'Functional fitness'

Sports-loving couple perform strength training to keep core muscles strong.

When Kai and Francisca Dilling wed more than a year ago, they merged not only their two hearts but the love of two water sports: surfing and sailing.

Both activities are deeply ingrained in their lives.

Kai, 40, has surfed since he was a boy, first borrowing his dad's surfboards and then getting his first board at age 9. Today, he runs Sol Surfers Surf Camp, shapes surfboards as a business and is an avid competitive surfer. His latest honor was winning the masters shortboard division at the Eastern Surfing Association's Mid-Atlantic Championships in Nag's Head, N.C.

Francisca, 28, has been sailing with her family since she was 10. Her parents met while sailing in Boston. Since moving to Charleston in 1989, she and her family have been members of the Charleston Yacht Club and competed in the Charleston Ocean Racing Association.

These days, Kai is learning the ropes with her family and Francisca is hitting the breakers on weekends.

Between those sports and their jobs, they are a couple constantly on the go. While their pace of life may daunt most people, they can do it because they also share a passion for what some are starting to know as "functional fitness."

It's an approach that emphasizes strengthening the core muscle groups — the abdominals, hips and back — as well as improving balance and maintaining flexibility.

To strengthen the core, they bike, take Spinning classes and train with weights, but in a way that helps them maintain balance. For example, instead of a bench press, they will perform a press while lying on an inflated Swiss exercise ball. Instead of a standard seated military press, they will lift dumbbells while balancing on one leg.

"If you work your core, it extends to the rest of your body," says Kai. "I think any athlete should have a strong core because that's where everything originates."

And for strength, balance and flexibility, both turn to organized yoga, short individual yoga sessions, or yoga-inspired moves, such as modified "sun salutations" and "warrior one."

Both say the regimen helps keep them ready and strong, not only physically but mentally, for surfing and sailing.

"Surfing just as a workout is awesome," says Kai. "It's so much of a whole-body workout and is incredible for the upper body and core."

Some surfers are satisfied to stop at that.

But Kai credits his longevity and relative lack of injuries at least partly to keeping with the weights since middle school and starting yoga at age 19.

"I don't know too many surfers who do yoga," says Kai, who was certified to teach yoga in 2003. "But I know if I don't do it (specifically warming up with yoga), I'm not going to perform well. Every time I go out to surf, I try to surf well."

Kai introduces yoga, though he may not tell them, to youngsters in his surf camps because many of the moves mimic surfing moves. Meanwhile, Francisca also extends her fitness knowledge to others by conducting core workout sessions at her workplace, Vought Aircraft Industries, at lunch time.

Both received personal training certification from the National Academy of Sports Medicine last year.

As for sailing, Francisca says sailors tend to have a reputation of not being fit, adding, "My Dad needs to work out on his abs." Yet, she says strength and balance are important in sailing, as sailors have to perform physically challenging tasks often in unstable conditions.

Even though she still is in the learning curve with surfing, Francisca insists their fitness routine is making it easier for her to stay out longer and get more from each outing.

Reach David Quick at 927-5516 or dquick@postandcourier.com.