How to stay in shape on a ship.

Most would say it’s really easy to control your weight at sea by only eating two meals a day and viewing ship work as quite physical. Well it’s actually the opposite. The food on the ship is so good that you don’t want to skip a meal. Not to mention on a cargo ship if you don’t show up for a meal the steward comes to find you. For exercise then when on watch there is a place to do pull ups outside, squats and leg lifts inside and pacing from wing to wing in the mean time. When off watch I do Pilates daily in my cabin. This is a good way to relax and de-stress after a hard day at work. :) Pilates is a good way to develop strength and flexibility while listening to music in my cabin. It sound weird but the best upper body exercise that I have found is doing hand stands against a wall then press ups in that position. That way you are using your own body weight to work out. Then there leaves cardio. Every chance I get to go ashore I go for a run, mainly aim for the hills and run to the top and back. It’s good to get a breather and change of scenery to. In this photo you can see that it will take a while to get ashore from the ship. I long tanker jetty that takes 9-10 minutes to walk the length of. (Botany Bay - Australia)