Ms. Namita Nayyar:
What exercises comprise your fitness regime or workout routine you shall like to share?
Ms. Claire O’Hara:
My fitness routine varies throughout the season but is primarily based around being fit and ready for training and at a peak of fitness in time for each competition.
Through out the year I spend a lot of time in my kayaks. Working on the sport specific skills and developing my boating fitness base. But I also do a lot of out of boat training especially during the off season to help me keep balanced, fit and injury free.
Over the last few years I have spent the off season training with 6 degrees fit in Sydney. Here I have been very lucky to have the support of their lead personal trainer Abel who designs his group based MMA boot camp fitness training session specifically to help me train and be ready for events. We do a lot of explosive power and plyometrics work with core strength development and interval training. This has made a huge difference to my general fitness levels and helped me go into each season super strong and ready. It’s also really good fun.
During the season I tend to focus more on supplementing my paddling fitness with flexibility (yoga and stretching sessions) and strength conditioning session. I have programme of sport specific exercises and routines that my Physio (Fraiser Mckinney) created for me 4 years ago that I regularly use as it targets all the muscle groups neglected by kayaking and help me keep in an around good shape.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Do you take some special diet or have a strict menu that you follow to remain healthy and physically fit?
Ms. Claire O’Hara:
I have had a lot of nutritional input over the years and this has allowed me to be very aware of what I am eating to ensure that I have a balanced diet that contains all the calories and nutrients that I need and that can help me maintain good energy levels through the week. I don’t follow a strict diet but I am nutritional aware. I love chocolate and have a weakness for other good tasting bad foods such as pizza, ice cream and chips. So my nutrition definitely isn’t perfect but I find that by being aware of what I’m eating and consequently the effect that bad nutrition has on my energy levels and performance I can keep on track and manage it with out feeling tied into a specific diet or food plan.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Elaborate your experience on winning 2013 World Championship (Freestyle Kayaking) and World Championship (Squirt Boat)?
Ms. Claire O’Hara:
Winning the 2013 World Championships was amazing. I had been training super hard and made massive progress in my paddling performance and to be able to showcase it during the event was insane. There were elements of the competition where the pressure was on as my competitors laid down some solid rides. Which kept the pressure on and in the end it came down to the very last ride in freestyle and even then no one knew who had won until the judges announced the scores. That’s the kind of competitions I like to be part of. High standards, everyone battling it out the whole way through and constant pressure to be on the very top of your game right until the very end.
It was so exciting and rewarding to be able to put down some epic runs and defend both world titles again and to set some new world record scores throughout the event. Especially in front of all my friends and family and with such a audience big crowd at the event and online.
Ms. Namita Nayyar:
Advice and motivational words for our inspiring and budding paddling girls who all are your fans, what should they do for their climb to the ladder of success in field of paddling and kayaking?
Ms. Claire O’Hara:
Follow your dreams and work hard to achieve your goals. Nothing is impossible, but a lot of goals require a lot of hard work, focus and grit determination to achieve. At the end of the day whatever your personal goal is remember to enjoy the process of getting there as this is the stage that makes up your life. Enjoy everyday whether it be on the water or in the gym and ultimately paddle because you love it.
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