How To Assess The Stability Of Your Trunk Muscles

The following simple test is used to determine your ability to stabilize your spine using your core and trunk muscles.

This is important for protecting your lower back from injury and improving your performance in the surf and snow by allowing optimal force transfer from your upper to lower body without a breakdown in your core.

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The Test

To perform the test you will lie face down on the ground in a pushup position with your hands shoulder width apart.

Next, place your hands as per the scoring chart below and press up into a pushup position.

Your trunk should come up as one unit without your lower back sagging.

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Scoring – Males

Excellent – Press up with your thumbs in line with your forehead

Pass -  Press up with your thumbs in line with your chin

Fail – Unable to press up with your thumbs in line with your chin

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Scoring – Females

Excellent – Press up with your thumbs in line with your chin

Pass -  Press up with your thumbs in line with your collar bone

Fail – Unable to press up with your thumbs in line with your collar bone

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Clearing Test

This final test is done to assess if you have any potential lower back issues that may require further treatment.

Lie face down and keeping your hips on the floor, press your upper body up off the ground as high as you can.  If you feel any pain in your lower back you may need to get it further assessed by a professional.

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Hopefully this quick test has helped you identify if you have any weakness in your ability to stabilize your core.

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If you think you need to improve your core and trunk stability to protect your back from injury and enhance your surf or snow performance, download one of our functional training programs which have lots of great core exercises to help improve your stability and strength.

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How To Keep Progressing Your Surf and Snow Workouts

By increasing the challenge of your exercises and workouts you will keep your body guessing and make sure your body continues to adapt by getting fitter and stronger.

If you don’t continually increase the challenge, you can hit a plateau where your body will become used to your training and not progress any further.

That is why I encourage everyone to change their workout routine at least every 4 weeks to make sure you can keep improving your surf or snow sport performance.

There are several variables you can alter in order to increase the challenge of an exercise. Some of these variables you probably manipulate already, while others you might want to start having a go at in your workouts.

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1. Load / Weight – This is one of the most common ways to increase the intensity of an exercise. Simply increase the load by adding more weight or resistance to the exercise.

For example when doing a dumbbell squat, simply hold a heavier set of dumbbells.

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2. Repetitions – Increasing the amount of repetitions in a set is the other most common way to increase the challenge.

For example when doing a dumbbell squat, do 15 repetitions instead of 10.

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3. Tempo / Speed – Changing the tempo or speed of an exercise can also increase the challenge. By slowing down an exercise you can increase your muscle’s “time under tension” which will make them work harder. Conversely, if you speed up an exercise into more of an explosive movement this can also increase the challenge by forcing your muscles to work harder by producing the same force but over a smaller time frame.

For example when doing a dumbbell squat, you could do a slow 5 second lowering and 5 seconds to stand back up. Alternatively you could squat down and then explode up as fast as you can increasing the power output. Both of these would increase the challenge of the exercise.

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4. Density – You can alter the density of an exercise in a number of ways to increase the challenge. First you can do more sets of the exercise. Secondly you can decrease the rest period between sets. Altering both of these variable means you will be doing more work in a lesser time frame, therefore increasing the density and challenge of the exercise.

For example with a dumbbell squat you could increase from 2 to 3 sets and change the rest between sets from 60 seconds back to 30 seconds.

5. Exercise Complexity – By increasing the complexity of the exercise you can also increase the intensity. You can increase the complexity of an exercise by adding in more complex movements or even combining different exercises into one. This can challenge the body from both a biomechanical and neurological standpoint.

For example with the dumbbell squat you could increase the complexity by holding the dumbbells at shoulder level and adding a push press above your shoulders at the top of each squat repetition.

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6. Instability – Changing the stability of an exercise is also a great way to increase the challenge. You can change the instability by going from double to single leg, closing your eyes or even standing on a balance board or BOSU.

For example you could do a dumbbell squat standing on a BOSU or balance board to make it more unstable and challenge your body’s ability to perform the exercise.

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Conclusion

Hopefully you can see that there are lots of ways to increase the challenge of an exercise. Next time you do a workout have a go at changing these variables and see you it affects the intensity of the workout.

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Exercises To Enhance Your Rotational Power

Twisting, turning and rotating are all important movements for surf and snow sports, and therefore rotational training should play a part in your workouts. In the video below I am going to show you some core training exercises you need to master to build a solid rotational foundation.

By building your rotary core stability and strength you will be able to ride with more stability and perform more powerful turns and maneuvers. The exercises below are either target at developing rotational “stability” or rotational “strength.”

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Today I am going to give you some balance exercises to try

Today I am going to give you some balance exercises to try

Surfing is a sport which obviously requires a high level of balance due to the nature of the unstable surface (waves) that you surf on.

In order to improve your balance and in turn your surfing ability, there are a number of simple exercises which can further develop your balance.

These exercises train the muscles which are responsible for your balancing ability, which includes your core muscles (abs and lower back) and also the muscles through your hips.

To do these exercises you will need a stability (exercise) ball. Make sure you have
enough room so you are not going to fall off onto anything.

1. Stability Ball Balance - Kneel on the ball with your hands out to the sides for balance. Try and stay on the ball for 30 seconds without falling off. To get up, balance on your hands and knees and then remove one hand at a time from the ball.
If balancing on your knees is too easy, try balancing on one knee and one foot, or
closing your eyes. 

2. Stability Ball Balance Circles - Kneel on the ball and hold an object that weighs 3-5 kgs (eg medicine ball, weight plate). Hold the ball out at arms length and rotate it in big circles whilst maintaining your balance. Do this for 30 seconds.

3. Balance Throw & Catch - Kneel on the stability ball and throw a basketball or medicine ball against a wall so you catch it on the rebound. Test yourself by throwing it at different angles.

Balance Board Exercises

Squat Holds - If you have a balance board, try squat holds. To do these, stand on the balance board with feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart, then squat down and hold with your thighs parallel to the ground for 5 seconds. Stand back up and repeat for 10 reps. This will help your balance and leg strength.

Balance is only one fitness component that is important in your overall fitness for surfing. For the complete strength and conditioning program for Surfers, get a copy of Total Surfing Fitness...

Do Your Workouts Include These 5 Components?

Do Your Workouts Include These 5 Components?

To make sure you are covering all your bases with your training, you need to be including all 5 of the following components into your workout. If you include all of these you are going to enhance your surf and snow performance in record time…

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1. FOAM ROLLING

I recommend everyone should start their workout with a few minutes of Self Myofascial Release (SMR)otherwise known as foam rolling.

This is a great way to massage your muscles and improve the tissue quality so that your muscles will work more effectively during the workout. It can also help promote mobility and flexibility in your muscles.

2. DYNAMIC WARMUP

The second and perhaps most important part of your workout is the Dynamic Warmup as it will help prepare your body for the strength exercises that follow. There are also some added benefits such as improving mobility and ironing out any muscle or postural imbalances.

Your dynamic warmup should include the following…

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Corrective Exercises – These will help improve common muscle and postural imbalances. For example exercises to improve the movement at your thoracic spine, which is a common problem as most people will tend to move more from their lumbar spine increasing the risk of back injury.

Mobility Exercises – These exercises will help enhance your ability to actively move through a full range of motion which will directly improve your movement patterns in your chosen sport helping you to be more efficient, expend less energy and reduce your injury risk.

Activation Exercises – These will help turn on any dormant muscles so that when you are performing the strength exercises your muscles are more likely to fire in the correct sequence. For example many people have underactive glutes so that when they perform squat and lunge movements they become quad dominant. By performing glute activation exercises you can fire up the muscles so they will switch on and be used correctly when needed.

3. FUNCTIONAL STRENGTH

The main part of your workout is the functional strength component and should include the following…

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Balance, Core Stability and Rotational Core Exercises - Stability is extremely important for any surf or snow sport athlete and therefore needs to be adequately trained. Exercises should be included that challenge your balance and core stability. In addition, as surf and snow sports require lots of rotational movements, you need to train both rotational stability and rotational power.

Multi-joint Exercises – The focus of your strength training should be on multi-joint exercises that use multi-planar movements (the 3 planes of movement). Gone are the days of doing isolated body building exercises. Instead you need to be doing compound movements like Squatting, Lunging, Lifting, Pushing (horizontal and vertical) and Pulling (horizontal and vertical).

Power Exercises – You will also benefit from including some power exercises which are basically strength exercises performed explosively (eg squat jumps).

4. ENERGY SYSTEM TRAINING (EST)

Energy System Training refers to the cardiovascular component of the workout. This can be done after the functional strength training part of your workout, or depending on time you may choose to split it up and do it on a different day, alternating days between strength and cardio.

The most effective way to train your energy systems is with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) as it has been scientifically proven to significantly improve both your Aerobic (with oxygen – for more sustained efforts) and Anaerobic (without oxygen – more short burst energy) energy systems simultaneously.

Using High Intensity Interval Training also allows you to do a shorter workout and produce better resultswhen compared to traditional cardio training. However sometimes you may still want to perform other more traditional forms of cardio for variety because High Intensity Interval Training is just plain hard work and you may not want to do it all the time.

5. STATIC STRETCHING

Old school static stretching has it’s place at the very end of your workout. Stretching will help your muscles recover and promote increases in flexibility. Static stretching can also be done everyday and anytime of the day (not just with exercise). In fact to make good gains in flexibility it is better to stretch frequently so your muscles will stay lengthened and not revert back to being short and tight.

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So there you have it, my checklist for the perfect workout. How do your workouts compare?For more click on the Banner

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How To Use Foam Rolling To Free Your Tight Muscles

Below is my fitness article from the latest edition of Smorgasboarder magazine…
(I have written the content below as well in case it is a bit hard to read)

Tight, overactive muscles. We all have them somewhere in our body. Tight hamstrings, stiff shoulders, tight calf muscles, a stiff back. For me the issue has always been tight hip flexors. Playing too much sport always lead to my hip muscles getting stiff and sore and sometimes this has put me out of action with injury.

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Over the years I tried various physiotherapists and chiropractors with varying degrees of success, but who would have thought I could have saved all those consultations with a simple chunk of round foam?

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  Foam rolling for surfers (I just bought a bunch of rollers so it I had to try)

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Enter the “Foam Roller”

When I first got shown one of these a few years ago I was sceptical to say the least. But after trying it out several times on my tight muscles I was hooked! Now anytime I feel my hips start to tighten up, I simply grab my foam roller and a few minutes later they are pain free and loose again!

The technical term for foam rolling is Self-Myofascial Release (SMR). The idea is that you use the foam roller to massage your tight muscles by rolling on top of it. It’s basically like giving yourself a sports massage (but for a fraction of the cost). By rolling on the tight, overactive areas of your muscle, you decrease the density of the muscle, which helps it to loosen up.

This is important for any surf or snow sport athlete because tight muscles can restrict your performance and even lead to extra time out of the water or off the snow due to injury.

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We all know the benefit of having flexible muscles and mobile joints, however many of us don’t do enough to improve in this area. So if you want to fast-track the process and free up your stiff muscles in record time, grab yourself a foam roller (order online or purchase from your local fitness store) and have a go at some of the exercises.

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Guidelines for Foam Rolling

• Foam rolling can be done before or after exercise / surfing
• Foam rolling works great before stretching
• Let your bodyweight push down on the roller and roll up and down the muscle
• Focus on any trigger points (knots in the muscle)
• Roll on each area for 30-60 seconds (or longer if you need)
• Don’t roll over bones or joints
• Don’t roll on recently injured areas

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How To Manipulate These 3 Variables To Challenge Your Stability

Stability, it’s a pretty trendy term in the fitness world, especially when you through the work “core” in front of it. But did you know that stability is more than just core related. In fact you need to develop stability at all your joints in order to perform at your best.

Think about when you are riding on a wave or some fresh powder. From the ground up you need to be stable at your ankles, knees, hips and core. When you are paddling for a wave you need shoulder stability for paddle efficiency and if you crash land a jump when snowboarding or skiing you need stability at your should joint to preventing impact injuries.

So when it comes to your workouts, what training variables can be manipulated to enhance your stability?

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1. Base of Support

By decreasing your base of support during an exercise you are making things more unstable and hence forcing your body to compensate by working harder to stabilize. For standing exercises (eg dumbbell shoulder press) the easiest way to achieve this is to stand on one leg instead of two. Sometimes it might even be enough to move your legs closer together (for example in a swiss ball pushup) to increase the stability challenge.

For exercises where your arms form a base of support (eg front plank), you can decrease your base of support by raising one arm off the ground.

Unstable Surface Training – The other way to manipulate your base of support is through the use of unstable surfaces. By performing exercises on equipment like a swiss ball, balance board or suspension trainer you can increase the degree of instability and train your joints to stabilize more effectively.

.More tomorrow.