Kiteboarding Exercise Videos

Kiteboarding Exercises Blog

Kiteboarding Exercises Community

Kiteboarding Exercises Forum


Kiteboarding and Nutrition


Kiteboarding is a demanding sportKiteboarding is a demanding sport and what you eat will determent how you perform as a kiteboarder. Nutrition is the fuel that keeps the engine burning, and if you don't eat right, your performance will be weaker.

photo_kiteboarding_exercises_food_sandwich1_recover_recoveryThis is not an article about healthy food in general. If you're looking to loose some weight, you should seek help by a fitness professional. He'll tell you to eat more vegetables and stop eating junk food and hopefully how. This article is about fast recovery after a session and how to get the energy for the next session. And actually also a little bit about preventing injury and diseases, but focus is on getting you to perform.


Energy for the next session or during a session
Carbohydrates is fuel for the muscles, and if you're on the water for more than 2 hours, you'll need to fuel up to be able to keep performing your best. Fruit is the healthiest way to get carbs. A good alternative is a sandwich with lots of vegetables and meat. It will give you the carbs and proteins you need to fuel your muscles and start recovery. If you don't have time to eat during your session, or if you get stomach aches by eating and doing physical activities at the same time, you can also drink something that contains carbs and protein. Yogurt drinks or protein shakes contains carbs and protein. Juice contains only carbs, but that's also better than nothing. And freshly pressed juice is also healthy.
Your muscles has a natural amount of carbohydrates stored (glycogen), but not enough to kiteboard for more than 2-3 hours. So after 2-3 hours (more or less depending on your intensity) you need to re-fuel by eating or drinking some kind of carbs. Remember, it has to be easy to digest to avoid a stomach ache. That’s one more reason why fruit is the best choice. Besides from all the healthy ingredients of course.

Good foods to fuel up

Good liquids to fuel up (recover)


Yogurt drinks (protein and carbs)

Bread, sandwich (preferably wholegrain)

Protein shakes (protein and carbs)

Rice, pasta (preferably wholegrain)

Chokolate milk (protein and carbs)

Bulgur, chickpeas etc.

Juice (freshly pressed is also healthy)


Energy/sport drinks

photo_kiteboarding_exercises_food_banana_recover_recoveryYou should take in 1,0-1,2 grams carbohydrates per kilogram body weight in small doses within the first 4 hours after your session. For me (I’m about 78kg) that’s about 4-6 fruits in the first 4 hours. In general you should consume 7-12 grams of carbs per kilogram body weight per day. Expect about 24-48 hours for a total re-fuel. After exhaustion from extreme sessions or workouts (more than 4-6 hours) it can take more than 48 hours to fill up your glycogen storage. If you eat like describes above, you can re-fuel in 24 hours.It's a good idea to consume protein as well, because you need them to recover after your session or your workout. But for re-fueling carbs are the important nutrient.


Recovery from a session (or a workout)
To get the fastest recovery after a session, you'll need to eat the right nutrients at the right time. Protein will help your muscles to recovery and carbohydrates will help your fuel deposit to get loaded again. Both protein and carbs are really important for a quick recovery.

Good foods to recover

Good liquids to recover

Fruit (only carbs and micro nutrients)

Yogurt drinks (protein and carbs)

Bread, sandwich with meat and vegetables (preferably wholegrain bread)

Protein shakes (protein and carbs)

Rice, pasta with meat and vegetables (preferably wholegrain rice/pasta)

Chokolate milk (protein and carbs)

Bulgur, chickpeas etc. with meat and vegetables

Juice (only carbs, freshly pressed is also healthy)


Energy/sport drinks (only carbs)

 You can actually increase your recovery by 12%, if you consume protein and carbs within the first 30-60 minutes after a session (workout). The faster you do it, the better results you'll get.


Energy intake in general
This is the hard part of working with nutrition. It's important for a kitboarder to be light. So your energy intake should not exceed your daily energy use. But if you do not eat enough, you won't recovery as fast as possible and that would hold back your performance in the end. If you eat too much, you'll gain weight. So for eating a 100% right, you need a very detailed diet plan, which is very hard to follow and takes quit a long time to make. But most riders use about 300-800kcal pr. hour on the water. This depends on the intensity of your riding, your style of riding (waves and unhooked use more energy), and of course of gender and size.
So this is you golden rule; eat as much as you can, without gaining too much weight. If you are kitesurfing a lot, you should be building up some muscles, so don't get scared if you put on a little weight. But you shouldn't gain body fat! And you shouldn't gain more than maybe 0,10-0,25kg or 0,5-1,0 pound per month. These numbers a for a male with a body weight of 75kg or 160 pounds. If you have any questions feel free to write me. Look under contact in the menu on the KBX website, if you want to ask me about this.  Or use the forum, click here.


Well balanced diet for kiteboarders
If photo_kiteboarding_exercises_foodyou're kiteboarding a couple of times per week, you can benefit from a good and balanced diet. Make sure you prioritize good carbs like fruit and vegetables and get lots of protein. Eat a lot of wholegrain pasta, rice and bread, together with low fat meat (chicken etc), fruit and vegetables and use olive oil or other kind of vegetable oils as sources of fat.



Preventing diseases

Getting sick is a huge problem for all athletes. A week without kiteboarding or without a workout will decrease you performance. An it sucks! You can enhance your chances of staying healthy, if you get the right kind of fat (vegetable oils, like olive oil - they are good for the immune system) and eat fruits and vegetables (for vitamins and fibers).

If your traveling a lot, you can experience problems with your stomach. Your pharmacy should have some pills containing bacterias, that will help you to avoid getting problems with diarrhea.

And it's not that hard. Fruit is a great energy source and they are easy to digest.You should eat 5-6 fruits/vegetables a day (including your salads etc). So they're great to eat during a session. Get your oils through your meals. Use it as dressing on your pasta etc. And remember not to over do it.


Preventing "tired" bones

photo_kiteboarding_exercises_calcium_bones_broken_legIf you workout continuously for a longer period of time (2-3-4 months) without proper rest, your bones will get weaker or "tired". You need calcium to keep them strong and you need need time to recover. Read "plan you training", click here. You should prioritize calcium rich food in your diet to make your bones as strong as possible. Here are some examples of calcium rich foods:



See a complete list here, click.




photo_kiteboarding_exercises_fitness_workout_injuries_injury_more_power - Power 2 Progress



On this site you'll find:

...and a lot more! - Power 2 Progress




Sign in with Facebook

What Level?

What level are you riding?

Beginner - 20%
Intermediate - 20%
Advanced - 60%
Pro - 0%

Total votes: 5

What about you?

What style do you ride?

Wakestyle - 81.8%
Newschool - 9.1%
Oldschool - 9.1%
Freeride - 0%
Waveriding - 0%
Wakeskate - 0%
Race - 0%
Landboarding - 0%
Snowkiting - 0%
Don't care, I ride it all - 0%

Total votes: 11