2014 Fitness Training Discussion

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drspeedy

drspeedy

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drspeedy94
I noticed that everyone here talks just about online preparation... I think it's clear: play as much time as you can in the game if you want to make to the top of the list. But there is another part of the GT Academy that the majority ignore :banghead: ...what is your fitness program?
 
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I am from germany and already talked with peter pyzera about this problem! The best would be,to start the workouts at least 6 months before the event,not 2 weeks before.
I am doing it for 3 months,one or two times running per week, now i add the training of my body ;)
Also you need to drive ! Drive everything with 2 or 4 wheels ! i go karting every 3 weeks and in the next time ill go to nurburgring ;) hope i could have helped you.
Some workout videos on YT may help you ;)
 
Let's keep this about fitness only, I modified OP's post and title a bit. If someone wants to start a thread dedicated to talking about driving preparation, that'd be great.
 
I have a question about fitness. How much more difficult is it for a larger bodied driver to get into racing competitively? I ask because in most series most drivers are very thin compared to me and most are shorter as well. I'm in pretty decent shape but am 6' 230lbs. Would my extra weight (I could cut down to 200lbs but a lot of muscle would be going with it) be a deterrent to most racing teams?

Nico Hülkenberg was in a bad situation for being 163 lbs (74kg) so obviously I'd never be F1 size as I'd never want to be that thin but what about other series'?
 
Nish
I have a question about fitness. How much more difficult is it for a larger bodied driver to get into racing competitively? I ask because in most series most drivers are very thin compared to me and most are shorter as well. I'm in pretty decent shape but am 6' 230lbs. Would my extra weight (I could cut down to 200lbs but a lot of muscle would be going with it) be a deterrent to most racing teams?

Nico Hülkenberg was in a bad situation for being 163 lbs (74kg) so obviously I'd never be F1 size as I'd never want to be that thin but what about other series'?
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6 foot/230 pounds (105kg?) seems pretty big to me for a driver, although some of the NASCAR guys probably aren't far off that. I'd imagine that race drivers are more about lean muscle than bulk. It's the endurance factor they're after more than strength.

I'd be aiming to get down to at least 85kg. Obviously no one is likely to be F1 levels of fit, but for Academy to give yourself the best shot you'd probably want to be within ten kilos or so? I guess it all depends on the car you're driving. In a NASCAR, an extra 20-30kg probably means bugger all. In a kart it would probably make you completely uncompetitive. In a GT car...dunno. :)


I'm 6 foot myself, and I've gone from ~95kg to about 80kg in the last six months in preparation. I obviously wasn't really that "big" to start with. I'm probably about as strong as I was (maybe a bit stronger because I started a more physical job), but I can use it better because I'm not having to carry all that extra weight. Particularly for running and aerobic stuff, not carrying those extra kilos makes a massive difference.

I could probably get to 75kg if I had to, but the diet and exercise required to do so wouldn't be worth it to me. Academy is a long program, and I'd expect to lose weight during it to be honest, even while stuffing my face with chocolate. I'd rather start with an extra few kilos of fat as energy reserves for the days when they're doing hardcore exercise and the energy expenditure is just brutal.
 
Last year I prep'd really hard for fitness as I knew it would be better than it's ever been regarding it! I trained on my own for months before also doing a Manchester 10k run and also some really physically and mentally draining challenges (UK National 3 peaks challenge). When the actual competition got announced last year I wanted to make sure I was training right, hired a personal trainer and he pushed me to the limit (Slightly beyond in a few cases nearly fainted twice in 2 sessions)! Now to be honest that helped me more than anything, but I'd be careful about overtraining, there was a point in my training where I got a slight injury which effected my training for 1-2 weeks. That was a knee/muscle injury and so training had to move to non impact with also injury treatment.

Fortunately that did pay off as the UK National final as I think it was 3rd to 7th was separated by 1/2 points or something like that which is literally like 1 level on the bleep test (I'm not sure of the actual scoring system but trust me it's close).

I have seen a few people training for GT Academy already and I've had a few questions regarding it to. If you really want this there's quite a few people not pushing themselves fitness wise. Doing a set number of pressups or situps is pretty useless that extra 1% you give at the end is where the reward is for getting stronger or running faster so rounding to 10/20/30 is really really useless. That number on the last set should be as high as you can possibly go, you should be collapsing on that final pressup, not counting 30 and saying done... O and i did say set so you should be doing more than 1 set of anything :)!

Anyway I'm not saying get a personal trainer, what I will say is that it's very important to train right, just exercising in most cases won't cut it! You have to be pushing yourself so that when you exercise saying 1 more after you've already said 1 more 3 times already is still happening (This is also how you can push yourself mentally, as usually your body is saying give up but you can do more!).
 
My fitness levels are low so how fit do you need to be? I'm just starting to get back into exercising. This year I probably won't have a chance at winning or coming close for that matter but I'd like to participate ill probably work on my fitness through out the year going to the gym and getting fit and I have a lot of time on my hands being unemployed. Maybe next year I can at least make it to the finals.
 
Quoting myself from North America thread. Note that, obviously, my views are biased from competing in the US GT Academy, others may vary a bit.

"On the fitness front, it's not hard to be in good shape for GT Academy standards. A basic PT regimen should be plenty pending on the condition of fellow contestants. Some running, pushups, situps, etc multiple times per week similar to military standards. Want to go a little beyond that, something like p90x should help. Want to go full on beastmode, join a crossfit box or follow Crossfit.com if you have the equipment (been doing it almost 6 months now and me now could kick the **** out of me from GTA2012). Of course, some of this is dependent on where you're starting from. If you're coming from the couch and thinking fitness could actually be a factor in elimination, I'd start figuring out how to go beastmode stat. It's just one less thing to worry about if you're in better than average shape and can eliminate that as a factor."

Example workout I did yesterday. Don't freak out, I'm only able to complete this kind of workout after months of hammering away at this stuff, everything in crossfit can be scaled to your level. If you're going to do something like this, I suggest a training partner or multiple training partners so giving up isn't an option and you have motivation to push 100%. These workouts will try to break you mentally as much as they do physically. If you can do this workout before time is up and have decent running capacity you should be near, if not the, most fit person there. Unless of course you have someone like Jett in your group who's an athletic animal.

For Time: (25 Min Cap)
70 Jumping Lunges
60 Pullups
50 Burpees
40 Wallballs 20lbs
30 Deadlifts 225lbs
20 Hand stand push-ups
 
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As a fairly stocky bloke, I was thinking about this seriously for a brief moment, then I remembered I don't have a racing wheel... or a driver's license/experience (family disputes)... and I'm nowhere near as fast as the top folks yet, so maybe you'll see me in GT Academy 2019. :lol:
 
I was concerned about that last year, but I got screwed and didn't win anyway. Now it seems I may have another shot, but I'm 36kg over my normal weight :(

They really ought to give us time to prepare. Shouldn't announce something like that on such short notice.
 
BHRxRacer
I was concerned about that last year, but I got screwed and didn't win anyway. Now it seems I may have another shot, but I'm 36kg over my normal weight :(

They really ought to give us time to prepare. Shouldn't announce something like that on such short notice.
Click to expand...

It's hardly short notice. If you were paying attention, you'd have known that it's been on the cards for at least a few months. And the online portion doesn't finish until June at the very earliest, so you've got at least two months.

But it sounds like sour grapes to me. One doesn't randomly gain 36kg by accident and then get screwed on timing.
 
I was really outting in a good effort lost 15kg but have been slack that last month, had surgery on my knee and haven't done anything ecept for some physical activity at work but looking forward to getting back into my daily 10km ride and a bit more
 
TRC Scooty
Quoting myself from North America thread. Note that, obviously, my views are biased from competing in the US GT Academy, others may vary a bit.

"On the fitness front, it's not hard to be in good shape for GT Academy standards. A basic PT regimen should be plenty pending on the condition of fellow contestants. Some running, pushups, situps, etc multiple times per week similar to military standards. Want to go a little beyond that, something like p90x should help. Want to go full on beastmode, join a crossfit box or follow Crossfit.com if you have the equipment (been doing it almost 6 months now and me now could kick the **** out of me from GTA2012). Of course, some of this is dependent on where you're starting from. If you're coming from the couch and thinking fitness could actually be a factor in elimination, I'd start figuring out how to go beastmode stat. It's just one less thing to worry about if you're in better than average shape and can eliminate that as a factor."

Example workout I did yesterday. Don't freak out, I'm only able to complete this kind of workout after months of hammering away at this stuff, everything in crossfit can be scaled to your level. If you're going to do something like this, I suggest a training partner or multiple training partners so giving up isn't an option and you have motivation to push 100%. These workouts will try to break you mentally as much as they do physically. If you can do this workout before time is up and have decent running capacity you should be near, if not the, most fit person there. Unless of course you have someone like Jett in your group who's an athletic animal.

For Time: (25 Min Cap)
70 Jumping Lunges
60 Pullups
50 Burpees
40 Wallballs 20lbs
30 Deadlifts 225lbs
20 Hand stand push-ups
Click to expand...
one quick question how do you perform a hand stand push up, I cant for the life of me do a hand stand, to put a push up in there im for sure going face first into the concrete
 
I think it'd be while leaning against a wall. If not, never piss off Scooty! :scared:

Imari
It's hardly short notice. If you were paying attention, you'd have known that it's been on the cards for at least a few months. And the online portion doesn't finish until June at the very earliest, so you've got at least two months.

But it sounds like sour grapes to me. One doesn't randomly gain 36kg by accident and then get screwed on timing.
Click to expand...

I agree, I'm probably that much over the weight I'd want to be for GT Academy, and I sure as Hell didn't gain it in one year (considering I don't exercise, rarely go out and eat whatever I want, it's surprising I'm not gaining any weight). I'll try to lose it in one year though, just need to sort out the minor details like my speed and obtaining a driving licence. :lol:
 
I either do them against a wall and kip or do them strict on a box or with a band. I weight 175 and my strict press is no where near that, the math doesn't add up :P. If doing a workout for time, kip. If focusing on strength, go strict with assistance - like knees on a box and get as verticle as you can. Removes some of your body weight.

We do have a few monsters at my gym that can do free handstand push-ups. Nutty.

 
Imari
It's hardly short notice. If you were paying attention, you'd have known that it's been on the cards for at least a few months. And the online portion doesn't finish until June at the very earliest, so you've got at least two months.

But it sounds like sour grapes to me. One doesn't randomly gain 36kg by accident and then get screwed on timing.
Click to expand...
It wasn't random, I've hardly moved a muscle since last September and given up on many things. We had a longer notice last year, I expected more of the same or at least the middle east academy to lag behind the others as usual. Local event is next weekend.

The screwed part has to do with last year, where I really did get screwed in the live event thing. The winner not only admitted he used SRF to set his time, he also changed the settings to remove ABS after he left every time so that nobody could do a proper time. The only 3 laps I did with the right settings put me in 3rd(had never used a wheel prior to the event), then later that evening the cheater came back and did his trick again. I had no proof until 4 months ago where he admitted it in a whats app group.
 
BHRxRacer
It wasn't random, I've hardly moved a muscle since last September and given up on many things.
Click to expand...

While the cheater thing is lame, it's no reason to have "hardly moved a muscle" since September if you're (obviously) still interested in competing at GT Academy. I was as close as half a second behind Steve Doherty (US 2012 Champion) in the final race before going into a huge slide and throwing away all hopes of winning. Did I give up on life (or that race even)? Nope. I've since gone on to better my life with a great job, got in the best shape of my life (work in progress), run a 50k ultramarthon and continue enjoying motorsport albeit on a much smaller scale than was within spitting distance 2 years ago. Oh, and drink boat loads of delicious beer. Because what's life without beer.

Life ain't fair, nut up and be glad you're still eligible for the chance of a lifetime.

TL;DR - Turn that frown upside down.
 
TRC Scooty
While the cheater thing is lame, it's no reason to have "hardly moved a muscle" since September if you're (obviously) still interested in competing at GT Academy. I was as close as half a second behind Steve Doherty (US 2012 Champion) in the final race before going into a huge slide and throwing away all hopes of winning. Did I give up on life (or that race even)? Nope. I've since gone on to better my life with a great job, got in the best shape of my life (work in progress), run a 50k ultramarthon and continue enjoying motorsport albeit on a much smaller scale than was within spitting distance 2 years ago. Oh, and drink boat loads of delicious beer. Because what's life without beer.

Life ain't fair, nut up and be glad you're still eligible for the chance of a lifetime.

TL;DR - Turn that frown upside down.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your cheerful words but GT Academy had nothing to do with why I gave up on things. It had ended some 10 months prior to that.
 
Tidgney
Last year I prep'd really hard for fitness as I knew it would be better than it's ever been regarding it! I trained on my own for months before also doing a Manchester 10k run and also some really physically and mentally draining challenges (UK National 3 peaks challenge). When the actual competition got announced last year I wanted to make sure I was training right, hired a personal trainer and he pushed me to the limit (Slightly beyond in a few cases nearly fainted twice in 2 sessions)! Now to be honest that helped me more than anything, but I'd be careful about overtraining, there was a point in my training where I got a slight injury which effected my training for 1-2 weeks. That was a knee/muscle injury and so training had to move to non impact with also injury treatment.

Fortunately that did pay off as the UK National final as I think it was 3rd to 7th was separated by 1/2 points or something like that which is literally like 1 level on the bleep test (I'm not sure of the actual scoring system but trust me it's close).

I have seen a few people training for GT Academy already and I've had a few questions regarding it to. If you really want this there's quite a few people not pushing themselves fitness wise. Doing a set number of pressups or situps is pretty useless that extra 1% you give at the end is where the reward is for getting stronger or running faster so rounding to 10/20/30 is really really useless. That number on the last set should be as high as you can possibly go, you should be collapsing on that final pressup, not counting 30 and saying done... O and i did say set so you should be doing more than 1 set of anything :)!

Anyway I'm not saying get a personal trainer, what I will say is that it's very important to train right, just exercising in most cases won't cut it! You have to be pushing yourself so that when you exercise saying 1 more after you've already said 1 more 3 times already is still happening (This is also how you can push yourself mentally, as usually your body is saying give up but you can do more!).
Click to expand...
et_, take note.. :)
 
This is some good discussion on training and a hat tip to the guys posting relevant and good advice on PT. Lets not also forget about half the battle which is your diet.
 
well if you train hard and you push to your limits , there is no need for diet .... moreover , your body will need more energy for your workout and you training .
PS : I'm no talking to those who have overweight :)
 
Nish
Diet does not mean eating less in this case it means eating correctly. Diet is always #1 if you want to be in great shape, no amount of working out will stop bad eating habits from taxing on your body.
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This.

'Diet' is an often miscontrued term to mean 'fad diet'. It merely means the way you eat. And the way you eat greatly affects your performance.
 
Nish
Diet does not mean eating less in this case it means eating correctly. Diet is always #1 if you want to be in great shape, no amount of working out will stop bad eating habits from taxing on your body.
Click to expand...


^^^ This, calories in/out is only one part of the equation. Eating YOUR proper balance of nutrients (notice the YOUR Part) Is very important. I don't know how many people i see come and go as far as my running route or the gym and I feel as if they are discouraged quickly because they workout see no progress and some of it is because they continue to eat horribly.

Just my two cents lol.
 
My only thoughts are don't kill yourself getting fit. Yes it's important, but speed behind the wheel is more important.

If you're fast in a car, they don't care how unfit you are.

If you are slow in a car, being the most fit guy won't be enough to keep you from being eliminated.

In GT Academy, it seems to me that fitness level is only used as a tie breaker for two or more people who may otherwise be equal.
 

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