Training for photography as for a sport

[Tronhard]

Getting great gear is all very well but if it's too heavy to carry to where we want to photograph, or we can't hold our camera steady, then we are undermining our investment. This can happen as we weaken with age or injury.

My experience in getting to retirement age, and having injuries that held me back from taking the photos I want because I simply could not walk was very frustrating. So combining getting a new knee with rehabbing myself post-surgery have reinforced the benefits of exercising to take photos.

I have been used to toting around several DSLRs, each with its own battery grip and lens attached. That's a fair amount of weight, especially if one adds the odd tripod or monopod. Having a knee that was basically grinding bone-on-bone meant that I was incapable of walking more than a few hundred metres and certainly not with all that gear. So I adapted... getting lighter camera bodies and lenses and doing less walking while I waited to get the knee surgery that would restore my functionality. That resulted in me gaining weight.

In May I got my surgery and immediately started to rehab myself (I used to be, in one of my careers, a rehab specialist). I lost over 12kg and, over about two months of rehab, I got my full functionality back. But I did not stop with squats, cycling and other lower-body and aerobic exercises: apart from a desire to be healthy I took on a structured program to strengthen my core upper body and arms and the results have had a significant impact on my ability to take photos.

Fitness is specific to the activities that we do: for example an elite 100m sprinter will train for a completely different performance and body compared to a marathon runner. So the trick was to establish the types of fitness that will help me in my kinds of photography.

For me that was the ability to hike for multiple days with a pack and camera gear, and to be able to hold a camera steady for some period hand-held with isometric contractions. I had to restore the neurological pathways to muscle fibres that had not been enervated for some time, and to build balanced muscle groups to improve my strength and endurance.

I used to tell my fitness instructor students that there were five FACES to fitness:
Flexibility: the ability for joints to move through their full range
Aerobic fitness: the ability of our muscles to efficiently metabolize nutrients
Cardio-vascular fitness: the ability to exchange CO2 for O2, and to transfer them, along with macronutrients around the body
Endurance: the ability to make repeated muscular contractions or to hold a contraction for a long period (e.g. being able to hold your abs in not only looks good but supports your back), then there is the ability to carry a heavy lens and hold it steady for an extended period.
Strength: Can be one of two things. The ability to make one massive contraction against resistance, e.g. a weightlifter. Most of us are not likely to need to do that, so there is a second S:
Body Structure and composition - namely using exercise to maintain a healthy degree of muscle and fat in the body

So my program included cycling on a wind trainer for 30min per day, doing squats with increasing weights, a series of free weight exercises to strengthen the shoulders, arms, back, pecs and especially abs. Each workout could take up to an hour (I had time, being retired). I also worked on yoga and other stretch exercises - I hope to be able to squat right down again, handy for those extra low shots! This is a continuing program, but I am far more functional than I was previously, without pain and I frankly feel 10 years younger! (Glad I kept all those clothes that I had grown too big for...).

So now I am looking forward to being able to go hiking (in NZ we call it tramping) again, carrying my gear with the confidence that I can cope with it. I have booked myself a hike in February as a goal to achieve my level of performance (you need SMART goals!) Hopefully I will have some decent shots to share.

[William W]

Bravo.

[Shadowman]

I agree that with the heaviness of some of the gear we tote around at the minimum a bit of stretching is in order.

[rpcrowe]

I am not a recreational swimmer and never have been. I can swim well enough and float exceptionally well so I could save myself if I had to. But, really dislike swimming. My ear canal is built in such a way that if water gets into it, I am bothered for several days. I have tried earplugs to no avail.

However, I have found that jogging from one end of a 25 meter pool for a total of about twenty laps (about half a kilometer) two or three times weekly, really helps my leg and lower body strength as well as my balance. The pool's maximum depth comes up to my upper chest and its minimum depth is at about my waist - no water in the ears here...

[Tronhard]

Actually aqua-jogging and aqua-aerobics can be quite intense and very good for you, especially if you have knee injuries and want to get the exercise without the weight-bearing. When I was waiting for my knee replacement I did a lot of the former and the faster I tried to move, of course the greater the resistance. I came out of the pool absolutely wiped sometimes.