Fitness in Skydiving

Fitness in skydiving helps a lot – in fact, if you want to be a world champion, it’s vitally important. Check this vid out today from Jeroen Nollet from team Hayabusa as he tells us why he loves running as part of the Skydive Algarve series, “The Road to Competition”.

Reasons to Stay Fit For Skydiving

For most of us, we’re not full-time skydivers or world champions. We like to compete, do weekend jumping and go on skydiving holidays. But even for that, being fit makes a difference, here’ some of the reasons we think fitness in skydiving is worthwhile!

1. The fitter you are, the less tired you get by a long day of skydiving. If you’re spending a lot of money training with your team, the final few jumps of the day can lose some of their value. If that happens to be the last 2 jumps from a day of 10, then that’s 25% where you’re not working at your best! Mistakes creep in, you brain lock more and the learning decreases.
2. Being fit reduces the chances of an injury. Our muscles and ligaments are stronger, and that means we can run off those nil-wind landings easier, we are less likely to tear something in freefall, and we are more supple.
3. Performance goes up. The fitter you are, the more dynamic you can be in freefall. That means presenting better to the wind as you exit, turning faster and seeing more of the picture for whatever you are doing on that jump.
4. Lastly, we think that fitness is pivotal to a long healthy skydiving career. Although there are no stats to back this up, the chances of being able to skydive well into your retirement years has got to be higher if you’re in good condition!

How you get fit that is of course totally what floats your boat! Running, cycling, yoga, climbing, tunnel or the gym, they’re all good.

Photo credit: Luc Van Britsom