When I was younger I thought being a race car driver was similar to a city hall job where you get to sit on your ass all day and get paid decent coin for doing it. I was mistaken of course as I learned that racing cars is an extremely demanding job and requires crazy amount of physical and mental training in order to drive the vehicles. Each driver has their own exercise and training routine. Ferrari drivers, Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, use the Technogym F1 Training Machine to help them deal with the psychical strains the race puts on their body.
With each turn of the steering wheel during a F1 race, the physical strain on the arm adds up to dozens of kilos just from the G-force. And the heat experienced in the F1 race car means that a race driver may lose up to 3kg of their body weight. So basically, being a race car driver is an extremely demanding job and not as easy as it appears to be while you watch it on TV.
For F1 drivers, it is very important to have strength in areas such as the neck, shoulders, chest, and arm. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa of Ferrari use the Technogym F1 Training Machine to help them prepare for the races. This machine is built exclusively for automotive racing and allows for targeted training of specific muscle groups that are frequently used in car racing.
The Technogym F1 Training Machine uses mechanisms which are based on elastic forces allowing drivers to train in four different directions. Front and rear cables can be hooked up the driver’s helmet to produce angular resistance which is similar to that of a car rapidly accelerating or decelerating. And hooks on the side allow for neck muscle training to help drivers counteract the effects of centrifugal forces they experience during a real race.
For training the forearms, the steering wheel of the Technogym F1 Training Machine has a load of 25kg with weight stacks of 2.5kg each. The training machine also has a mechanism that imitates the constant vibrations a driver experiences during a race.
The Technogym F1 Training Machine is not available to the public but it is interesting to see that F1 drivers use such machinery to gain competitive edge.
