If you are one hundred percent satisfied with your performance in all surf conditions, never ever suffer from lead arms or jelly legs and have never been kept out of the water with an ache pain or strain then read no further, you are obviously super human and don't need to lift a finger towards improving your fitness.
 

Most surfers just go surfing, which takes a fair amount of fitness if you go out for a while. However given enough time in the water most surfers will develop overuse injuries. This is because the majority of a surfer's time is spent in the paddling position or in a sustained crouch. This puts stress on spinal, knee, shoulder and hip joints. It also promotes imbalance in muscle power around these joints.

In my four years involved in providing Physiotherapy and conditioning services to elite surfers I have provided treatment and exercise programs to address the following overuse type injuries:

• Neck pain and headaches
• Mid thoracic (between shoulder blades) pain
• Shoulder tendonitis
• Pain referred to the shoulder from irritated neck joints
• Low back pain
• Gluteal or buttock pain
• Hip pain
• Knee pain and ankle sprains strains and fractures

Most of these problems can be prevented with appropriate stretching and strengthening programs. These restore joint movement and balance the muscles acting around the joint.

The other benefit in doing some form of cross training is that a little bit of extra strength and flexibility in the right places will improve performance.

That final manouvre on a long wave, that lip smashing re-entry, landing those massive floaters, good strong bottom turns and big carving roundhouse cutbacks can all be improved with a little extra core strength or leg drive .

To help surfers minimise the risk of overuse injury, and improve performance Surfcoach.com will be making available strength and flexibility programs used by elite surfers. 

Swiss Ball Training for Surfers

The first of these products is "Swiss ball training for surfers" - video, booklet, and therapy ball package.

The Swiss Ball is the latest training tool in elite sport. Improve your core stability to

• Prevent injury
• Improve power manoeuvres
• Improve leg drive
• Improve paddling speed and endurance
• Improve general flexibility, speed and endurance

This program was developed for the NSW Institute of Sport surfing program by Physiotherapist Shona Macindoe in consultation with Australia's most experienced surf coach Martin Dunn. The swiss ball is a fully portable resistance training tool.

Swiss Ball Training Package $89.95 - select the Fitness Products section of the Surfcoach Store   Training with the Swiss ball allows the surfer to work on flexibility power and fitness, with the added benefit of enhancing stability. Stability is one of the most important factors in the prevention of musculoskeletal injury during performance of elite sport.

Stability is most important for surfers around the shoulders, and lumbopelvic region or core

Shoulder Stability is important to maximise the power of large paddling muscles for

• increased speed during long paddles to return to the line up,
• sprints to out position opponents
• And paddling into hollow waves.

Improved stability also prevents the development of tendonitis, which causes pain, loss of power, and eventually an inability to paddle.

Core Stability

The ability to stabilise the body's core by holding the pelvis and lumbar spine in a neutral position. This provides a stable base from which arms and legs can generate force or power. This also protects the lumbar spinal joints from injury during the performance of forceful manoeuvres.

Swiss ball training will also increase your leg muscle power and endurance. Swiss Balls have the added advantages of being fun, portable, and they double as comfortable back friendly seating.

Shona Macindoe is a registered Australian physiotherapist who has been working with the New South Wales Institue of sport surfing program since 1997. She is an endorsed Medical service provider for the NSW institute of sport and Olympic Athlete Program. Shona has also been involved in providing Physiotherapy services to both WCT and WQS surfing events since 1998. It is based on this experience that she has developed this training program in order to prevent common surfing injury such as Back and neck pain, shoulder pain, knee and ankle injury.