Women On Waves Surf Contest (W.O.W.) it’s an amateur longboard surfing event that showcases the talent and athleticism of local women in the Santa Cruz County community. Surfing is tough. There are no two ways about it. Even if you’ve managed to master the skill-sets needed to get upright and on the right side of the wave, the fitness needed to paddle out over and over, not to mention pop up again and again, really is something else.
Outlined here
are the most important elements of fitness that need to be worked on in
order to make a good surfer and advice on the best ways to improve them.
The main areas we will be focusing on are:
Cardio Vascular Fitness (CV)
Muscular Endurance
Core-Strength
Cardio Vascular Fitness
CV fitness is probably the most important element that needs to be
worked on to stand any chance of surfing well. This type of fitness
basically refers to the body’s ability (largely the heart and lungs) to
supply sufficient oxygen around the body and remove any waste products
produced. As exercise intensity or duration increase, the body needs
more oxygen to keep going and if the CV system is not in shape you’ll
become fatigued and won’t be able to perform. Often you can be out in
the surf for 30min or more and you’ll be moving constantly, mostly at
medium to high intensity levels. This will cause a large demand for
oxygen by the muscles and your body needs to be able to meet that demand
In order to improve the CV system you’ll need to perform exercise that stresses the heart and lungs beyond what they are used to. By doing this, the body will be forced to adapt and will improve itself in a number of ways. These include: increasing heart size and strength, increase lung capacity, increasing red blood cell count (these carry oxygen), increasing blood vessel size and number and improving muscle efficiency.
The best type of exercise to improve the CV system is anything that causes heavy breathing, perspiration and elevated heart rate. Running, cycling and swimming are very simple ways to do this but make sure you push yourself further each time in order to keep forcing the body to adapt.
Muscular Endurance
It’s all very well getting oxygen to the muscles, but if they are
not in good condition then they will use it wastefully and will tire
quickly. It’s mainly the upper body that needs most work on muscular
endurance but the lower body still needs to be in shape. If you have
poor muscular endurance you’ll first notice it in the shoulders as the
muscles in this area are pushed more than any other during surfing.
Other key muscles are the pectoral, triceps and back muscles – all of
which should be working well. All top surfers do a lot of work on their
muscular endurance and it’s not uncommon to find them in the gym putting
in the hours, or just paddling on their surfboards for miles and miles
to keep the upper body in shape.
The best way to improve muscular endurance is to work the muscles at relatively low intensity but for longer periods of time. Stick to gym exercises that work lots of different muscles rather that isolation exercises. Body weight exercises such as push-ups or pull-ups are great for this, and if you try to add a couple more reps on each time, you’ll soon have excellent muscular endurance. Another great way to build this type of fitness, as mention earlier, is to get on your surfboard and just paddle. After all, if you’re trying to get fit for surfing, there is no better way than to be on your board in the water.
Core-Strength
There has been a lot of talk about core strength in terms of its
importance in many sports, and surfing is no different. In fact, surfing
is one sport that relies a whole lot on the performer having core
muscles that are in great condition and that can work for long periods
of time. This is largely down to fact that much of a surfer’s ability
comes down to balance and how well he or she can manoeuvre their
surfboard around the waves. Just simply standing upright on the floor
engages our core muscles, so just imagine how much use they get when
you’re trying to stand on a moving, unstable surfboard and trying to
change that surfboard’s direction by shifting the body around and
altering your centre of gravity. The answer is…a lot work!
The best exercises to improve core-strength are those that involve balance and movement of the torso. Balance boards such as the Indo Board are great tools for building core strength and muscle co-ordination. Second hand surfboards can also be adapted to train the core muscles by attaching a spherical piece of wood to the underside. Position the wood to run along the length of the board in the centre and when you stand on the board when it is on a hard floor it will be unstable, forcing you to balance. Sit-ups and push-ups on a core-stability ball are great variations of simple exercises and will really work on joint stability and the enhancement of your core.
Once you have the three elements of fitness you need – CV fitness, muscular endurance and core-strength, you’re ready to get the most out of your time in the water and your surfing with improve immensely.
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