How To Improve Your Surfing At Home
7 Exercises for a Surfworkout
Surfing is a sport that demands physical strength, flexibility, and endurance. Surely, the best way to improve your surfing fitness is surfing. Everyday. But we all know that in most cases this is not possible. Be it because of the conditions or because you are not lucky enough to live in a place that offers you waves every day. But still, there are some ways you can improve your surfing at home or outside the water:
1. Practice your pop-ups at least 15-20 times per day. The repetition will create muscle memory when you’re out in the water.
2. Use a surfskate. The motions and movements are very similar to surfing and can help improve your turns and speed generation.
3. Practice on a Balance Board. Great for rainy days when you can’t surf or skate. It helps build core strength and improves balance on the board.
Our Kima Camps are equipped with Balance Boards, Surfskateboards as well as fitness and yoga areas to provide you with the best environment for improving surfing outside the water.
Off the Board, On the Mat
Even if you are not able to catch some waves in the water, you can enhance your surfing performance through targeted workouts. Incorporate exercises that focus on core strength, balance, and cardiovascular fitness. Functional movements and (bodyweight-) exercises like squats, lunges, push-ups, pull-ups or rows. Train standing up using a mix of staggered and single-leg stances to place demands on the core muscles that best mimic surfing.
A stronger, more agile body translates to better control on the board. Mix the following exercises into your gym routine and never get the feeling of being out of surf-shape.
Surfworkout
Paddling is essentially for surfing and that requires strength in your upper body, especially your shoulders. Increasing your pull strength and your pull endurance, will help you pulling yourself through the water. Use pushing movements to mimic a pop-up.
1. TRX Row: 3-4 sets of 12-20 reps
2. Push Ups (alternative Push Up on knees): 3-4 sets of 12-20 reps
Surfing requires a lot of balance, low body power and hip flexibility to generate speed in smaller conditions or loading up off the bottom of a wave to initiate a maneuver. Doing exercises on one leg is especially good for the balance and also limits the chance of forming imbalances due to bi-lateral stance training. With the following exercises you can improve your balance, low body power and hip flexibility:
3. Split Squats: 4 sets of 6 reps each side
4. Single Leg Deadlifts: 4 sets of 6 reps each side
5. Squat Jumps: 5 sets of 5 reps
You can do the Squat Jumps on the floor or onto a high box. The Squat Jumps additionally help you for strong and stable knees and ankles and to train landing mechanics.
A strong core and shoulder area will help you improving your position when performing turns or maneuvers on the board and these two exercises are perfect to train both at the same time.
6. Russian Twists: 3-4 sets of 12-20 reps
7. Plank Challenge: hold as long as possible
Use the time outside the water to build a foundation and come back stronger in the water.
Besides those strengthen exercises also Yoga, in particular, is an excellent practice for surfers as it improves flexibility and body awareness. At Kima we offer you both during your stay. Yoga at Kima is included in your Kima package twice a day, 6 days a week. Our fitness areas are equipped with yoga mats, yoga blocks, weights and resistance bands and some even offer you unique ocean views from the rooftop, like our gym in Canggu, Bali.
