5 Things to Improve Your Surfing Fitness This Winter: Published in the LSFF 2025 festival zine: Kino Mor
1. Strength – It will come as no surprise that using your time out of the water to maintain the strength you already have as well as increasing muscle mass will improve your surfing performance. What you may not know, is that you certainly don’t need a gym membership for this, instead focus on learning the correct form for bodyweight exercises that you can do at home. Push-ups are an excellent body weight exercise to build muscle endurance and work your chest, back, shoulders and abs. If you have access to a pull-up bar, gymnastic rings, or are keen enough to invest in some, then pull ups are super helpful for surfers as they build up the ever important lats which in turn is a great way to improve paddle strength. Add in a regular routine of squats and lunges to build up your glutes and your aching back will thank you for it.
2. Stretch – You probably don’t want to hear this one, but regular stretching will not only help keep you pain free and moving with ease, but is a crucial element to staying injury-free in whatever sport you do. Of course, each individual has their own movement patterns which determine which muscles do the most work, but broadly speaking surfers tend to get tight in the hip flexors, hamstrings, quads, pecs and lower back spinal extensors. You don’t need to buy yourself a yoga mat, just get on with it – use the stopwatch on your phone and stretch each area that is tight for 2 mins every day and I promise you will feel like a new person.
3. Mobility – If you want to stay pain free you need to keep your hip joints mobile. Tight hips can restrict your range of motion, limit your pop-up, and impact your knees so spending a little time on mobility will really pay off. The 90/90 hip stretch where you rotate one hip externally while the other is rotating internally is a good starting point. Keeping your hips mobile will help when you’re popping up and when you’re riding waves, meaning better turns, more control, smoother surfing.
4. Cardio – The good news here is that you don’t need to spend hours on cardio, you just need to do something to maintain your cardiovascular fitness so you are ready when that swell comes in. Anything that gets your heart rate up counts – running, swimming, cycling, HIIT, whatever you find most engaging will do. Get at least one decent session in a week.
5. Explosive athleticism – Training with an athletic mindset moves beyond just building muscle mass and mobility into training your mind and body to be agile and responsive to a variety of demands – useful for surfers dealing with the unpredictable nature of the ocean. If you’re catching waves you’ve already got quite the skill set, so hone in on training this state of body and mind with short HIIT style workouts. High Intensity Interval Training may sound scary but it just means you exercise with set periods of intense work and set periods of rest. These workouts may include explosive movements such as short sprints, jump squats, and burpees as well as elements of body weight strength training and cardio – potentially covering your cardio, mobility and strength needs all in one session. Sessions are usually around 30 mins so thankfully this doesn’t need to be yet another new hobby that you don’t have time for, it’s a very time efficient way to train.
You don’t need to be a professional athlete to commit to some training. The rewards are huge and focusing on new skills can be a big motivator. Whether on land or water, the ability to execute difficult moves with precision even when the physical work is tough, allows you to develop new skills you didn’t think were possible.
Click here for a FREE 10 min stretch session for surfers, password: LSFF
Click here for a FREE 20 min strength session for surfers, password: LSFF
If you enjoy these sessions contact me at claire@yogaclaire.com for a free trial of my yoga fitness drills class on zoom. These classes will build your strength, stamina, flexibility and keep your body surf-ready throughout the season.