Get on Track with your Karting Fitness Part 1

By Karl Bickley Fit2Race Karl is a professional motor sports fitness coach with high profile clients like F1's Anthony Davidson, and karters like Alex Walker and Scott Jenkins

The importance of fitness training and conditioning and its influence toward on track performance can often be underestimated. If you spend time away from the circuit to prepare for the physical aspect of your racing you will see resulting performance gains above and beyond what you thought may be possible. Fitness training is often taken as a more reactionary decision rather than a pro-active one. This is understandable as many karters struggle to balance the amount of karting they do against the added pressure of academic studies or work and managing tight budgets. However a small dedication of time will make those hot days in Europe on a rubbered up track a walk in the park.

So what is the benefit of training to karters? And why is it important? Well ask any experienced single seat driver and they will tell you that it is hard work getting in shape and maintaining it as career and physicality of the racing progresses. Yet quite a few will use karting for aspects of fitness condition and to maintain race craft in the off season. So this shows just how hard it can be. But what if you were so well prepared that you didn’t ever consider the physicality of the Kart… whilst others struggle and fatigue after a day of heats, repocharge’s, and finals, you remain fresh and able to push 100% to the chequered flag!

Training for karting is not about becoming big and developing large and inefficient muscles. It’s pointless spending hours upon hours in the gym doing high weight high energy expending activity. As you all know, weight is important so it is key to make yourself strong and effective whilst remaining as light as possible. If you combine an effective conditioning programme with some targeted cardio, then you will be well on your way to fitness excellence. It’s all about training smart.

So what is training Smart?

It is simply about being logical and focussing your attention on planning your training, you need to be specific to your current needs or goals and address highlighted areas of weakness. This will simply mean you don not lose wasted hours in the gym doing pointless exercise that won’t deliver the performance advantage you expect!

Training doesn’t have to be a chore or be a laborious process; it can be fun and easy. Varying your training and keeping your body interested and stimulated whilst keeping it challenging is the key! Change the order and the number of sets, weights and reps and try to be functional in your movements. Think about it, your body rarely triggers muscles in isolation, so why train them in that way? Try to combine different movements into exercises that combine various muscle groups.

To help you get started on your strength and condition, here is a breakdown of what to train when you go into the gym.

If you are unsure of any aspect of training or exercise or are unfamiliar with a gym or piece of equipment you should always seek advice from a qualified trainer.

Lower Back – It is so important to you and your performance, it keeps you stable, protects your spine and helps form a basis of your core that allows postural stability and strength in all movements. As every karter will testify, you take a high amount of impact through your seat and back at every meet regardless of track or competition. Strengthening your back means the impact of the loading is massively reduced, and therefore so is the risk of injury or fatigue.

Get your back pumped with these exercises

Plank – hold your spine and posture in a straight line from head to toe whilst balancing between your toes and your elbows
Deadlift – pivoting from the hips, bend forward controlling movement before using your lower back to pull you back into a standing position
Dorsal Raises – lying flat on the floor, arch your back upwards lifting your legs and arms off the ground at the same time

Core –is the key to strong and functional movement. Your core encompasses your lower back, and it works to stabilise and protect your spine to prevent injury and to allow all bodily movements. The stronger the core, the more efficient your performance will be. The “core” is a name given to the collective group of muscles that include your hip flexors, your abdominals and oblique, and your back and spinal control muscles.

Give these a try…

Pure crunch – from a normal sit up position, fixed heels firmly into the floor and picking a point on the ceiling, reach upwards towards it to a maximum range, hold then slowly control the release
Hip Flexor Bridge with leg extension – starting form the same position as a sit up, push heels into floor and lift your pelvis to form a straight line between shoulder and knee. Lift one foot off the floor and hold out straight and parallel to the body.
Standing Torso rotation – stand sideways on to a cable column, a full arms length away, Take a single handle grip with both hands at a height level to your shoulder. From here keeping a straight arm, rotate through your torso keeping your hips square and feet fixed.

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