and accommodating injuries. You can do it at ANY level.

What’s different about my workout is that I’ve always tuned up the exercises to help me be a better waterman. When I find a weakness or a new challenge in something I’m doing I add exercises to help me prepare for it. Over the years that meant windsurfing, big wave surfing, tow in, foilboarding, bodysurfing, short and longboard surfing, Stand Up Paddle surfing, racing, downwinding and endurance events, outrigger canoes for downwind, racing, and endurance events. In other words, anything a waterman might do.

These routines are NOT about doing the exercises hard and fast, and this really isn’t a workout. It’s part of a lifestyle. Something you and I can be doing ten or twenty years from now. I’ve taught these routines to people at all levels of fitness, from super-athletes (including the 2006 Women’s Olympic Ski Team) who add them to their own routines, to very unfit people who want to change their condition. You can start this at any level and keep going. Make it your own, do it where you want, make it fun.

In the spirit of making it fun we’ve put together a few silly trailers. Here’s one. I’m working on a trailer that give more of a flavor of the workout, and I think we’ll have the workout video and workbook ready in a few more weeks. In the meantime, enjoy.

[wpvideo bnUW7Ubc]

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On the same day that 81-year-old Hershel McGriff became the oldest driver ever to run a NASCAR race, golfer Tom Watson almost won the British Open at 59. At the grueling Tour de France, 37-year-old Lance Armstrong is in 2nd place after sitting out nearly four years.

Lance Armstrong says his inspiration was Constantina Tomescu Dita, who won last summer’s Olympic women’s marathon at 38. And then there’s 41-year-old supermom Dara Torres, who won three silver medals at those games. Or gymnast Oksana Chusovitina finishing 9th in the individual all around at 33 – twice the age of many of her rivals.

So what should the amateur athlete who is starting to feel those years take from all this. It’s very simple, if the pros can do it at the elite level, we can do it at the level we choose, regardless of age.

The trend is more than just a statistical blip or a few anecdotes. In track and field the average age of an American Olympic athlete has gone up almost 4 years, from 23.4 in 1980 to 26.8 last year. For amateur athletes the numbers are far more impressive. Historically a tiny percentage of marathon entrants were over age 40. Last year, it was almost half.

The question is, why? According to CBS it’s because nutrition and sports medicine have improved. According to Dr. Michael Kelly, chair of orthopedics at Hackensack Medical Center “They (older athletes) have core training as part of their fitness levels. They understand nutrition to a much better degree and they take care of themselves.” That’s certainly true, but there’s more to it that just that. In prior generations a certain gravitas was expected from older citizens. They were comfortable sitting out taxing activities and dangerous sports and just spectating.

Today Xtreme Geezers everywhere are ignoring the little aches and pains, training hard and smart, and enjoying their lives like never before. There’s simply no reason not to have the time of your life, for all your life.

My name is Paul Astles I am a post graduate student at Leeds Metropolitan University, England. I am currently studying for an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology and I am planning on undertaking my thesis around Masters Athletes. Specifically, the aim of my research would be to investigate attitudes towards supplement use (for example, the research asks questions about what supplements are taken, perceived health or performance benefits of supplements and sources of advice regarding supplementation).

The data collection for this research is going to be an online questionnaire. The link to the questionnaire pack is beneath this text, simply copy and paste into your browser to go straight to questionnaire pack and begin. It is important that you read the first page of the questionnaire pack as this will hopefully answer any questions that you have regarding the benefits of the research. There are contact details on that first page should you have any further questions regarding the questionnaires or the research.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/supplementsurveycarnegie

Thank you for your time

Paul Astles

Let’s look at it another way. How much exercise do I need to do to lose 1 pound of weight? Pretty simple, we know that 3,500 calories equals about 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of fat, so you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in to lose 1 pound. So if you keep eating as you have been, and increase your exercise enough to burn 3500 calories you’ll lose a pound a week.

Obviously you could also cut 500 calories from your diet each day to lose about 1 pound a week (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories).

But right here is where we start fooling ourselves and get into trouble. People say “I’m an active person, but I keep gaining weight, it must just be genetic”. It’s much more likely that the activites you are doing are not as intense as you believe, and you’re simply eating too much of the wrong foods. It’s the nature of the activities you do that determines how many calories they burn, and some activities that you would assume would burn a lot of calories, actually burn very few.

When you’re sitting around, doing office work, driving your car, or reading this article on your computer, you burn about 90 to 150 calories per hour, depending on your weight and muscle/fat ratio with 90 being a 120 pound person, 150 being a 250 pound person. The difference between the sitting around burn rate of 150 calories and the activity burn rate is what you are counting on to burn off that Big Mac meal. Let’s say you’re going take your 240 pound butt for a brisk walk. Great, that’s 414 calories per hour. But it’s the difference in calories that matters, so subtract the 150 you burn while sitting around and you’re down to 264 calories per hour. That’s 5.6 hours of walking to neutralize the Big Mac.

If you’re going to try to use exercise to lose weight you need to burn 3500 calories more calories to lose a pound a week? That’s 13 hours of walking briskly. The walking you already do doesn’t count–that’s built into what you weigh now.

We’re not saying you can’t compensate for eating a lot of food by increasing exercise–elite athletes do that all the time. But it takes a very large amount of vigorous activity. The best way to lose weight and stay or get fit is to both eat better and get exercise. And pick some activities that dial up the burn rate.

This chart shows approximate calories burned while doing various exercises for one hour three different body sizes. For most exercises, the heavier you are, the more calories you burn, but some sports minimize that difference. Specific calorie expenditures vary widely depending on the exercise, intensity level and your individual metabolism and muscle/fat ratio.

So obviously you’re not going to walk, golf, bowl, or ballroom dance your way to fitness. All those activities are fun, but they don’t present much opportunity for weight loss or fitness. Weightlifting is not very aerobic either, unless you work hard to make it so, but resistance training builds muscle and muscle consumes calories. For a more complete chart of calories burned during various activities click here

Unless you are regularly doing one of the strenuous activities listed, you can’t really count on your activities to keep you fit. You might wish to believe that surfing three times a week will keep you toned and slim, but look around. Lots of fat surfers. Surfing burns about the same amount of calories as playing golf with a cart or slow ballroom dancing. Lots of sitting around, and you rarely use your big leg muscles, it’s mostly arms and core. Worse yet, the exercise you get from surfing is very unbalanced. You see plenty of old surfers with humped backs.

Standup Paddle Surfing is too new to have an accurate calorie burn rate calculated, but it’s obviously more than surfing, especially flatwater or cruising. It’s probably in the range of Kayaking, though it engages the leg and core muscles more, and so is probably higher.

If you want to get fit and stay fit, you need to either adopt one of the high calorie burn activities and do it regularly, or add some form of workout to your routine.

According to the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition “The loss of exercise capacity with age often results in a reduction in physical fitness and more rapid [cell death],” says researcher Zhaoping Li, MD, of the University of California at Los Angeles. “A dietary supplement that increases exercise capacity might help to preserve physical fitness by optimizing performance and improving general health and well being in older people.” In the study of 16 male cyclists aged 50 to 73, men who were given the supplement showed a 16.7% increase in their anaerobic threshold at three weeks. By contrast, their counterparts who received the placebo did not see any increase in their anaerobic thresholds.

It’s a dinky little study, but that’s a pretty significant difference. It may be worth trying the supplement and seeing how you do with it.

Arginine is a precursor to nitric oxide development. Production of nitric oxide decreases with age. Nitric oxide appears to have several important roles in our bodies, keeping blood vessels around the heart dilated and helping to eliminate lactic acid from exercised muscles. Nitric oxide production is also hampered by damaging free radicals, hence the need for antioxidants, to take up and neutralize the free radicals.

“We have just studied elderly since human exercise capacity declines with advancing age and many individuals lose the inclination to participate in regular physical activity,” Li said. “Our study has shown that the supplements help the muscles work much more efficiently in our study population.

Study participants took the supplements at bedtime, which is when nitric oxide levels are lowest. Arginine may dilate the blood vessels and cause dizziness when standing, which is another reason to take the supplement before bed, Li says.

Study volunteers did not show any evidence of heart disease. The role of L-arginine among people with heart disease is considered controversial, study authors say. Some proponents of L-arginine claim it can eliminate heart disease across the board. seems a bit far-fetched, but if it gives me a 17 percent boost in endurance I’m all over it.

“It is also unclear if arginine supplementation in the sedentary population can have the same results,” the study authors write. They say further research is needed.

I’m not a big fan of the company Herbalife–they seem like a sleazy Ponzi scheme to me, but one of their products–Niteworks–fits the requirements for this supplement. Niteworks is a lemon-flavored powder that is mixed with water. It contains 5.2 grams of L-arginine and L-citrulline, 300 milligrams of L-taurine, 500 milligrams of vitamin C, 400 international units (IU) of vitamin E, 400 micrograms of folic acid, 10 milligrams of alpha lipoic acid, and 50 milligrams of lemon balm extract. Niteworks was developed by Louis J. Ignarro, PhD., professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at the UCLA School of Medicine, who shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his research concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.

It looks like Niteworks costs about $90 per month. There are competing products that are much cheaper. From MLM Watch, a blog devoted to keeping an eye on sleazebuckets like Herbalife (http://www.mlmwatch.org/04C/Herbalife/niteworks.html):

Ferid Murad, Ph.D., the third scientist who shared the 1998 Nobel award, has cast his lot with another manufacturer. In December 2004, Leiner Health Products announced that it had created Cardio Discovery™, which it said was “based on 28 years of research by Nobel Prize winner Dr. Ferid Murad.” A company press release stated: “Cardio Discovery helps support the cardiovascular system by increasing production of nitric oxide. Naturally produced in the body, nitric oxide helps to maintain the flexibility of veins and arteries so that blood flows freely. Cardio Discovery contains the amino acids l-arginine and l-glutamine. l-arginine is one of the body’s key nutrient sources for nitric oxide production, which is necessary for the maintenance of a healthy cardiovascular system.” Now called [amazon_link id="B000SV781A" target="_blank" ]Cardio Support, the product retails for $39.95[/amazon_link].

Digging around on the web, I also found [amazon_link id="B0031QGL2G" target="_blank" ]Source Naturals sells a tablet form, which I found on Amazon for $14.95[/amazon_link] for a one month supply (120 tablets, to be taken four times a day). From the comments these tablets must be like horse pills, but I don’t have problems with pills so I ordered some. I’ll keep you posted on how this goes.

1. Athletics (Track and Field)
2. Swimming
3. Rowing
4. Cycling
5. Triathlon
6. Weightlifting

Without further ado, a recent Australian study says: Weightlifting had the fastest and greatest decrease in performance ( The full study is “Aging performance for masters records in Athletics, Swimming, Rowing, Cycling, Triathlon, and Weightlifting” (Baker AB, Tang YQ) Department of Anesthesia, University of Sydney at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

The study states:
Record performances for Masters sporting events for swimming, cycling, triathlon, rowing, and weightlifting were analyzed and then compared with the authors’ previously published results for Masters running, walking, and jumping sports events. Records were normalized using the 30s age records as a baseline, and studied through the various age ranges to the 90s.

All sports declined with increasing age, with rowing showing the least deterioration. Performances in running, swimming, and walking were reasonably well maintained, followed by greater decline with age for cycling, triathlon, and jumping events. Weightlifting showed the fastest and greatest decline with increasing age. Women show slightly faster rates of performance decline than men.

All these results show no greater decline with age for endurance events over the sprint events. While there are clearly physiological differences for performance deterioration other explanations such as training differences, smaller competitive bases and smaller numbers participating were not eliminated or otherwise compensated for by the methodology of the study.

In other words, keep it up. We suspect the biggest factor in performance deterioration is simply that so many people stop training as they get older.

Dave also does a few intensive training/teaching/having fun experiences at various places in the world–generally great resort locations that have surf and good facilities. These are moderately expensive multi-day learning experiences with relatively small groups. While I haven’t attended one of the “Kamps” as Dave calls them, I do know a bit about Dave’s remarkable ability to teach complex things. So when an acquaintance on the Stand Up Paddle forum I frequent asked me what I thought of the opportunity to go to a Kalama Kamp at Turks and Caicos islands I told it it would be hard to go wrong spending time with Dave. He was so thrilled with the experience he created a blog to talk about it (SUP Junkie), and gave me permission to post his articles here. A slightly edited version that combines the five articles begins here:

Club Med Beach Turks and Caicos

Ok, just a short intro, my name is Mike, I live and work in Coronado, California. I had the unique opportunity to attend Kalama Kamp in Turks and Caicos (British West Indies/Carribean) hosted by none other than Dave Kalama. The camp took place from November 13-21st of this year. I wanted to share my experiences so I decided to start my own blog, SUPjunkie.com where I plan on sharing my SUP experiences with anyone who may benefit and or enjoy my experiences. This was the second Kalama Kamp that Dave hosted, the first camp was in Florida. I originally heard about the camp after a couple months of following Dave’s blog.

Dave demonstrating paddle technique

I was intrigued by his blog postings on the Tahitian stroke technique that he adopted from the Tahitian outrigger paddlers. It seemed from what I had read/ heard that this particular technique might offer some much needed efficiency in my own stroke. I asked Dave during the trip why chose to develop this technique to others? His simple answer was that “when somebody using a different technique beats the Tahitians, I’ll consider something else”. In addition, Dave just believes that this particular stroke is the most efficient he’s found and since paddling requires so much repetition of movement, the smaller you can make each movement the faster and more efficient you will be!

Club Med Pool Scene, beautiful beach frontage.

So after talking to other paddlers that have had personal instruction from Dave, I pulled the trigger, booked my flight, paid for the camp, and counted the days until I would leave for T&C. I will admit, at first I was a little hesitant because of the cost but after factoring in that ALL the food, booze (yes all the booze you can drink), equipment and transportation was included, the camp seemed to provide good value. Besides, how often do us mere mortals get to learn from one of the best at what they do, and in paradise nonetheless?

As an avid SUP racer and surfer, my initial motivation was primarily to increase my speed for racing and improve my surfing technique, but little did I know the simple lessons about life that Dave would pass on to us.

I arrived on the island of Provo on Sunday around 2 pm, November 14th. After a quick ride to Club Med, I was greeted by a beach scene that can only be described as “spectacular”. I had never seen a beach and crystal blue/ green water anything like this my life!

This Iguana has his own little islanf

Cruising the Marngroves

So the camp is run by Dave Kalama, Brody Welte, and guest host John Denney. I don’t think you could ask for a more dynamic group of individuals to teach, entertain,and share good times with. Brody has a stand up fitness business called Standup Fitness, Inc. as well as a retail SUP store in St. Petersburg Florida.

He’s spent considerable time in San Diego, Kauai, and most recently Florida. Brody is one those guys that you can’t help but like, always spitting out his stream-of-consciousness, which ranges from funny, to odd, to just out and out weird. His love of stupid movie quotes, kept me on my toes the whole week.

John, on the other hand is this big, boisterous, teddy bear of a guy. John has been friends with Dave for a long time and is a well known big wave surfer/ waterman that resided in Maui for years before recently moving to Florida and opening up a SUP retail business called JuniperPaddleboarding.com. Brody and John, have a incredibly “unique relationship” in which they constantly try to one up each other. Keeps things interesting!

So I figured I’d give everyone a preview what the days were like for us during the camp. Each morning the group gathered on the beach for a Kalama beach workout. For most of us, working out requires going to the gym, using specialized weights/ equipment, and so on. For Dave who is a very fit individual takes a very simple approach. His beach workouts consists of deep sand runs on the beach, a variety of push ups/ pull ups/ dips/ crunches/lunges, etc. Dave’s passion for simplicity surfaced in his use of his use of $4 worth of rope that he utilizes to do a variety of upper body exercises using whatever he can find to serve as a post. I’m guessing Dave has access to state of the art exercise facilities, personal trainers and the like but I think for Dave, he favors the simplicity of being on the beach with like minded individuals using what our creator has provided. I assure you, the beach workouts were no easy endeavor for any of us. For those not accustom to beach runs and lunges, it’s a wake up call to what we should be able to do before stepping foot in the water. It seems that Dave has been able to accomplish extraordinary things by keeping very fit, both mentality and physically.

Phillip from Big Blue, the man with a plan!

Big Blue Marina

After workouts and group breakfast each morning, we would head to the Big Blue Unlimited headquarters. Big Blue, is a adventure company that provides visitors the opportunity to paddle, kite board, windsurf, scuba, snorkel, kayak, etc. It’s difficult to convey how awesome Big Blue is. One of the co-owners of 12 + years, Phillip, provided phenomenal personal service for our group, taking us by car and boat anywhere and everywhere that we wanted to explore. Phillip is quite a character.

Raised primarily in Turks and Caicos, Phillip spent much of his life on the island in between his boarding school education in England. Phillip is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the islands. He has a thorough knowledge of the workings of the ocean, sea life, the archeology/ history of the area, etc. In addition to being a great host, he’s quite a character and kept us entertained with his conspiracy theories!

So here’s the typical day at Kalama Kamp Turks and Caicos:

8am- Beach Workout

9:30 am- Group Breakfast

10am- Morning Session- Dave would typically start with a little discussion about technique for either surfing and or paddling. He typically did some short discussions, demonstrations, and even some videotaping. Teaching us the fundamentals of his stroke was of primary importance.

1pm- Group Lunch

3pm- Afternoon Session- We typically took out one or two of Big Blue’s boats to an outer reef where we would catch some waves, do some exploration from island to island by board, snorkel, or catch some downwind action.

Group photo post beach workout.

8pm- Group Dinner

10pm- Night Activities- Each night we did a variety of activities including the Club Med shows, ping pong, pool, juggling, and drinking.

12pm- I would try to get to bed by 12pm though, Ben from DC, Wes from Big Blue and I would typically try and find some trouble!

Great Surf

This photo is me dropping in on one of the smaller waves of the day.

On Monday we had some nice overhead surf.  Only about 5 of us surfed and we had an absolutely incredible afternoon.

Not much to say, Dave getting after it!

Dave proceeded to absolutely “rip and tear” it up. His ability to read the waves, get in quick pivot turns, pull off huge/ powerful bottom turns absolutely amazed.me .

Here’s Dave Kalama doing a text book cutback.

Funny thing, not once did Dave come out and take the best set waves but instead allowed the rest of us to get the best waves. He made a lot of effort to always make sure we got the best experience possible!

Unfortunately for us, we only got one day of overhead surf but we made the most of it!

Me dropping in again.

Here some of the guys with the Big Blue Quiver of Naish Boards

Although Monday’s surf session was definitely a highlight of the week for some of us, there were a lot of other equally fun activities including a group downwinder. We loaded up the big boat on Thursday and headed up wind to see if we could find a little wind and a good route back to Big Blue Headquarters. Exploring the islands was a great experience. As I’m from San Diego, I’m amazed at the beauty of the water, the reefs, and all that nature has to offer. Our little downwinder provided an ample opportunity to try out some brand new 14′ Naish Glides. The were definitely a new experience for me. I’m use to my 12’6 which has a displacement hull, as opposed to the Glides planing hull. The glides, including the 12′ were nice all around boards.

So we already know the Geezer part is easy–stick around awhile and you are one. The question is how do we start having more fun. For example, how do you go from work-focused to fun focused. How do you get a body that spends most of the day sitting at a desk ready for the stresses of vigorous and even dangerous activities. How do you manage the dangers and understand what you are up against.

Most of the answers you’ll find in various articles here, because each sport or activity offers different challenges. Since the site is all about BEING an extreme geezer, most of the articles will include some element of what it takes for older athletes to participate–it’s the reason this site exists. But here’s a basic roadmap:

Work-Focused to Fun-Focused
Life is not a rehearsal. There is no guarantee that your patience in keeping your head down and doing your job is going to pay off in the long run with the time and money you need to go play. The answer is pretty simple–play now. That doesn’t mean quit your job and move to Fiji, though it certainly is an option. It means figure out what YOU want to do for fun and start working towards that. For example, you might be working out every morning five days a week. What’s that for? If the answer is just “fitness” then no wonder you call it WORKING out. You need a goal that sounds GREAT to you, that you can think about when the time you’re taking and the effort you’re making just seems like too much. Make the time to work towards the fun goals, and make the goal fun-focused.

Suppose you want to learn to stand up paddle surf in big waves. you can start focusing your workouts on core exercises, shoulder and arm strength, and balance. Instead of working out five days a week maybe you work out three and swim two. Believe me, if you’re going to surf big waves you want your swimming tuned up. Go buy a standup board and paddle and spend time on the weekends or after work paddling whatever body of water you have near you. It’s great exercise, great balance training, and it’s focused right on what you want to do.

Make a Plan
The difference between being a kid and being an Xtreme Geezer isn’t what you’re able to do–if snowboarding a half-pipe looks like a blast to you, then it’s a worthy goal. But a kid will just jump in and do it. If they screw up, they’ll heal. As a Geezer you have different resources and you can take a smarter path to wind up at the same place. The difference is that you know injuries never heal. They come back to plague you years and decades later. You can start taking yoga to improve flexibility and doing pliometrics to improve your spring. You can take lessons from an expert who can bring you along in rational, progressive steps. And you can get the right equipment to make the effort more fruitful and less dangerous. In other words you can be smart and have a plan.

Get Off The Tour Bus
We use the “Tour Bus” as a metaphor for watching instead of doing. Television is the ultimate tour bus. Burns vast amounts of time with no return. I started using the term after my wife and I saw a vigorous-looking guy get off the Tour Bus at the Ho’okipa beach outlook in Maui and gaze at the surfers. I was glassing the waves to decide where I was going to surf. He turned to me and said “looks like fun, doesn’t it”. I said “It is fun, I’m going to go do it”. He looked at me skeptically, since I was clearly at least ten years older than him and quite a few pounds heavier. “We’re too old for that” he said, and he turned and walked back to the bus.

Not me, buddy, not me.

Take Lessons
We’re going to assume throughout the site that you have financial resources. I apologize for the impoliteness is that’s not true, but in general, people have more disposable income in their fifties than they do in their thirties. Take advantage of that and use some cash to buy expertise. You could paddle an outrigger canoe for ten years and all you might do is solidify the bad habits you formed the first few weeks. A good coach will show you proper form, which reduces injuries (VERY important for Geezers) and then move you along far faster than you ever could progress on your own.

I paddled Stand Up boards for four years before I took some lessons from Dave Kalama on paddle technique. I was basically doing EVERYTHING wrong. It’s a year later and I still fall into my crappy technique when I get tired or lose concentration, even though the proper technique increases my speed, decreases effort, and protects my muscles, joints and fragile shoulders.

Remember to Have Fun
It’s what it’s all about. If you get bored with the activities you choose, pick another. go through the same process–Focus, Plan, Take Lessons, Jump in. No point in continuing to do something FOR fun that no longer IS fun.

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