Which Muscles To Focus On For Your Surfing Training
Nobody can deny that surfing is among the most strenuous of any extreme sports. Spend 20 mins in the water trying to surf and you will soon realise just how fit the surfers are who choose to ride waves each and every day. Just getting out to sea and maintaining the right position to catch waves is hard enough, but once your surfing there again a huge demand on various muscle groups. But which are the main muscles that get worked during surfing and which should you be training most?
Deltoids – These are basically the shoulder muscles and they will take an absolute pounding during any surf session. As you paddle out to sea and are lying on your front on the board, most of your ofter torso muscles are disengaged and your shoulders do 80% of the workload. If you imagine you are paddling out 20 times or so in a session, those muscles better be ready
Trapezius – These muscles make up those of the upper back and the neck. They are also involved with the surfboards progressive movement when you are paddling out, but are called into action more when you are ‘popping’ up on the board. This requires explosive strength so you need to work with heavy weights and a fast repetitions to get these muscles in shape
Abs and core muscles – Your stabilising muscles need to be in peak condition otherwise you might as well just not get in the water. It is all very well have the skill to surf but without the core muscles in good condition you will fatigue very quickly and will not be able to stay upright. Every part of the surfing action requires engagement of these muscles so they should be top of your list to train. Pilates is great for developing core strength, but you can also use a swiss ball to work all core-muscles.
Cardiovascular fitness should also be included in your surf training and there are plenty of second hand bikes which you can pick up and use to ride to the beach to help with this