Yoga on Vandal

Sailing Vandal keeps us very fit, but to absorb the calming and relaxation benefits of Yoga we practice White Lotus Flow and Jivamukti onboard.  They have great apps to downloads to help guide us through our practice.  Both Conrad and I trained at White Lotus to get our Yoga teacher trainings, and we hope to occasionally offer a beach practice to other cruisers in the areas we sail too.  We also love YOMU (yoga music for kids!) - Cynthia Zak has created an awesome program to help kids begin a yoga practice, and both Zelda and Jedi adore the songs (available on Spotify if you look for Cynthia Zak) and movements.  We have a deck of kid's flash cards to help inspire their poses.

Tips for staying active

Its hard to do "normal exercise" when you live on a boat, so we get creative.  Here are some tricks! 

1. Make everything as active as you can.  Rather than dinghy to shore, swim to shore whenever possible!  If you need to clean the boat, do it on a SUP rather than standing in shallow water.
2. Everything is harder with kids strapped onto you.  Take the little ones with you for a surf or a stand up paddle.  We often swim with a line to tow the littles in the inflatable kayak, thats a serious workout especially in current.
3. Embrace the little hardships and inconveniences of boat life.  Sometime we walk over two miles to find groceries - so we jog to the grocery store, than treat the hike home with a backpack loaded with produce like we are training to climb a mountain.

Crossfit on Vandal

If you spot Vandal's crew on the beach doing weird exercises, its probably a corssfit day.  We improvise, taking turns designing the workouts, and the kids participate as well.  Usually its some sort of triathlon of running, swimming, and various exercises, but things can get pretty wacky and silly on the beach.