SEO Blog

In my last post “Surfing Fitness. Surf Fitness Training New Science & My Goal to Get Fit & Get Better at Surfing!” I explained how I had come to realise that the reason I’ve never got far beyond being a beginner surfer, and the reason many others also find it difficult to progress  – is down to surfing fitness, and I went on to talk about the surfing fitness program Total Surfing Fitness put together by professional athletics fitness trainer Clayton Beatty.

If you’re a beginner surfer, or even intermediate (or like me, you should be an intermediate level surfer for the length of time you’ve been doing it, but you still feel pretty much like a beginner) then your surf fitness will be playing a very large part on the progression of your surfing.

If you’re lucky enough to live close to the sea, and you can get out in the water a few times per week – then you don’t really need a surf fitness program, the very best surf fitness training is surfing itself (9 x British longboarding champ & surf judge Lee Ryan told me that).

But what if, like me & many others, you can only get into the surf every so often?

I live in the north west of the UK, near Manchester – so the closest surf to me is at least a couple of hours away in Anglesey and it’s rarely pumping. Devon & Cornwall is the most likely place in the UK to get swell, at least 4 – 5 hours drive if not a lot more (depending on the state of the M6 & M5 ) but even that can be hit & miss  – as I found out about 6 years ago when a surfing trip to Croyde / Saunton / Woolacombe turned into skimboarding at Saunton Sands while we waited for anything vaguely resembling swell, and which ultimately lead to me braking my arm in 3 places & being out of the water all together for 8 months!!

OK there is the North East too, but that’s just as far to drive  – and there are a number of surf breaks in Scotland but that’s even further to drive.

If you live close to the beach, you can go out & get some paddle practice in while it’s flat, and you can practice popping up & cross stepping when it’s small (or whatever, depending on whether you’re longboarding or shortboarding), getting better & stronger, for when it’s really pumping.

But if you’re not fortunate enough to live close to the sea, then you need a surf fitness program which you can put into practice on dry land, to ensure that you can progress with your surfing without regular trips to the beach.

Forget general workouts, if you want to get better at surfing then ditch your standard fitness routine, and replace it with a training routine specially designed for improving surfing fitness.

So we’ve established the point of having a specially developed surf training fitness program – there really is a very good point if you’re not close enough to the sea to train for surfing by getting in the water & surfing.

But what about the training program itself?

I have looked into other surfing fitness sites which give suggested workouts for surfers, but I have never seen something as comprehensive as the training regime Clayton Beatty has put together to create the Total Surfing Fitness program.

Total Surfing Fitness is split into three four week training programs / levels. Each level  increasing in intensity, with the advice that you move onto the next level if you feel you are up to increasing intensity.

The training routine is designed to be done 2-3 times per week with a rest day in between workouts, and workouts should last around 45 minutes. It is recommended that cardio training is also done on the alternate days, also 2-3 times per week. There is a “killer cardio” guide included in the program which advises on better & less boring ways to get cardio exercise in.

There is an A workout  & a B workout for each level, so for instance your weekly routine may look something like :

Monday: Surfing fitness workout A

Tuesday: Cardio

Wednesday: Surfing fitness workout B

Thursday: Cardio

Friday: Surfing fitness workout A

Saturday: Cardio (or surfing)

Sunday: Rest

The workouts start off with “dynamic warmup” – which is 8 reps (or 8 reps per side where applicable) of specifically designed exercises.

The main workouts consists of  “supersets” which means performing 3 exercises consecutively with little or no rest in between, and then having a 1-2 minute rest.

The workouts then end with a stretching sequence, with stretches specially designed for stretching the muscle groups you’ve been focusing on, to ensure quick recovery & minimise chances of injury.

What are the exercises?

I won’t go into the exercise & explain them, as I’m not a certified fitness trainer (Clayton Beatty who designd this training course, is) but there are a wide range of exercises, many of which are completely free exercises which involve no weights or equipment.

Some of the exercises do require a towel, an exercise ball (you know them big rubber balls), a set of dumbbells, and a chin-up bar – or something to do chin-ups with.  If you don’t have dumbbells – they’re cheap to get hold of, but you could always improvise. I would strongly advise that you get hold of an exercise ball, some of the exercises which include the ball are really good ones & I can’t think of any way to improvise to replace the need for a ball. You can probably find something to do chin-ups on at home – but if not, it’s not really essential, I wouldn’t have thought it would be the end of the world if you had to replace any chin-up exercises with a different exercise. Just drop Clayton an email from the link in the members section if you have a problem with any particular exercise, or jump on to the members forum.

Where can I do the workouts?

The surf fitness workouts are designed so that they can be performed without even leaving the house. The only thing you’ll need is a chin-up bar, or something you can use for chinups (and as I said earlier I don’t think it would matter that much if you had to replace the chin-up exercises with another one if you have nothing to use to do chin-ups on) – other than that you could do this in your kitchen, garage, garden – wherever. Of course there’s nothing stopping you from doing this in the gym if you’d prefer.

What’s in the members area?

There is lots of great stuff in the members area. First there are the links to each level TSF level 1, TSF level 2 & TSF level 3.  The section for each level contains the PDF manual for that level, and video instructions to show you how to do it. The video’s are really good, I’ve started off just doing it while watching, so I can make sure I’m doing it all right, it’s not quite as fast while I’m watching at the same time, but that’s probably a good thing when just starting off.

There is the link to the killer cardio section, with a PDF which contains the killer cardio workouts.  The killer cardio workouts work with any cardio activity, whether it’s running, cycling, rowing, hitting a punchbag, swimming, and it helps you to turn your favourite cardio workout into a more effective workout. What like about the killer cardio sessions is that it makes more interesting & more intense workouts of what can become boring activities.

There’s a link to the flexibility & mobility section, a link to the foam roller section with PDF’s & video’s which explain how to use foam rollers for self massage after surfing sessions or workouts. There’s the advanced core & balance section, pre-surf warm ups section, killer body weight workouts (which focus on workouts which you can do if all you have available is your own body weight, great for training while travelling) , the power playground section with interesting workouts that can be done at your local playground (great if you have kids), and bonus workouts section which contains a number of different workout manuals.

Plus on the members homepage there is a “what’s new” section so you can check out any new developments, new resources & so on.

Anyway – I certainly believe after just starting to use the total surfing fitness program, that it’s going to help me to become a much better surfer – and it’s going to make my time in the water far more enjoyable.

Click below to watch Clayton’s video in which he explains more about the program