Interview with Hale White (Part 2)

Hale White is a bass fishing athlete.  He recognizes, understands, and promotes, the benefits and importance of health and fitness to the sport of bass fishing.  Hale holds a Masters degree in Exercise and Nutrition Science, and is a certified strength and conditioning specialist.  Being an avid bass angler as well, Hale is able to easily apply his knowledge of health and fitness and bass fishing in one place--FishStrong.

In our interview, Hale talks some bass fishing, but we really focus on the health and fitness aspects of the sport.  Start by reading Part 1 [Interview with Hale White (Part 1).]  Here is part two:


PK:  What is your best advice for balancing a busy life, time on the water fishing, and keeping up your workouts?

HW:  Guard your sleep.  Be militant about it.  Don't go to bed too late.  You will be fighting your own circadian rhythms and the body will perceive this as a stress response.  Portions of your day should be consecrated as a non-negotiable routine.  I break my own advice too much these days, but I always do best when I get in a routine.  Go to bed the same time every night.  Have a bedtime ritual, and have a morning wake-up ritual.  Stick to it.  When you get adequate sleep at regular intervals, you will reduce your stress, which reduces bad cravings and helps you eat healthier, which helps you feel better overall--leading to more energy to tackle your workouts.   Everything has a ripple effect.  Go to bed at midnight and skip breakfast the next morning?  That will have a negative ripple effect.  On the other hand, sleep 8-9 hours, get up with the sun and prepare breakfast?  That will have a positive rippled effect.

PK:   Many anglers, especially tournament anglers, are on the road all the time.  How would suggest keeping up a good workout routine when your away from home and gym?  

HW:  Keep it simple.  When your workouts are simple, you are more likely to do them.  Don't think you have to do these big elaborate workouts, or find a gym everywhere you go.   10 Pushups, 10 free squats, 10 burpees, 60 seconds of jump rope.  Repeat five times.  Done.  Maybe take a walk after that for 15 minutes.  Keep it short and intense.  The nature of compromise on the road only means that you should be more disciplined at home, since that's where you have more control and options.  Get it right while you can at home, and you will fare better through the little compromises you'll face on the road.

PK:  What are some of your favorite exercises?  Any fishing specific work-outs or exercises that you feel every bass angler should do?

HW: I like pull-ups, push-ups, and deadlifts a lot.  Step ups are great too.  My main recommendation would be for every angler to perform pushups.  All the way down and all the way up.  Full range of motion pushups strengthen the serratus anterior muscle, which exerts a lot of stabilizing control over the shoulder girdle.  This muscle is often weak in people, but it's very important for those who cast all day.  It will prevent you from a lot of unnecessary pain down the road.

PK:  Are you more of a strength training or endurance athlete?  I see advantages of both in bass fishing; does one give you an advantage in tournament fishing over the other?

HW:  Strength training all the way.  Endurance training gives you very little advantage.  Having strong, resilient muscles, as well as proper muscle balance and joint integrity is far more important than being able to run a marathon.  Kudos to Aaron Martens for running his first marathon, but he probably took 3 months off of his life in my opinion.  Haha.  If you can walk a few miles without stopping, you have enough endurance to fish.  It's better to have muscular endurance and strong muscles to protect against the repetitive motions associated with casting.

PK:  I have a workout routine on this blog that Fish Tattoo’s readers are pretty familiar with.  But I typically work out 5 days a week for an hour at a time.  I know it is probably not the easiest workout for anglers who are just getting into fitness.  What would you suggest someone who has been a couch potato for the past 10 years get back into working out, or for someone who is working out for the first time?

HW:  Start out walking and eating right.  Then add body weight exercises shortly after from there.

PK:  Do you find it harder to maintain a good workout program or to keep a healthy diet?

HW:  It think it's harder to keep a healthy diet.   We're assaulted constantly via various media with tempting images… images that beckon us to consume foods we were never designed to eat.  The best thing you can do is to not bring unhealthy things into your house.  You have to make an environment that increases the difficulty of blowing it.  If all you have to do is take 10 steps to your kitchen to microwave a few "Hot Pockets", you're setting yourself up for failure.  Turn off your TV.  TV commercials are scientifically designed to make you crave things you don't need.  That goes for everything, not just food.  It's no different than one of the thousand advertisements in Bassmaster magazine trying to convince you that you need some unnecessary lure. 

PK:  It is not always easy to eat healthy while fishing.  In your opinion, what are some great “on the water” foods and snacks that anglers can easily take along while they are fishing?  Any foods or drinks you should avoid?

HW:  I like mixed nuts.  I love pistachios too.  Stick with water, coffee, or tea for your beverage, but mainly water.  During warm weather, I really like coconut water too.  Just don't drink stuff with synthetic sweeteners or high sugar content.

PK:  You are involved with the website fishstrong.com.  How and why did you get involved with this?

HW:  I just woke up one day and said, "the world of bass fishing needs a new website".  I did it because I love the sport.  Everything else pretty much follows the same formula and offers the same ol' thing.  It's all one gigantic advertisement cloaked as information.  I like to publish stuff that I believe in and stuff that I like, regardless of whether somebody is paying me to do it or not.  I don't like how advertisements have completely overtaken fishing.  We're getting away from the purity of the sport.  Kayak fishing is pretty pure if you ask me.

PK:  What is FishStrong, and how can it help bass anglers and kayak anglers?

HW:  FishStrong is a website that advocates for those who truly love the sport.  I also encourage the serious tournament fishermen to treat themselves like real pro athletes.  I think a lot of guys are stuck in a trance about things and need a little jolt, so to speak.  We need to re-think the way we view this sport and how we structure things.

PK:  I am a Kayak Bass Angler.  I did the power-boat tournaments for a while but have fallen in love with the sport of Kayak Fishing.  Do you, or have you ever fished from a Kayak?

HW:  I have, but not often enough.  I think it's a great way to connect with nature and immerse yourself with your surroundings.  There's something special about being so close to the water.  I like the stealth involved too.

PK:  Any future goals for yourself?

HW:  I want to keep growing FishStrong and provide more health-related info.  It's a big part of FishStrong, but I haven't done enough if recently.   I also want to go down to the Amazon and catch huge peacock bass.  They are so strong and mean.  What an adrenaline rush!  Not sure I would do it in a kayak, though!  I wouldn't want a 20' snake climbing in.  Maybe a little too close to the piranha too!

Related posts and interviews:
The Importance of Fitness in Kayak Fishing
Interview With Drew Gregory
Why I Kayak Fish