How To Triple Your Wave Count With Surf Specific Fitness Training

By Clayton Beatty BSc (Human Movement) Exercise Scientist

Are you tired of watching those surfers who just cruise by continuously, catching wave after wave, getting barrel after barrel… and basically making you look bad?

And are you sick of having arms like jelly after only a few minutes of paddling and then struggling to stand up because you don’t have enough strength left in your arms to push yourself up?

Or maybe you are just fed up with not being as good a surfer as you want to be, but you don’t know what to do next to improve?

If any of this describes you, then don’t stress… you aren’t the only one.

I am going to reveal a 5 step blueprint which will show you how you can triple your wave count in 30 days or less, improve your surfing style, get more barrels and get in the best shape of your life.

Step 1 – Increase your paddle fitness through energy system development

Surfing uses a combination of both your aerobic energy system (with oxygen) and your anaerobic energy system (without oxygen). In order to improve your cardiovascular fitness for surfing, you need to improve both of these energy systems simultaneously.

Doing hours of running along the beach is just not going to cut it. What you need to be doing is interval training using surf specific interval periods, and certain types of exercises which will boost both your paddle fitness and improve your overall surf conditioning.

Step 2 – Improve your core stability, strength and rotary power

If you think that cranking out 100 crunches every morning is going to give you the core strength you need for optimum surfing, you couldn’t be further from the truth.

First of all you need to be working on your core stability, which is using your core muscles to stabilise your torso when there are other forces acting against you. The basics of this are bridge or plank type exercises, but there are many more advanced exercises you need to master before you have excellent core stability.

You will also need to develop your core strength and rotary power. Rotary power can betrained using very specific functional exercises and is an important factor in mastering powerful turns.

Step 3 – Increase your upper body endurance, strength and power

If you are not doing functional training to improve all of the above (endurance, strength and power), you are missing part of the

equation.

You need muscle endurance in your arms, back and shoulders so you can keep up the paddling intensity throughout your entire surf session.

You need strength and power in your chest and arms so that you can pop-up fast (even when you are getting tired).

In addition you need to have the strength and power in your shoulders and back for the short bursts of paddle power you need to paddle into each wave.

Step 4 – Improve your mobility and flexibility

Most surfers are aware of the need for good flexibility, but what most don’t understand is the missing piece of the equation – mobility.

Flexibility refers to the passive range of motion as achieved through static stretching. This is important for overly active muscles, but it does not mean the surrounding joints are stable and prepared for dynamic movements.

Often an increase in passive flexibility is an injury waiting to happen. What surfers need more than passive flexibility, is mobility. Mobility refers to the ability to move your joints into flexible positions, but also have the joint stable whilst in those positions. Mobility can be increased through specific mobility drills which are generally incorporated into your dynamic warm-up.

Step 5 – Improve your balance and lower body strength & power

Balance is obviously important for surfers to help stop you from wiping out. Most surfers however, do not do any balance training. It is actually very easy to improve your balance using some simple training methods that use very little equipment.

Surfing also requires a lot of lower body strength and power.

Strong and healthy legs will mean that you can perform powerful manoeuvres and not have an increased risk of injury. This doesn’t mean hitting the gym to do more leg curls and leg extensions. What you need to be doing is lower body functional training exercises – both hip and knee dominant, both single leg and double leg, and both stable and unstable exercises.

Conclusion

In order to increase your wave count fast, and become a better surfer, you need to have a well rounded, surf specific, functional training program. You cannot rely on traditional body building workout routines and long boring cardio to improve your surfing.

What you need is a surf fitness program that has been proven to work with hundreds of surfers from all over the globe. If you are interested in finding out more about our surfing exercises, surfing workouts and surf training programs, please read on.

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