If you are a beginner trying to learn how to ride the waves or you are progressing to become a confident surfer, your time out of the water is as valuable as your time in the water. Surfing is not a simple art of standing on a board- it is a whole-body experience and needs strength, stamina, coordination, and flexibility. Surf fitness is where it comes in. Surf training exercises can help you enhance your whole performance, decrease your chances of getting injured, and maximize each wave. So here are five of the finest surf workouts that will help you build more powerful paddling, balance, endurance, and agility.
1. Paddle Power- Develop Upper Body and Core Strength
A strong paddle is essential in surfing, relying on powerful shoulders, arms, back, and core strength. This is where upper body strength training exercises that emphasize endurance come in useful.
- Push-Ups: A time-tested and true exercise, push-ups work your chest, shoulders, and triceps, all of which are badly worked in the process of paddling.
- Superman Hold: Lie down on your stomach and lift your arms, legs and chest. Repeat and hold for 30 seconds. It is excellent at lower back strengthening and improves paddling position.
- Dumbell Shoulder Press: Shoulder press with dumbbells will train your deltoids and condition your shoulders to spend hours holding a paddle.
- Mountain Climbers: This is a dynamic stabilizing shoulder and core endurance movement that assists with quicker and more powerful paddling.
Training Tip
Including these movements in your surf training routine 2-3 times a week will increase your paddling stamina and help you avoid getting tired in the water.
2. Balance and Coordination- Train Your Stability
The balancing is good to stand up, turn around, and also to ride the wave. Balance surf exercises also enhance your whole-body coordination and awareness.
- Single-Leg Stands: Rehearse, resting on one leg for 30 seconds. Add some variations, such as closing your eyes or making small squats.
- Bosu Ball Squats: On a balance trainer or even a pillow, perform slow squats to work your stabilizer muscles and to get used to surfboard instability.
- Lunges with Rotation: To make your forward lunges more challenging and so that you feel this in your core as well as your legs, add a torso twist.
- Skater Hops: These side-to-side jumps duplicate the sudden motion and coordination of legs required in making turns on the board.
Surf Training Exercises Insight:
Balance-focused surf workouts get your muscles used to the uncertainty of ocean waves and help you land unsteady landings with more efficiency.
3. Cardio and Endurance- Go Longer Without Burning Out
Surfing may be strenuous on the body during prolonged sessions. It takes endurance to paddle out again and again and ride wave after wave. Endurance exercises are where it comes in.
- Jump Rope: A little bit of skipping every day, a few minutes, is useful in enhancing cardiovascular stamina as well as coordination of the feet.
- Running/ Jogging: Great assistance in developing lung capacity and leg strength endurance to paddle out long distances or beach walking.
- Swimming: It is one of the most excellent surf training techniques. It enhances water confidence, breath control, and shoulder endurance.
- Burpees: It is a whole-body movement that mimics the pop-up movement. It develops strength and cardiovascular health simultaneously.
Best Surf Exercises Tip:
Mix these endurance exercises with some strength movements to create well-rounded surf fitness to help you spend long days in the water.
4. Lower Body Strength- Power for Takeoffs and Turns
Your legs do a lot of work once you’re riding the board, especially for balance and turning. Strength training exercises for the lower body help you ride better and avoid getting hurt.
- Step-Ups: Use a bench or a stair. This exercise helps to build the glutes and fake the lifting action that is performed when standing up on your board.
- Bodyweight Squats: A basic exercise but effective in developing thigh, glute, and calf strength, squats are not to be ignored.
- Wall Sits: To build muscular endurance in your thighs, hold a seated position against a wall.
- Glute Bridges: Excellent hip and core strength builder, important to keep posture on the board.
Surf Training Exercises Recommendation:
Lower body movements should be incorporated into your weekly training to achieve more control of your board, specifically in fast and technical rides.
5. Flexibility and Recovery- Stay Loose, Stay Safe
Surfing involves flexibility. It enables more fluent movements, improved balance, and reduced tension in muscles. These surf-specific exercises will increase your range of motion and aid in post-hard-training recovery.
- Dynamic Stretches: Arm circles, hip openers, or leg swings before your workout or surf session to wake up muscles.
- Foam Rolling: This process of self-massage relieves muscle tightness and increases blood circulation to accelerate recovery.
- Hip Flexor Stretches: Hips get tight when you sit- stretching them out will enhance movement and pop-up quickness.
- Shoulder Rolls and Stretches: Useful in eliminating stress in the paddling muscles.
Surf Fitness Reminder:
Incorporate flexibility-emphasized surf exercises at least two times a week to prevent long-term mobility and injury.
Read this also: A Complete Guide to Surfing for Beginners
Bring Your Training to Life
These best surf exercises provide a well-balanced way of making yourself a stronger and more confident surfer. It could be that you are practising your paddling strength, nailing your balance or increasing your stamina, but either way, with every stroke, you get a step closer to nailing the waves.
And now, at HT’s Resort, we’ve introduced a gym and ice bath that’s open to everyone—and fully available for all guests staying with us at Bela Sulu Villas. It’s the perfect setup to train hard, recover well, and stay surf-ready throughout your stay.
When you feel the need to advance your training to the sea, Bela Sulu Villas at the Mentawai Islands provides the right place. It has crystal-clear waters and regular waves, making it the best place to put your newfound surfing skills to the test in the serenity of a tropical surfing paradise. Just keep turning the pedals, be steady, and have this in mind–each rep you make is one less until you get your next great ride.
