Although ladies in orbit are not very frequent guests, each of their flights is remembered by earthlings with new records. The first in orbit, the first in open space, the first in a long expedition to the Mir station. AnySports decided to find out what helped these brave women achieve space success, and whether their workout programs would be useful for ordinary girls.
Beautiful and strong - the first woman astronaut
For the first time, a female voice sounded from Earth's orbit in 1963. Soviet weaver Valentina Tereshkova reported that everything is fine with her. But to spend only three days in space, she had been preparing for over a year! She was kept in a heat chamber at a temperature above 70 degrees and a humidity of 30%, asked to perform exercises in zero gravity, taught to splash down on a parachute into water bodies. Valentina was also kept in isolation for 10 days so that she got used to being alone on the flight.
There is no female spacesuit in nature, and the weaker sex in orbit, they joke at the Cosmonaut Training Center. For girls in Star City, no concessions are made.
Running, jumping, swimming, gymnastic apparatus, volleyball, basketball - in any weather, Valentina's classes began in the open air, and then continued indoors. All this was supposed to prepare Tereshkova for confident independent actions in the unknown.
Earth training
An astronaut candidate, including a female, must show a result of at least 3.5 minutes in a 1-kilometer run, cover 800 meters in a crawl in 19 minutes, and run five kilometers on skis in 21 minutes. Also, the norm for a future astronaut should be 14 pull-ups and 20 push-ups on the uneven bars per approach, and the "corner" must be held for 15 seconds.
Anna Kikina is the only woman currently on the Russian cosmonaut team. She trains three to five times a week for two and a half hours. All exercises should prepare her body to work in zero gravity. In particular, she must easily tolerate overload and disorientation.
Master of Sports in polyathlon (sports all-around), Anna focuses on athletics: shuttle running, acceleration, marathon distances. All this strengthens the cardiovascular system. The astronaut also strengthens his core with the help of a plank, twists, leg raises in the hang, performing at least 20 repetitions per approach. In zero gravity, it is these muscles that will prevent it from bending in half.
Cosmonaut training programs are approximately the same, but each one has individual characteristics. So the Italian Samantha Cristoforetti jumped rope for tens of hours before her first flight. American Sunita Williams worked hard on her coordination. The favorite exercise of the female ISS captain is throwing the ball against the wall while standing on one leg. By the way, it is not so easy to hold out for more than thirty seconds during such a training! And even harder is the space hot potato. This is a group exercise where you need to throw a medball to each other while standing on one leg.
In space, Sunita managed to run the Boston Marathon! She did not get off the treadmill for four and a half hours.
Everyday life of girls in orbit
Any weight can be dumped on fragile female shoulders in zero gravity - the absence of gravity gives everyone superpower. But upon returning to Earth, even after a short flight, the cosmonauts weaken - they lose five to seven kilograms, their bones become thinner. Therefore, on Earth, they are preparing for action in zero gravity, and in flight - for what will happen after returning from orbit.
Elena Kondakova took a real portable gym on the flight. The complex trainer made it possible to perform deadlifts and romanian deadlifts, frontal and classic squats, bench and standing presses, biceps lifts. Such a training program would be the envy of any bodybuilder!
American astronaut Sally Ride was a member of the national tennis team on earth, but she did not think that she would literally sweat in orbit. Every day, she spent two and a half hours on a stationary bike, a treadmill, and also did strength exercises. She admits that she was not even on Earth in such a great shape!
Scientists have long found out that a long stay in space has a beneficial effect on the appearance of a person. Astronauts who spend more than six months in orbit are getting younger by several years. But, unfortunately, after returning to Earth, this effect disappears. But health-improving space gymnastics is definitely beneficial!
