Surfing
Surfing
Pre-surf warm-up: How to properly warm up before a surf
Want to know what to do in a pre-surf warm-up? Here are the best types of exercises to do for surfing, as told by sports physiologist Glenn Phipps.
Written with advice from trained sports physiologist and sports scientist Glenn Phipps, this article will look at the best pre-surf warm-ups you can do and why they are important. After all, there are lots of sports that we frequently limber up for – picking up the cricket bat, playing a bit of local foosball – so why wouldn’t we do the same for surfing?
Surfing, over the years, has become a sport that is often not prepared for. And in our sports physiologist Glenn Phipps' most recent article, he made a pretty strong case as to why it should be. If you want to read more on that, you can do so over here.
In this article, however, we talk about everything that a good surfing warm-up should consist of, and revolve around.
Warming up for any sport revolves around 2 primary objectives;
- Preventing injury
- Peaking in performance
“A comprehensive warm-up for any sport would involve increasing heart rate and blood flow to muscles,” says Glenn. “Release areas of tightness and restriction, activate muscles to be used, perform sport specific movements and mental prep.”
So, what should we do in a pre-surf? Glenn lets us in on his secrets.
Julian Wilson, well prepared for launch
© Jimmy Lees
For preventing injury…
- Target your stretches to your specific needs
- Stretch what is short
- Strengthen what is long
- Begin activating muscles that have been stretched with strengthening exercises
- Prep your muscles so they are ready for heavier workloads
- Prime your muscles that help you stay stable
- Try not to overuse particular muscles
- Warm up with aerobic exercise that builds
Stretching
The average weekend surfer, as much as it would make their surfing more fun, probably isn’t that concerned about mentally prepping for peak performance. At a minimum, however, you want to come in from a surf less wrecked than when you paddled out. Keeping in mind that our individual bodies tell the stories of what they have been through, what we choose to stretch and move depends on what you need to address.
Stretching advice and its relationship with sport has become a confusing world of opinions and misinterpreted science. Any stretching needs to be targeted to your specific needs. A general whole body stretch kind of sucks, and is part of where the confusion stems from. To put it simply, stretch what is short and strengthen what is long. If a joint is hindered in its ability to move, by a muscle that is contracted or shortened for whatever reason, then having a strategy to release this muscle should make sense.
For example, if your lats are so tight that they cause your shoulders to rotate inwards and hyperextend your back when your arms are overhead, releasing these muscles would make sense in order to avoid back, neck and shoulder pain when paddling.
With or without a mat, the beach offers a wide open space for stretching
© Romina Amato/Red Bull Content Pool
Muscle Activation
From stretching, we look to muscle activation. Muscle activation falls into two categories;
- Muscles that support the stretching work that you’ve done
- Muscles that are about to have some demand placed on them
In order to allow our bodies to utilise the range of motion that we gain from stretching, we need to activate the opposing muscle groups and strengthen them at the new range of motion.
For example, you can stretch your hamstrings, but unless you do some work around the quads with your hamstrings stretched, your body can’t actually use this new range of motion in the hamstrings.
Muscle Preparation
The other type of muscle activation we need is to prep our muscles, so they are ready for heavier loads. If you were about to face a long paddle out, you would want to work through your shoulders and upper back, or if you had some knee issues, you may do some work around your glutes and quads. This part of our prep can also help guide the body to use optimal muscle patterns. For example, priming muscles that help us stay stable. In this regard we could look to do some work on the muscles around the hip that help reduce impact when landing critical manoeuvres. When these muscles aren’t hot to trot, we can overuse muscles lower down the body which places undue stress on the knee.
Then, we have the Aerobic warm-up. This is the one area, where the walk or run to the beach, or even the paddle out in some cases, is probably good enough for most surfers. However, we must do this carefully and ensure we start slow and build throughout the exercise.
If it’s a comp and you are looking to don the rashie and hammer out the back in time for the hooter, then it’s not going to cut it. Progressing a good aerobic warm-up is the key to reducing fatigue, as well as being part of the muscle prep strategy.
This becomes more important when the surfer might be dealing with underlying heart or lung conditions, or getting back into the water after a period of rest.
Mick Fanning training on the beach
© Mark Watson/Red Bull Content Pool
For improving performance…
- Integrate sport-specific movements into the warm-up
- This is true for off-water, and in-water, training
- Move the body immediately after stretching
- Work through movement patterns that you will be doing in the surf
- Work on your mental preparation
- Work on mental visualisation for a specific manoeuvre of the moment you catch a wave
Sport Specific Preparation
Integrating sport specific movements into the warm up is the key to getting the body to be able to use the stretching and muscle activation work you have done. This is also true for off-water training.
Stretching, massage and other forms of release work create windows of opportunity for you to move better. Moving the body immediately afterwards will allow your brain to start to have access to better movements and will normalise your new ranges of motion.
The average weekend surfer is probably not keen to be implementing this stuff on the beach in front of their mates, but if your competing, this type of work not only allows you to reach prime optimum movement, but also prepares your brain for getting the body ready to replicate these perfected movement patterns in the water. This area of the warm-up is a way open to creativity. It is the type of stuff that you need a clever and creative approach to develop correctly.
Jordy Smith launching into 2019 well prepared and reaching for the sky
© Trevor Moran
Mental Preparation
Mental prep can be targeted to a number of areas including confidence, coming back from injury or just sticking to a game plan. This is where mental imagery and visualisation can come into play – visualising that specific manoeuvre or the moment you catch a wave. Visualisation and imagery can be the key to making sure that everything you’ve worked on actually come across in your surfing. Specific strategies would be best worked on with an expert if you are looking to get the most out of this area.
In Summary...
The best warm-up is the one that addresses you as an individual. Either get the thinking cap on, with these parameters in mind, or find someone that can help you come up with a good pre-surf prep. That will see you preventing injury and improving performance.
Want to learn more from writer Glenn Phipps? Check out his latest work over here, or get in touch on Facebook.
Mick Fanning flaring with precision and technique
© Ryan Miller
