We’re always looking to be bigger, better, stronger, faster, more powerful and more critical. The repertoire of surfing manoeuvres which are expected from a ‘good surfer’ today were once thought impossible and put tremendous forces through the surfer’s body. The physical demands that surfing places on the body have increased tremendously during the last decade. It’s now nearly impossible to achieve certain levels of surf performance without specific training that develops and prepares a surfer’s body for repetitious and extreme movements which are now routinely performed in the sport.
Surfers who have become adults all over the world are naturally inclined to want to surf bigger waves, try airs, get vertical and get barrelled. These kinds of extreme feats are typically connected with skate and snowboarding and require excellent timing, agility, coordination and powerful surfing physiques. The higher risk and greater probability of injuries mean that the whole surfing game has ramped up quite a notch since the Endless Summer days. Preparing and nurturing the body to help keep surfer’s physiques fit, strong and supple for these extra demands are invaluable keys for surf performance and longevity.
Below are some of the surfing-related imbalances that surfing creates
- When we stand on our board, our hips rotate toward our back foot and this over time creates imbalanced loading through our spine, hips, knees and ankles.
- Increased loading is placed on the inside part of our back leg ankle and knee, which can lead to ankle/knee pain or potential knee injuries over time (right knee/ankle for natural footers and left knee/ankle for goofy footers).
- Tension created by imbalances in our hips lead to instability in our core muscles; which affect our surfing and just about everything else we physically want to do in life.
- For natural footers, our right shoulder is placed under a greater amount of stress (for goofy, our left shoulder), decreasing shoulder flexibility, coordination, and strength.
- Our neck, chest, lower back, hip flexor and the shoulder muscles (shoulder internal rotators, deltoids, teres, triceps, lats) all shorten and limit normal range of motion. This will compromise the holistic function of our shoulders and lead to compensations in other areas of the body.
But there is hope! I just got back from a 2 month surfing trip where I was lucky enough to surf most days for 1.5-5 hours per day. As we know, surfing is a huge energy drain so trying to muster up the energy or desire for more physical training doesn’t usually feel good or sensical. As we intuitively know, maintaining suppleness and strength (in body areas where surfing can cause muscles to develop abandonment issues) is a brilliant idea to surf better not only today but also for many years down the track. I religiously stuck to my daily mobility practice (not yoga) and occasionally brought out my bodyweight strengthening wisdom to keep those neglected areas in check.
Try out the following 5 Exercise Surf Routine to hit some mobility and strength exercises which will help you move better in and out of the water:
Sample Exercise Recommendations and Why
1.Single Leg Hip Bridge (foot on bench / couch / step) X 10 reps per side
This exercise will strengthen your glutes / hamstrings and improve pelvic stability and strength. Performing this exercise one leg at a time will allow you to notice any strength, stability or mobility imbalances you may have from left to right. Elevating your foot will increase the intensity since your hips will have a greater range of motion to strengthen through.
2. Prone Overhead Shoulder Hovers X 10 inward and 10 outward.
Surfers spend a lot of time paddling. When we paddle, we are spending a lot of time working our muscles responsible for shoulder internal rotation and downward pulling. This exercise strengthens the opposite actions – controlled upward lifting and shoulder external rotation. For this reason, long-time surfers typically find this movement very weak and limited. If you find it easy, move your arms higher, add a light weight and perform more reps. This exercise will strengthen your middle and lower trapezius and improve your overhead shoulder mobility.
3. Lower Abdominal Strict Deadbugs X 6-10 reps per side
By placing a Yoga Block between your same-side thigh and forearm, and squeezing it as hard as you can, it is almost impossible to cheat the movement and over-stress your lower back. By squashing the Yoga Block you are more likely to be strictly working your abdominals. Strengthening your lower abdominals is essential for pelvic stability, keeping your lower spine healthy and core strength.
4. Thoracic Rotation Active Holds X 5 per side of 5-10 active holds
This movement is useful to help improve your upper back (thoracic spine) rotation mobility and inner thigh flexibility. By posting your leg out to the side and keeping your hips level, you are essentially blocking hip rotation. By keeping your spine straight and bending forward from your hips, you are blocking rotation at your lower spine.
5. Shoulder Clocks X 5-10 reps per side
This is my favourite shoulder move of all time. This is an active mobility exercise for multi-angle, multi-directional shoulder stretching with strengthening. By keeping your torso strictly facing the side, and keeping your fingertips in contact with the floor, you can bias more shoulder movement. If your shoulder is not this mobile, you can regress this by allowing your torso to rotate toward the sky as you keep your fingertips in contact with the floor.
Surfing itself is the best way to get better at surfing. You don’t need to mimic surfing movements and manoeuvres in the gym – the perfect practice is in the water itself. The most efficient way you can use your time in the gym is to work on all your mobility and strength deficits, train a variety of complex and isolated movements, regularly change the way you apply reps, sets and rest periods, rotate your exercises and keep your training fun and challenging.
You want to train to be an athletic human first and an athletic surfer second. If you just train to be an athletic surfer, you will be compounding all of the imbalances that surfing is already creating, which may improve your performance in the short-term, but lead to time out of the water or competition in the long-term.
Surf training should be specific to the demands of the sport for best results. This doesn’t mean you need to mimic the movements of surfing, it means you need hip strength, hip mobility, thoracic rotation, shoulder mobility, pulling power, agility, endurance, fast reaction times and so on. It’s very simple to strength train or go running and think this really is the easiest method to enhance your strength and fitness for surfing. Regrettably, this can result in a slower athlete with muscular imbalances, lower energy levels and a limited surf performance.
By using surf training methods that professional coaches use to coach their athletes, and by applying the wisdom of how surfing specifically challenges the human body, surfers are able to take advantage of surf training and surfing exercises.
Whatever your level of surfing or training background is, check out Surf Strength & Conditioning for a plethora of mobility, bodyweight strength, lifting, sports rehab and optimal posture exercises to keep you surfing better for longer.