Improve Paddling Fitness

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.  

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! 

Mix things up a bit with your workouts this week

Want to mix things up a bit with your workouts this week?

 

Try this idea - it's called an Ascending Workout Ladder, and it will be sure to push your limits :)

 

 

Here's how to do it

• Choose 5 exercises using your bodyweight or light dumbbells (push, pull, double leg, single leg and core)
• Do 1 rep of each exercise, then do 2 reps of each exercise, then do 3 reps, etc.
• Repeat this until you get to 10 reps taking rests breaks as you need. Time yourself to see how long it takes.

 

Here's an example

• Swiss Ball Pushups
• Inverted Towel Rows
• 180 Squat Jumps
• Dumbbell Reverse Lunge
• Swiss Ball Pike

 

You can also do Descending Workout Ladders by starting at 10 reps and working back down to 1 rep. This is probably easier as you are doing more reps at the start of the workout.

 

Once you have finished, do 10 minutes of interval cardio, followed by some stretches and you will have done a solid total body workout!

 

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