Warm-up Exercises before Surfing

12 September, 2016

learn how to surf Adelaide

Before strapping that leash and paddling out to the waters for an enjoyable day of surfing, a warm-up exercise should be done to prepare your body and muscles for the activity. A good pre-surf warm-up doesn’t need to take longer than 5 minutes. To avoid potential injury and cramping while out in the water you need to take it easy and prepare yourself by warming up.

Here are some warm-up exercises we also do during our surf lessons Adelaide:

Start by breathing right. Regulate your breathing by taking in slow and deep breaths through your nose. Filling up your lungs and holding it for a second or two helps your body to properly absorb the oxygen. Keep in mind that you should exhale through your mouth and let your abdomen push out the last bit of air. Maintaining this rhythm will allow your muscles to get the right amount of oxygen during the entirety of the warm-up.

Loosen the arm and shoulder muscle tension. Your whole body will be involved when you’re out surfing in the water. Make sure that you’ve done a good stretching for the key muscles and tendons that you’ll be using. Start the stretching exercise with your arms and shoulder. Involve every part of your arms and hands; fingers, thumb, finger joints, wrists, forearm muscles, elbows, triceps, biceps, shoulders and pecs. The usual clockwise and counter-clockwise rotation exercise can be useful for these parts of the body.

Neck and head exercise. You can gently roll your neck in wide circles to loosen the muscles. Gentle nodding and tilting your head upwards also warms the muscle in your neck; this can also be done sideways (left and right). Involve your shoulders in your head and neck exercise by placing the palm of your hand just above the opposite ear, and then gently grasp it to the direction of the pulling arm. NOTE: Always be gently when doing the neck and head exercise.

Stretch your lower body. Doing a few squats, twisting the torso from left to right twice or thrice, bending the body forward to touch your toes, and rolling your ankles in clockwise and counter-clockwise directions are just some of the lower body exercise you can do. Performing the proper warm up for your lower body muscle will help increase your muscle endurance when you’re already surfing.

Perform other warm-up exercises. When you’re done with your whole body stretching, you can also do different whole body exercises like jumping jacks. Another recommended exercise will be the “superman”. This will require you to lie down on your stomach and stretch your hands and limbs at the same time away from the ground.

Proper warm-up will allow your muscle to adjust and ready itself to the amount of activities you’ll be doing within the day. Surf and Sun strongly encourage doing warm-ups during learn to surf programs. You can spend lesser amount of time on warming-up and some basic exercises but keep in mind that you always need to do it before going into the water. After your warm-up session, leash yourself up and enjoy surfing!

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