From down under, Chris Wood gives us the first of his knowledgeable fitness articles
Chris Wood is from
the Sunshine Coast and is a specialist in corrective exercise and high-performance
conditioning. Chris has over 14 years industry experience and has worked
international as the strength and conditioning coach.He is a Chek level
1 and HLC 2.Chris can be contacted at www.positivechange.net.au or chris@positivechange.net.au
ARE YOU SURF-FIT?
Surfing is an amazing way to feel at one with nature. But the
last thing we want impacting our experience is a lack of surf-specific fitness,
often characterized by burning thighs, jelly arms, low back pain, or sore knees.
Staying in shape can be a challenge. But not doing so will not only hinder
a surfer’s performance as well as increase the potential for injuries.
One of the major roadblocks to getting surf fit is the perception that in
order to exercise meaningfully, one must spend hours in the gym or perform
regular cardiovascular exercises, such as running and biking or using a cardiovascular
machine to improve our surfing fitness.
But this need not be the case.
Everyone needs to build some sort of fitness, yet for fitness results (aerobic
or anaerobic) to last, it must be built upon foundation health principles.
You must choose the right kind of exercise to benefit both your physiology
and the demands of surfing. For example, aerobic conditioning or strength training
is actually not general because if it were then any world-class gymnast
could jump on a surfboard and win a surfing contest.
You may think this is simple, straight forward stuff, but it isn’t.
Today, many surfers still use bodybuilding training protocol to work out. However,
most bodybuilding exercises require neuromuscular isolation (working a single
muscle), rather than integration (working multiple muscles and muscle groups),
and virtually every action involved in surfing requires high levels of neuromuscular
integration, so in this scenario we are off to a bad start!
Remember, the body knows nothing of muscles, only of movement. Additionally,
consider that most bodybuilding exercises are performed on machines requiring
no activation of postural muscles, minimal activation of stabiliser and neutraliser
muscle functions, and certainly don’t require that you maintain your
centre of gravity over a reduced and unpredictable base of support. There’s
not much need to activate stabilisers and postural muscles when sitting on
a machine with a huge base of support that is bolted to the floor and restricts
movement to only one dimension. There is hardly any carryover between a machine
supported lift and any functional lift that requires the integration of the
upper and lower extremities.
So, when embarking on an exercise program you really must ask what bio-motor
abilities (strength, power, balance and agility, flexibility, endurance) and
primal movement patterns (squat, lunge, push, pull, bend and twist) are required
for the movements you need to undertake and then select compatible exercises
that will enhance your performance of them.
For surfing, the best thing you can do is train predominantly with free weights,
add some balance and proprioception training to your program by using Swiss
balls, BOSUs, tornado balls, bongo/indo boards and cables. They all allow unrestricted
3-D movement at any speed and also require that you constantly maintain your
base of support. They also will improve the development of both righting and
tilting reflexes, increasemotor skills, challenge and improve balance, coordination
and joint stability in all three planes of motion, improve and maintain posture,
build biomechanically sound motor patterns and apply more power and/or more
strength to any situation.
The ultimate goal of any exercise in relation to surfing is to develop automaticity
so the motor system can produce appropriate responses in any uncertain or spontaneous
situations in the water. This is the ability to produce movements with optimal
form at real-time speeds without having to think about it. After all, if you
have to think about how you are moving, your brain will not be free to concentrate
on how to do actual manoeuvres on the wave.
So, to keep yourself fit and healthy set a goal, make it fun and keep in mind
that nothing happens overnight. Selectappropriate exercises for your ability
and you’ll find yourself achieving results both in and out of the water
that you never thought possible! Enjoy!
Fitness article 2 coming soon
Chris will be sending more information on a regular basis, if you wish any
particular issue with fitness related questions feel free to contact and
Chris will endevour to answer them for you.
