Hello Beth:Unfortunately, I have to do the weekend warrior thing which doesn’t leave me in the paddling shape I’d like to be in. It seems the muscles between my shoulder blades and the upper portions of my lats wear out faster when I can’t surf as often. Can you suggest gym exercises (I hate chlorinated pools) that would strengthen these areas? I do some exercises to work my upper back but for some reason they don’t really build up my “paddling muscles”.
-Michael H.
ANSWER:
Hey Michael,
If you are only a weekend warrior, you definitely need to get into the gym at least 2 times a week and you should also be doing about 30-45 minutes of cardio 2-3 times per week. Strong lungs are way important in surfing, especially during the winter “hold down,” huge swell months.
As for your paddling muscles, there are many ways to target the rhomboid/scapular muscles, the lats, and the shoulders. Lifts such as rowing, reverse flies, overhead press, pushups, chest press, one arm bent over row are a few that target the shoulder blade muscles.
For the lats, you could do lat pull downs, pull ups, certain kinds of pushups, straight arm pulls, and several other lifts which mimic the paddle stroke. I make up exercises all the time! For the shoulders, your basic dumbbell raises (front, side, and posterior) and most of the other exercises I already mentioned will do the trick.
The key to getting stronger in the gym for surfing is knowing which muscles you use while you paddle (the proper paddle!) and then targeting them in the gym. The band is also a great medium for doing modified paddling exercises.
When considering how many reps/how much weight… VARY IT! No paddle out is ever the same and when going for a wave, we tend to sprint really hard. So you need to do some days where you train aerobically (higher reps, lighter weights) for the long, tedious paddle outs or strong ocean current sessions. And then on other days, you need to focus on pure strength. On the latter type of days, add in heavier weights and fewer reps.
There are a few good surf books which have sections on lifting weights that you may want to check out. Surf Flex by Paul Frediani or Fit to Surf by Rocky Snyder which can be found on Amazon.com.
Oh, and never ever neglect the trunk/core area. It
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