Ben Ainslie

The world’s greatest sailor looks at you with thinly-disguised contempt when you suggest that the perception of sailing, and sailors, is that not an enormous amount of fitness is required, certainly not compared to that of many other sports.

Ben Ainslie has three, consecutive Olympic gold medals to his name, as well as a silver when aged just 19, a host of world titles and the accolade of now skippering “Team Origin,” Britain’s America’s Cup boat and, as he is quick to point out, he hasn’t claimed all this by not being fit.

“In my first Olympic campaign, in 1996 in Atlanta, I was up against the Brazilian, Robert Scheidt in the Laser class, and he was known not only to be the best in the world, but also the fittest,” he recalls. “I wouldn’t say I have ever been as fit as he was, but I realised from quite early on how fitness would be key to becoming a successful sailor, especially in the Olympic classes.”

It turns out that, far from being fat, bearded, pipe-smoking men as the caricature of sailors once depicted, the modern, racing sailor is a finely-honed athlete, and Ainslie is one of the best examples around.

“Sailing requires both endurance and stamina, and also great lower and upper body strength, especially in your core. In the Laser it was all about lower and core. In the Finn, where I have needed to bulk up when I switched classes after winning gold in 2000, you need upper body strength as well, although it’s immaterial if you do not possess the lower and core strength.”

The core and legs are vital for most aspects of sailing, but none more so than hiking, which is the action of moving body weight as far upwind as possible in order to decrease the extent the boat leans away from the wind. “The harder you lean out the faster the boat goes,” Ainslie explains. “It’s OK if you do it for ten minutes but try half an hour and you’ll understand why it’s physically-demanding. Then add on the fact that you’re doing it at least once a race, and you may have three races in a day, and it’s one of the reasons why you can be dead on your feet after a day’s racing.”

The upper body strength comes in handy when the sailor is required to pump the sails. “This requires great strength in your arms, shoulders and chest and the better you do it the quicker the boat goes once again. I’d go as far as to say that fitness is as important an element of being a successful sailor as any other aspect of the sport.”

When Ainslie moved up from the Laser Class to Finn for the 2004 Olympics he had to add an additional 15kgs of weight. “It wasn’t by living in Burger King, unfortunately,” he says. “It was all muscle, acquired in the gym. And it was a load of protein shakes that made me feel sick most days. Even now I eat like a horse, but it all goes on either sailing – which is sport-specific in terms of training – or in the gym.”

The triple Olympic champion spends 90 minutes to two hours a day working out. Often an hour’s intense work will take placed in the morning, followed by an afternoon’s sailing, and then a further hour back in the gym in the evenings.
“Much of my exercise regime centres on running and cycling for stamina and lower body strength, and then weights for all over, but especially my upper body. I tend to do three sets of 15 minutes sprinting on the treadmill, or an exercise bike. I also spend a lot of time on weight training specific to the demands put on my body by sailing a boat. So, for example, I’ll work on the cable pull with high repetitions, and this is useful for hiking out of the boat, or for pumping. I’ll bench press, squat, use leg extensions, and I’ll work on my abs using medicine balls.

“As for my diet it tends to be a lot of fish and chicken, carbs such as potatoes, rice and pasta, and lots of vegetables. I’m 32 now, which is no real age for a sailor, but already my body is changing as it grows older, and I need to ensure that my physical advantage over my main competitors remains.”    

“Close to the Wind,” Ben Ainslie’s autobiography, is out now, published by Yellow Jersey Press.