Congratulations! It’s August. You’re way over the halfway point of the Mediterranean season, and the end is within sight. At this point, it’s natural to feel a little burnt out. With all the long hours, busy days, and stressful charters, the excitement you felt at the beginning of the season may have waned, and everything’s starting to feel a bit routine.
Luckily, we’re here to help you put the fun back into every day! It’s time to recharge those internal batteries, find your spark, and reclaim your energy and passion. We’ve done a deep dive to find the best tips for yacht crew to feel more positive, uplifted, and energetic when the mid-season blues is catching up with you.
Keep Fit, Stay Moving
Although listing exercise first on a blog about recharging when feeling burnt out may sound counterproductive, unless you’re burnt out specifically from exercising, it’s actually one of the most effective ways to boost energy levels, enhance confidence, and improve your daily well-being. Along with the obvious benefits, such as improving our health and strength and making us leaner, regular exercise has a ton of other benefits, such as boosting energy levels, brain health, and sleep quality. It increases the production of the happy hormones, endorphins and helps our brain deal with stress, depression, and anxiety.
Factoring in working hours and the size boat you’re working on, we get that it can prove difficult to figure out a regular exercise program, but even just 20 minutes can make a huge difference. Even short bursts of exercise increase oxygen to every cell in your body, boosting energy levels and leaving you feeling revitalised. If you have a small space in your cabin or out on deck before or after a shift, there’s plenty you could do, with or without equipment. Just focus on moving your body more with intent and start to reap the benefits.
Best Bits of Equipment for Small Spaces
Kettlebells – They come in a range of sizes and weights to suit all needs and can work the whole body in small spaces, whether it be strength or cardio you’re focusing on. Men’s Journal has put together a great 20-minute complex kettlebell routine that will work up a sweat no matter your fitness level.
Skipping rope – The perfect cardio option for those with limited storage and workout space. Take it anywhere, and whether it’s a standard or weighted rope, you’ll be training power, speed and endurance. Plus, improving ankle, hip, and knee stability. Blast some music and jump for 20 minutes, or turn it into a full-body workout with one of these Men’s Health jump rope workouts.
Ab roller – Build core strength and reduce back pain using an ab wheel. Check this handy guide for the low down on how these work and how to use them correctly.
Yoga mat – The simple yoga mat is really a must-have fitness accessory. Use it for yoga, stretching, meditation, core workouts, and pretty much any exercise where you need to get down to the floor.
Best Fitness Apps for Yacht Crew
Peloton – The Peloton app is the perfect workout companion for those who like to mix up their routines. There’s no need to own the bike, tread, or rower since the app is packed with strength workouts, HIIT, yoga, cardio, meditation, boot camps, stretching, spin, pilates, walking, rowing, and running classes, all led by world-class instructors. Many of which require very little space and no equipment.
Nike Training Club – Designed for home workouts, this app makes it easy to train in small spaces with minimal equipment. There are workouts to target every muscle group, plus yoga, cardio, and more.
Sleep Better Onboard
In order to wake up feeling refreshed and revitalised, it comes as no surprise that sleep quality matters. High-quality sleep can have a huge positive impact on our health, regulating the immune system, boosting mood, lowering stress, and even clearing skin. Improving sleep quality doesn’t necessarily mean sleeping longer. Seven to nine hours of sleep is optimal, with six being minimal. To improve sleep quality for a truly restorative sleep, avoid eating or drinking anything but water right before bedtime and establish a bedtime routine (skincare routine, shower, stretching etc). After a week or two, your body will recognise your routine as a signal to shut down, and you’ll sleep quicker and deeper.
A sleep aid like a pillow spray can help you initially drift off, try a calming essential oil like lavender or the Deep Sleep Pillow Spray by This Works. For light sleepers, white noise played through earphones, a phone, or a machine played quietly near your ears (so as not to disturb your cabin mates) should help dull background noises and keep your brain in sleep mode. A good quality eye mask should also help you stay in your sleep zone while blocking out light from your roomie’s phone or middle-of-the-night toilet trips.
Personal Grooming for the Deck Team
Personal grooming is a bit like marmite with men. Some love it, while others hate it. But taking time out of your day to focus on self-care can bring a ton of benefits. Some of the most serious problems that today’s men face revolve around mental health. Low self-esteem, anxiety and depression are rife among young men, but studies show that self-care practices, including grooming, can have a positive effect on psychology.
Any healthy ritual, be it fitness, hygiene, or grooming (or all three), is good for your well-being, keeping your mind focused on positive engagement and helping to release happy hormones. A dedicated skincare routine can be soothing and calming, leaving you feeling body positive. You take time to honour yourself in a calm space while being present in the moment and practising mindfulness. Take some deep breaths in the shower and feel the water wash away the day’s stresses. Let the circular motions of applying a cleanser and moisturiser calm you and leave the bathroom feeling lighter and more positive.
Build a Skincare Routine that is Simple
A basic skincare routine is easily managed. Don’t be put off by all the products the girls seem to have on their shelves, it’s the basics that are important. Shower daily. Cleanse and moisturise AM and PM daily, with an added application of SPF in the morning (with all that time spent outside, this one’s essential). Then, two to three times a week, add an exfoliator. Simple. Easy. Manageable. If you’re unsure where to start product-wise, Clinique’s Essential Grooming Kit is a great place to start.
Hair Care isn’t Only for the Stewardesses
Working out on deck all day can cause havoc to your barnet. While you may be enjoying the natural highlights the sun can provide, you may also notice your hair drying and even thinning out. That’s because UV rays weaken the protein core, affecting elasticity and causing hair to thin and appear dehydrated, dull, and lifeless. To keep your hair healthy and looking good come the end of the season, now is the time to start giving it a little TLC.
Wearing a cap is one way to protect hair from sun damage, but there’s also a boatload of products you can use to protect and repair. Sacha Juan’s two products, Hair in the Sun and Hair After the Sun, can be used independently or combined. The first product is designed to protect and style your hair, and the latter is to restore and treat your damaged hair.
Podcasts for Yacht Crew
Podcasts are a super convenient form of entertainment. You can literally listen as you work (sometimes). But did you know that regularly listening to podcasts comes with a number of benefits to your brain health, including: Improving listening skills, concentration, and attention span, reducing screen time, stimulating mental imagery, helping open your mind to new things, and acting as a functional educational tool.
A podcast’s auditory nature allows the brain to focus solely on the spoken word, so it’s easier to take in information while also creating a calming and immersive experience. Listening to shows that align with your interests allows you to easily access content that brings positivity, joy, and inspiration into your daily life. Plus, those with a comedy aspect activate your cerebral cortex, which triggers laughter and lowers cortisol, the stress hormone.
Top Podcasts to Make You Laugh, Learn, and Reflect
The Joe Rogan Experience – Comedian, former US taekwondo champion, and UFC commentator, Joe Rogan’s podcast is one of the world’s most popular. Combining comedy and in-depth conversations with some of the world’s most famous personalities results in a funny, inspiring and heartfelt show.
Under the Skin with Russell Brand –Whether you love or hate him, the podcast is pretty good. Alongside experts in each field, he uses comedy to tackle some of the world’s hottest topics, and a lot gets covered in a short amount of time (around 10-15 minutes per episode), so it’s perfect to listen to during a quick coffee break.
The Rich Roll Podcast – Ultra-athlete, best-selling author, and wellness enthusiast Rich Roll goes in deep with the world’s most powerful, influential, and inspirational people to create a podcast that inspires, educates, and empowers listeners to live their most authentic and successful lives.
Ten Per Cent Happier – Journalist Dan Harris talks about happiness with top scientists, meditation teachers, and the odd celebrity, such as the Dalai Lama. Topics range from dealing with anxiety and relationships to psychedelics and enlightenment.
The Men’s Self-Help Podcast – Hosted by Dr John Moore, this podcast covers a range of topics that affect most people in usually less than 30 minutes. Popular episodes include How to Stop Letting People Get Under Your Skin, 4 Keys to Changing Unhealthy Behaviour, and 7 Ways to Combat Negative Self Talk.
Mood Boosting Supplements to Help Crew
Supplements or vitamins can be a great way of taking care of your body and mind. Effects can feel subtle and shouldn’t be used to treat mental illness without talking to a doctor, but they can be great for providing your body and brain with a mood-boosting health kick.
Fish Oils – A regular intake of fish oil is said to increase dopamine levels, have an anti-depressant effect and improve mental health. They are also said to benefit heart, eye, skin, and bone health. As well as reduce inflammation.
Ashwagandha – Used heavily in Ayurveda, a traditional Indian form of natural healing and alternative medicine, people have used the herb for thousands of years to improve athletic performance, relieve stress, increase energy levels, and improve sleep and concentration.
Rhodiola Rosea – Rhodiola Rosea root contains more than 140 active ingredients and has proven to have a plethora of health benefits. It may help decrease stress, improve fatigue, brain function, and exercise performance and reduce signs of depression.
Magnesium – known as an anti-stress mineral, Magnesium is an excellent supplement to help wind down in the evening as it can promote relaxation and better sleep.
St. John’s Wort – A supplement that can help with mild anxiety, low mood, and mild depression by working with neurotransmitters to increase levels of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. However, always check with your doctor before use, as it can interact with prescription medications.
Always Stay Hydrated
It’s no secret that most of us fail to drink enough water throughout the day. 2 – 2.5 litres is recommended for your average person, but for yachties spending hours in the sun and having pretty active lifestyles, your intake should be higher. And no, coffee and alcohol do not count as they are diuretics and actually increase dehydration. When you’re not getting enough water, the body struggles to carry nutrients to cells and eliminate waste products, leaving you feeling lethargic, your skin looking ashen and old, and even leading to constipation, headaches, lowered metabolism, mental fog, and moodiness.
Luckily, it’s easy to hydrate – drink more water! If you’re able to keep an insulated bottle nearby so that you have ice-cold water to hand, then perfect. If not, make sure you’re guzzling it down during breaks rather than reaching for the espresso machine.
We hope this month’s blog post leaves you inspired to make a few small changes to better your mind and body at this halfway point in the season. We want to see you all at the end of the season stepping off the yacht looking fresh and feeling good. Get in touch and tell us how you recharge when feeling low mid-season by emailing us at [email protected] or connecting with us on social media. Check out our website to browse our range of superyacht inflatables and bring even more fun to your yacht.
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