4 ways to Improve Paddling Fitness

The holiday season is almost here and that means more time to go surfing!!

 

But it also means you might be struggling for paddle fitness if you haven't been surfing too much recently.

 

So what can you do to get you paddle fitness back up to speed?

 

Try these 4 strategies to help overcome you lack of paddle power...

 

1. Strength Training to Improve Your Upper Body Strength & Stability

The first way to 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 try and do a mixture of exercises using each of the following 4 movement patterns: 

• Vertical Pushing (eg. Single Arm Dumbbell Press, Swiss Ball Inverted Shoulder Press)
• Vertical Pulling (eg. Pull-ups, Chin-ups, Overhead Band Pulls)
• Horizontal Pushing (eg. Swiss Ball Chest Press, BOSU Push-ups)
• Horizontal Pulling (eg. Dumbbell Plank Row, TRX Inverted 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.

 

2 - Swimming to Improve Your Shoulder Endurance

If you have access to a swimming pool or the ocean then this can be a great choice for when you can't get in the surf. Freestyle swimming uses similar muscles to paddling and is a great way to improve the endurance in your arms and shoulders.

 

Try doing intervals, or even add duck diving into your laps. The Cardio Manual which comes with the Total Surfing Fitness package has some surf specific swimming workouts which you can get started with.

3. Practice Paddling at Home Using a Resistance Band

 

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.

 

 

4. Do Some High Intensity Interval Training

 

Cardio training using intervals is a great way to improve both your anaerobic and aerobic energy systems (both are important for surfing).

 

Running, riding, boxing, rowing, skipping and bodyweight exercises like mountain climbers are all great for interval training. Try and include this type of training in your weekly schedule to help you out in the surf.

 

 

Are you going to make the most of your time in the surf?

 

If you need a step-by-step plan of exactly what to do including workout frequency, exercises, sets, reps, cardio, stretching, plus more then Total Surfing Fitness is your action plan.

 

 

 

Train smart, surf better! 

 

 

Stability v Mobility surfing fitness

One of the concepts that has really influenced  fitness programming is the Joint-By-Joint approach to training made popular by world renowned Physical Therapist Gray Cook and Strength & Conditioning Coach Mike Boyle.

 

The Joint-By-Joint concept attempts to explain the body as a stack of joints, some of which tend to need more stability and others which usually would benefit from increased mobility.

 

Using this approach you will see that the joints actually alternate between mobility and stability as you move from the ground up.

 

• Ankle - Mobility
• Knee - Stability
• Hip - Mobility
• Lumbar Spine (lower back) - Stability
• Thoracic Spine (upper back) - Mobility
• Scapula (shoulder blades) - Stability
• Gleno-humeral (shoulders) - Mobility

 

This has many implications for both injury prevention and performance.  For example, many lower back issues can occur because of a lack hip mobility. If your hips are stiff, then you won't be able to move efficiently and so your body will compensate by moving more from your lower back, which in turn puts more pressure on the area and can cause an injury.

 

By focusing on improving hip mobility and increasing core stability you can potentially overcome this problem. 

 

The same principle applies further up the body with a lack of mobility in your thoracic spine contributing to either lower back issues below or even shoulder problems above.

 

 

As you begin to understand this approach to training, you can see how it affects exercise selection and why it is important to include mobility and stability exercises in the workouts.

 

Here are some exercises which are beneficial because of the Joint-By-Joint concept...

 

• Single leg exercises to promote knee and core stability
• Split squat and lunge variations to promote hip mobility
• Anti-rotation core exercises for core stability
• Thoracic spine mobility exercises like the Quadruped Rotation
• Scapula stability exercises like YTWs

 

Hopefully from the information above you can see that there is method to the madness of my training programs :)

 

I love creating workouts that are fun to do, but even more important is that I want to give you workouts that get results! (Hopefully you have experienced some of this already)

 

 

Here's how to get on board with the Joint-By-Joint Surf & Snow Training approach... 

 

 

... join the Surf 'n' Snow Fitness community and test out the SSF High Performance Conditioning Camps

 

Each month current SSF High Performance Club members are getting access to a brand new functional training program complete with workout sheets and online exercise videos.

 

They also get access to the SSF Functional Fitness Assessment to test their performance.

 

And right now you can join the SSF HPC community for just $4.95! 

 

 

What are you waiting for. Download your training program and start taking your performance to the next level.

 

If you want to test it out, now is your chance to join in the current High Performance Conditioning Camp for just $4.95!

 

Train smarter, move easier and perform better!

 

Cheers,

Exercises for Strong Surf Legs

Hope you are having a good week.

 

Today's notice is pretty simple. I just want to give you a list of exercises that can help you build strong legs to help protect your knees & hips and generate power.

 

You don't have to do all of these in your program, but if you are looking for some new ideas hopefully this list will help.

 

Exercises for Strong Surf Legs

• Rear Foot Elevated Dumbbell Split Squats
• Dumbbell / Kettlebell Swings
• Single Leg / Pistol Squats
• 180 Squat Jumps
• Dumbbell Rainbow Squats
• Swiss Ball Hip Bridge
• TRX Leg Curls
• Single Leg Deadlift
• BOSU T-Jumps
• Balance Board Tuck & Hold
• Dumbbell Squat to Toe Raise
• Swiss Ball Lateral Squats

 

Have a go at incorporating some of these into your next workout to challenge your pins.

 

Mixing up your exercises so your body adapts to different movements and workloads will help enhance your fitness and performance and make your workouts more fun!

 

How To Improve Your Flexibility Using Active Isolated Stretching

Active Isolated Stretching

by Clayton Beatty

How To Improve Your Flexibility Using Active Isolated Stretching

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I’ve always had tight hamstrings. It doesn’t matter how consistent I have been over the years with stretching, I could never seem to make any noticeable progress…

… until I discovered “Active Isolated Stretching.”

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Don’t get me wrong, I still think traditional static stretching is still a great way of improving your flexibility and should be incorporated into your fitness routine. However for those muscles that don’t seem to respond as well as you would like, then Active Isolated Stretching might be worth a try.

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What is Active Isolated Stretching?

Active Isolated Stretching works using the principle of “reciprocal inhibition.” This refers to the fact that when one muscle is contracted, the muscle on the other side of the joint is relaxed. For example if you tense your bicep, your tricep will be relaxed.

Using this approach, you can trick your body into relaxing the muscle you are trying to stretch and then using a towel or a rope, you can increase the range of motion at the joint.

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Active Isolated Hamstring Stretch

This is the stretch that I used to first start making some serious progress with my hamstring flexibility.

Basically you start by looping a towel or rope around your foot. Next actively lifting your leg off the ground as far as you can (without pulling on the towel/rope). By doing this you are activating your quads, hip flexors and abs and because of reciprocal inhibition, your hamstrings are in a relaxed state.

Once you get to the end of your range of motion, you then breath out and pull on the towel/rope to get that little bit extra range of motion. Unlike traditional static stretching, you only hold this position for a couple of seconds. Your brain then remembers this new range of motion and hopefully you can start improving your flexibility at the joint.

I usually do 8-10 reps of the stretch on each leg and that seems to work quite well. Ideally you can do Active Isolated Stretching at the end of your workout (mix it in with your static stretching) or you can also do it any time on a daily basis if your muscles need some extra work.

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Active Isolated Shoulder & Triceps Stretch

This is another good one that might be worth a try to improve your shoulder range of motion…
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• Do 8-10 reps each arm
• Make sure you exhale as you pull the towel/rope
• Don’t try and pull too far – no more than an extra 10% range of motion

Hopefully you have found these Active Isolated Stretches helpful.

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How To Become A More Athletic Surf Or Snow Athlete

It's the start of another new month and that means it's time for your August workout calendar.

 

But first here is you monthly fitness tip...

 

 

How To Become A More Athletic Surf Or Snow Athlete 

 

Incorporate the following in your workouts to become more athletic:

• Self massage with foam rolling before or after your workout
• Warm-up with mobility, activation and corrective exercises
• Include single leg and single arm exercises
• Jump more to build power and practice eccentric landings
• Do anti-rotation and rotational core exercises
• Build stability with unstable surface training
• Do interval training cardio
• Master your bodyweight with pushups, pullups and single leg squats
• Vary your sets, reps and exercise order
• Record your workouts to measure progress
• Follow a pre-designed program and mix it up every 4 weeks 

That list is by no means comprehensive, but if you are doing most of those things you are well on your way to becoming more athletic in the surf or snow!

 

 

What's your program? 

 

If you are doing one of our Total Surf or Snow Fitness training programs, simply print out the calendar attached to this email and write in your weekly workouts to keep on track.

 

If you are a member of the Surf 'n' Snow Fitness High Performance Club you can download the newOnline Training Camp Workouts and watch the exercise videos here. 

 

• Train smart and become more athletic this month! 

 

Cheers,

Don't have much time to exercise?

Don't have much time to exercise?

 

Time based workout challenges are a great way to do a fast training session if you are busy and don't have a lot of time to spend working out.

 

I know that life can get busy and we just don't have enough time in the day and sometimes our fitness is the first thing to go out the window. 

 

So here is a quick solution for next time you only have a limited time to workout...

 

Fast Surf Fitness (FSF) Workout

 

Warmup

• 20 Jumping Jacks
• 10 Spiderman Climbs
• 10 Bodyweight Split Squats
• 10 Kneeling Push-ups

Next complete 10 reps of each exercise in a circuit taking rest breaks as needed between exercises.

 

See how many circuits you can do in 15 minutes and then try and beat it next time.

• Weighted Squat Jumps
• Plank Dumbbell Rows
• Deadlift to Press
• Side Plank Rotations
• Swiss Ball Push-ups

 

In this high-speed workout you are training lower body strength (quad and hip dominant movements), upper body strength (pushing and pulling) as well as core stability and strength. A solid total body workout.

 

 

Are you using time as an excuse not to get a fitter, leaner, stronger, healthier body?

 

Well not any more!

 

Are you ready to build a fitter, leaner, stronger, healthier, more athletic body in the second half of 2013?

You have the step-by-step training plan - All you have to do is follow it!

 

 

Train Smart, Train Fast and get Athletic!