What excercises (besides paddling while surfing) does everyone do to keep your paddling muscles up for long sessions in overhead waves? I can handle the paddling in smaller stuff, but paddling out in the overhead waves reallys kicks my butt.
just gotta keep surfing pretty much. swimming laps in between sessions is good for those target paddling muscles. also anything that works out shoulders, arms, and upper back.
Like what Divine said. But, in the water sometimes I just paddle like crazy. Beast out man....u will notice a difference after a while as paddling will get easier.
Don't sit and wait for waves. Chase waves down look at any of the really good guys like waldo, vince, etc. They all get called wave magnets all the time. It is because they are constantly paddling when they are in the water constantly chasing waves.
yeah being in good paddling shape makes such a big difference. I know when I am in good shape i can expand my catch zone by like 15 yards to the left or right. When I am out of shape its like 5 yards left to right. When you can chase down waves your wave count goes way up. Also, I've noticed for my self push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups helps me stay in shape out of the water. Push-ups- To stay quick popping up. For those late drops. Sit-ups- Keep that core strong. For those nice snaps and such. Pull-ups- Keep that back strong- for paddling and quick bursts of speed.
paddling... i can give you a million tipz for paddling faster but I have 1 big question. is your body naturally built for: swimming/paddling=is your wing span longer then your height + low body fat/muscle index this is what I call the HEART with limbs attached. some people are naturally built to paddle/swim. some can train all day-everyday and not get any better. what I can tell you is that I like to relax when paddling through the line-up with deep long strokes. when I am in the line-up, I constantly paddle into position by looking at rips, crowds, swells, etc. when a set is approaching paddle fast and use your feet. personally, I like running and swimming for conditioning. weights are crap. paddling is an aerobic-to-aerobic threshold activity. my little brother is one of the best paddlers in the country. he likes to be lazy, skate, ride a mo-ped around and surf every bump in the ocean! whatever works for you...
ya, i mostly agree, that weight training wont do much for you in the water. Unless of course, you want to pump up those guns, so the next guy wont want to drop in on you by far the best conditioning for surfing is surfing. Anything to get your stamina up, and lungs working like swimming and running is good.
Other than paddling itself, I would agree with this. As Micah said too, running can help your cardio stamina. It won't help you paddle better but it will help your body withstand/recover from paddling better.
Supersets of jumping rope, push ups, and pull ups. 30 push ups,15 min straight of jumping rope, 15 pull ups, rest for 2 minutes repeat X3. Currently doing this on my cardio days. It gets me huffin and puffin and my entire body is worked when I'm done. Oh, and work your core on other days like mentioned above.
i like to swim... but with simulated duck-dives. I will just swim laps as normal, except every 30 seconds or so i'll duck under the water and hold my breath as long as i can. Then pop up and keep swimming. I feel like it simulates paddling out on a big day, and let me tell you, this is a quite demanding exercise.
Run and swim. Weights also work even though people are saying they don't. It builds stamina in the muscles. You notice after paddling for a while your muscles burn and you get rubber arms. Ya...lifting weights will help that. If you are out of breath when you are paddling you need to run and swim more. All forms of exercise is good. You need to mix in light weighted exercises it builds power and stamina along with doing some cardio. You WILL notice a difference. I know living on the east coast we can't surf all the time so on my off days/weeks I hit the gym and it does pay off because if there is a dry spell (SUmmer) and I get back into the water during a good swell it is like I have never stopped surfing.
I agree with the fact that the more you surf the better you will be with paddling... I have taken a couple of exercise physiology classes and first off, being fit will always helps. For specifically improving your paddling capacity I would do a lot of muscular endurance and aerobic training because that is what paddling is. For example, increase the number of sets you do per exercise in the gym and lower the rest time. Also running or swimming regularly.
Man, 15 pull ups is impressive!. I got an Iron Gym last year for X-mas...I've been doing a 3 set workout of pullups (wide grip /side grip /reverse grip for the last year giving 1-2 days rest in between and the most pullups I've been able to get to on my 1st set is 14. I've taken a few weeks off...now I've regressed back to 9 reps my first set. Also I'm very lean (5'9'' and 145 lbs). If you are doing 15 pullups thats great.
