How to Strength Train for Surfing to Increase Your Longevity

One of the most beautiful things about surfing is that it’s a lifelong sport. 

But, you have to be willing to work on your body to surf for your whole life. It doesn’t just happen. Unless you’re lucky, you’re going to develop nagging injuries. 

And while I wouldn’t call myself injury-prone, I’ve had my share. Impinged shoulders, strained abdomen, strained hip flexors and hamstrings, back spasms, achilles and knee tendinitis, to name a few. 

Being injured sucks, and I like to surf. So I’m always trying to learn what I can to surf for 1) as long and 2) as well as I can. 

To that end, I’ve done a deep dive into several studies and a comprehensive literature review on musculoskeletal surfing injuries. This post is a distillation of those studies plus a list of resistance training exercises you can do to avoid injury and increase your surfing longevity. 

The Most Common Surfing Injuries

Twenty journal articles agreed that the most frequently reported locations for musculoskeletal injuries (a.k.a. injuries to muscles, bones, joints and connective tissues) were:

1. Spine and back
2. Shoulder 
3. Head, face, and neck 

One study of the most serious soft tissue surfing injuries that didn’t require an MRI found: 

• The most common upper-body injuries occur at the shoulder and the most common is shoulder dislocation.
• The most common lower-body injuries occur at the knee and the most common is a torn MCL.

Finally, another study found that, in a survey of 102 surf teachers, the most frequently reported injuries were musculoskeletal and skin and soft tissue conditions.

The takeaway here is that most surfing injuries affect the muscles, joints, and tissues in your neck, shoulders, or back. These aren’t acute injuries, like splitting your head open on your board. 

This all should read like good news because you can do something to prevent musculoskeletal injuries: resistance training.

Where to Focus Your Training for Surfing Longevity

Everybody’s different. And there’s no one-size-fits-all exercise routine. But generally, as a surfer prioritizing longevity, you want to focus on improving strength and mobility in the muscles and joints most susceptible to injury and the areas that support them: 

In short, as one of the studies I read said, what’s most important is “Balanced muscular strength and flexibility of the shoulder, abdominals, back, and hamstrings, with any imbalances indicating a predisposing factor for injury.”

Resistance Training for Surfers

Increasing your longevity as a surfer is all about preventing the wear and tear that surfing, mainly paddling—and to a lesser extent—popping up and turning, causes. To do that, you need strong and supple muscles, a balanced musculature and mobile joints.  Especially in your back. 

The king of longevity in surfing, Kelly Slater, uses a system called Foundation Training which focuses on improving posture and core fitness by strengthening the back of the body to balance the overused front side of the body. 

The following exercises will focus on creating strength and a balanced musculature. In a later post, I’ll focus more on the other stuff that’s key to longevity, like mobility.

Why strengthen your shoulder

Your shoulder health relies on a bunch of large and small muscles in your upper back, chest, arms, and rotator cuff. And paddling tends to cause surfers to overdevelop the front of their shoulders, which leads to muscle imbalances

This is because surfing causes you to overdevelop your internal rotators (subscapularis) relative to external rotators (infraspinatus) and your chest relative to the muscles that stabilize your scapula (rhomboids, levator scapulae, serratus anterior, and trapezius).

Shoulder muscles to target

The following exercises do a good job of targeting your rotator cuff and shoulder muscles so you can have a balanced musculature. To varying degrees, these exercises target your:

• Rotator cuff muscles (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, subscapularis)
• Big shoulder muscles (posterior and anterior deltoids)
• Big muscles connected to your shoulder (pectoralis, rhomboids, and trapezius) 
• Other muscles connected to your shoulder (latissimus dorsi, biceps, triceps) 

The exercises include:

• Seated or side-lying external shoulder rotation
• Single arm standing eccentric shoulder sweepers
• Single-arm rows
• Face pull 
• Lat pulldowns
• Incline dumbbell chest press
• Cable chest press
• Barbell deadlifts
• Suitcase carry
• Dead hang

Note: Here’s a YouTube video with a good demo of eccentric shoulder sweepers. For all the other exercises, you can quickly and easily find plenty of helpful video demonstrations for free online.

Why strengthen your back

Some of the most important muscles you need to develop to avoid shoulder injuries are in your back. Plus, weakness in your core is a common cause of injury and your lower back plays a key role in core stability, which protects your spine from injury.  

Back muscles to target

The back muscles we’re targeting with these exercises include:

• Upper and mid back muscles (rhomboids, trapezius, supraspinatus, infraspinatus, posterior deltoids, latissimus dorsi)
• Lower back muscles (erector spinae, quadratus lumborum)

You’ll notice a few repeat exercises from the shoulder section since there’s overlap between shoulder and back muscles. The exercises include:

• Side planks
• Single-arm rows
• Face pulls 
• Lat pulldowns
• Barbell deadlifts
• Suitcase carry
• Supermans
• Bird dogs
• Glute bridge
• Dead hang

Why strengthen your legs

The proper surfing stance actually puts a lot of pressure on your back knee as well as your hips and torso. This makes hip stability and strength in the muscles that support your knee super important. 

Leg muscles to target

The leg muscles we want to target are:

• Hamstrings
• Quadriceps
• Glutes
• Calves
• Hip flexor

Exercises to target these leg muscles include: 

• Nordic hamstring curl
• Rear-elevated split squats
• Barbell and/or single-leg deadlifts
• Suitcase carry
• Glute bridge
• Cable pull through
• Hip thrust
• Squats
• Lateral lunges
• Supermans

Why strengthen your core

As I mentioned before, your core is super important for protecting your spine—one of the most common sources of surf injury. 

Core muscles

Your core includes the following muscles which we’ll want to target: 

• Abdominals (rectus abdominis)
• Obliques
• Trunk muscles (transversus abdominis)
• Lower back (erector spinae, multifidus, and quadratus lumborum). 

Exercises to target these core muscles include:

• Side planks
• Farmers carry
• Dead bug
• Spidermans
• Cable woodchoppers
• Barbell or dumbbell deadlifts
• Cable pull through
• Hip thrusts
• Glute bridge
• Supermans
• Suitcase carry

Programming Your Training

The American College of Sports Medicine (AMSC) recommends resistance training frequency based on your experience. Their guidelines say novices should train 2 to 3 times per week, intermediates 3 to 4, and advanced 4 to 5. 

For building strength, they recommend doing multiple sets using weights you can do 6 to 12 reps with 1 to 2-minute rest periods. And for building endurance, they recommend doing multiple sets with loads equal to 40 to 60% of your one rep max with less than 90 seconds of rest between sets. 

There are a lot of other, well-studied and credible approaches to loading and training volume but I’ll stick with the AMSC recommendations as a baseline. 

Workout Planning (When Surfing Doesn’t Interfere)

If you can work with a physical therapist or a good trainer to develop a strengthening plan, all the better. Unfortunately, it’s usually pretty expensive and results can be mixed. 

But you should always consult a doctor before you start any new workout plan. 

With those disclaimers handled, I like to plan full-body workouts that include 10 different exercises with 5 supersets of 8 to 15 reps. So that I can get a bit of cardio out of my resistance training, I keep rest between sets to a minimum—about a minute. And I try to superset different muscle groups so I can get away with even less rest.

For example, whenever I do a set of standing cable rows, I superset that with a standing cable chest press. Similarly, I combine shoulder sweepers with rear elevated split squats. 

Since I’ve had shoulder problems from tennis in the past, I focus a lot on my shoulders. So while my workouts focus on multiple muscle groups, they usually have a heavy shoulder focus. 

Here are two sample workouts:

Workout #1

Spiderman @ 10 reps Superman @ 10 reps with 5-second hold Single-arm cable rows @ 8 to 12 reps Single-arm chest press @ 8 to 12 reps Face pull @ 15+ reps Cable woodchoppers @ 8 to 10 reps Eccentric shoulder sweepers @ 8 to 10 reps Rear elevated split squats @ 8 to 10 reps Seated external shoulder rotation @ 8 to 10 reps Suitcase carry @ 20 to 40 yards

Workout #2

Bird dog @ 10 reps with 2-second hold Dead bug @ 10 reps Deadlifts @ 8 to 12 reps Lateral lunges @ 8 to 12 reps Hip thrusts @ 8 to 10 reps Side plank @ 60 seconds per side Nordic hamstring curls @ 8 to 10 reps Dead hang @ 30-second hold Suitcase carry @ 20 to 40 yards Opt. Spiderman @ 10 reps

Notes: I do 3 sets of all exercises and rest for 60 seconds between sets. If you haven’t done a lot of resistance training, work up to this for at least a month. And don’t do anything that causes pain. 

Also, make sure you’re not going too heavy; perfect form is your priority. Take the time to research good references for all of these exercises. Since they’re all well-known exercises, finding video demonstrations on YouTube will be no problem.  

Resistance Training — One Piece of the Surfing Longevity Puzzle

Ultimately, a strong balanced musculature is going to improve the quality and quantity of your time in the water. It’s a big piece of the surfing longevity puzzle, but it’s not the whole thing. Mobility, flexibility, and nutrition all have their role to play, but those will be topics for another day.