FAQ – How Do I Improve My Paddle Fitness For Surfing?

This is a common question I get asked quite a bit. At the end of the day it’s one of the biggest reasons surfers come looking for an exercise program, especially if they don’t live close to the surf or are about to go on a surf trip.

I know for me it was one of the factors why I started Total Surfing Fitness. As I wasn’t getting in the water that regularly and when I did I would get frustrated by my lack of paddle fitness and how quickly I would get fatigued.

Luckily it doesn’t have to be like that. All you have to do is train using the 2 steps outlined below and you can paddle with the best of them. And that means more waves and more fun! If you implement these strategies then you will be ready to paddle hard every time you hit the surf regardless of the last time you were in the water.

Step #1 – Improve Your Upper Body Strength & Stability

The first step is build a solid base of strength and stability in your upper body.

The key here is to keep your body and muscles in balance by targeting all of the major muscle groups, not just the ones you use the most when paddling. If you target certain muscles or movements more than others you increase the likelihood of creating a muscular imbalance which can lead to movement inefficiencies or musculoskeletal injuries.

So make sure you do exercises for each of the following 4 movements:

• Vertical Pushing (eg. Single Arm Dumbbell Press)
• Vertical Pulling (eg. Pull-ups)
• Horizontal Pushing (eg. BOSU Push-ups)
• Horizontal Pulling (eg. Dumbbell Plank Row)

You also need to keep your joints stable and for paddling this means stable shoulders. Exercises like YTW Raises are really good for helping to keep your shoulder joints stable and preventing shoulder issues.

Step #2 – Improve Your Muscular Endurance

The second step once you have a stable base of upper body strength is to improve your muscular endurance. If you improve the endurance in your paddling muscles, when you are out in the water you can paddle back out to the line up with more energy and it will take longer to fatigue.

There are several ways you can improve your muscular endurance for paddling. The obvious one is to get out on your surf board and paddle more.

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If this is not an option then here are two are options to try…

Swimming – Freestyle swimming uses similar muscles to paddling and is a great way to improve the endurance in your arms and shoulders. Doing intervals in the pool or ocean is a great way to train for surfing. The Cardio Manual which comes with the Total Surfing Fitness package has some surf specific swimming workouts which you can get started with.

Band Paddling – Paddling against resistance using a resistance band is another great way to improve your upper body endurance. Try and use a fairly light resistance and if you have a swiss ball that will make a great surfboard alternative to lie on. The great thing about band paddling is that you can do it at home without getting wet, so there are no excuses! The Cardio Manual in  the Total Surfing Fitness package also has some interval workouts with band paddling to help build your paddle fitness.

Hopefully this has shed some light on how to improve your paddle fitness for surfing so you can catch more waves!

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Here’s an example of what other surfers have experienced…

“I first started surfing last year. I’ve always been an active person so I was in good shape, but I wasn’t in “surfing shape”. After 10 minutes of fighting the breakers and the current, I could barely catch a wave because I was so exhausted. I knew I had the drive & determination to keep at it, I just needed to train my body better. So I purchased Total Surfing Fitness and spent the winter months following the program.

Once summer rolled around and I headed back to the waves, it was a whole new experience. I could (and did) spend hours at a time in the water, catching wave after wave, regardless of how rough the ocean was. I was stronger, more confident, and less injury-prone. Thanks to Clayton’s excellent program I can now enjoy surfing! Thanks for your great product!”
John Riviello

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If you want to fast track your results and build your paddle fitness using our proven training system, make sure you download Total Surfing Fitness – Functional Training for Surfers.

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How To Assess Your Leg Power And Stabilization With This Simple Test

All surf and snow sports athletes need to have both explosive leg power and and the ability to absorb force and stabilize. From riding waves to carving powder, if you have the ability to generate and absorb force in a lateral direction, you will be on your way to improved surfing/riding/skiing and also decrease your risk of injury such as knee injuries.

The test shown below is a great test you can do at home to measure both your ability to generate force and also to balance on landing. Your ability to land and absorb an eccentric force is just as important as the jumping itself, because it you can’t land effectively you will likely fall or even injure yourself.

Have a go at the test below and see if you can beat me

The Lateral Bound Test

You will need a tape measure to measure the distance of your jump. Extend the tape measure out across the floor so you have plenty of room. Make sure you wear cushioned sports shoes and do an adequate warm-up first (such as some bodyweight squats and lunges).

Completing the test…

• Start standing on one leg, then bend from your hip, knee and ankle and use your arms for momentum as you jump laterally to land on the opposite leg.
• For the score to count, you need to land on the other leg and stay balanced for at least a full second. Make sure you absorb the landing by bending at your hip, knee and ankle.
• Do a couple of warm-up jumps first before having 2-3 attempts with maximum effort.

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My Test Score

• Right Leg – 2.23m
• Left Leg – 2.27m

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My left leg appears to be slightly more powerful. This would probably be due to the fact that this is the leg I would normally jump off in other sports such as taking a mark in Aussie rules footy or doing a layup in basketball.

Do the test and post your score in the comments section below.

This test was taken from the High Performance Club – Functional Fitness Assessment. If you want to test your total body functional fitness for surf or snow sports, join the High Performance Club to access the full assessment.

If you want to improve your athleticism and enhance your overall surf or snow fitness, download one of our step-by-step workout programs below and experience the difference for yourself (all programs come with a 60 day money back guarantee, so if it doesn’t work for you, you can get a full refund – there is nothing to lose!) …

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Surfing Workouts - Total Surfing Fitness

Snowboarding Workouts - Total Snowboarding Fitness

Ski Workouts - Total Skiing Fitness

Windsurfing Workouts - Total Windsurfing Fitness

Advanced Workouts - Surf ‘n’ Snow Fitness High Performance Club   ($4.95 Special Offer!)

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4 Ways To Become More Athletic And Perform Better In The Surf Or Snow

Somewhere between the ages of 20 and 30, most people will start to notice a decrease in their physical performance. Injuries start to occur more easily, you take longer to recover from exercise, you can’t run as fast, jump as high or move as freely as you once could.

But it doesn’t always have to be this way.

When it comes to training for surf or snow sports, there should be one main goal that dictates your efforts. If your workouts don’t achieve this goal then you are really wasting your time.

That goal is to become more athletic

The old saying that “if you don’t use it, you lose it” comes to mind. I would like to improve this by saying “if you don’t move it in an athletic way, you will lose it.” But on a positive note, if you do move it athletically and often, then you can get your physical performance back and even enhance it more than ever.

It’s not uncommon for me to receive emails from clients over 40 years old, who are performing better now that they were in their 20s. All I can put it down to is they are training correctly and improving their athleticism.

So How Do I Become More Athletic?

The basic idea is to move more, move correctly and then move fast (correctly). Here’s 5 ways you can improve your athleticism in the surf or snow by incorporating these things into your training…

Move in 3D

If you want to become more athletic, you need to move in all 3 dimensions or all 3 planes of movement (frontal, sagittal and transverse). It’s no good training using machines with fixed ranges of motion when in real life with don’t normally have those limitations. All that does is train muscles to work in isolation, where as your muscles need to work as an integrated system to move effectively.

When you’re carving down the face of a wave or shredding through some fresh powder you’re moving in a 3 dimensional environment and so you need to be training the same way.

In simple terms this means do more muti-planar, multi-joint, complex movements. Do lunges to the side or at 45 degree angles, not just in front. Do rotational core exercises, not just crunches. Don’t get stuck on fixed motion exercise machines. Move your body the way it was created to move.

Jump More

Jumping is really important because it is highly transferable to surfing, snowboarding and skiing. The concentric phase (pushing up) is important because it builds explosive power in your legs and the eccentric phase or landing phase helps you develop a good breaking mechanism so that you can absorb landings and similar eccentric forces on the snow or on your surfboard.

So make sure you jump often, jump in different directions and also mix it up between double and single leg dominant jumps.

Master Your Bodyweight

In order to really be athletic you need to be able to handle your own bodyweight, seeing as you will be carrying it with you all the time. This means you should be doing more bodyweight exercises like pull-ups and chinups, push-ups, inverted rows, single leg squats and lunge variations.

Using your bodyweight will help build stability and strength that no machine at the gym can do.

Do High Intensity Interval Training

Interval training will boost your athleticism by enhancing your endurance capacity faster than traditional steady state exercise. Scientific studies such as the popular Tabata study show that high intensity interval training can not only improve the subjects anaerobic (short burst) energy system greater than steady state exercise, but also improves their aerobic (longer duration) energy system better as well.

While there may still be a place for steady state cardio, if you want more bang for your buck, do intervals. Try running, swimming, riding, skipping or any other cardiovascular activity and mix up your intervals (30:30, 20:10, 20:40, etc).

Your Athletic Surf or Snow Training Plan

Hopefully now you have a better understanding of what it takes to become more athletic so you can perform better in the surf or snow.

If you want a professionally designed athletic training plan, download one of our step-by-step workout programs below and see the difference for yourself (all programs come with a 60 day money back guarantee, so if it doesn’t work for you, you can get a full refund – there is nothing to lose!) …

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Surfing Workouts - Total Surfing Fitness

Snowboarding Workouts - Total Snowboarding Fitness

Ski Workouts - Total Skiing Fitness

Windsurfing Workouts - Total Windsurfing Fitness

Advanced Workouts - Surf ‘n’ Snow Fitness High Performance Club

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