How to Train for Surfing: 12 Essential Land Exercises That Actually Work

The best exercise for surfing is just more surfing. There are a few ways to replicate the feeling, motions and movements of being in the ocean – and when some high pressure creeps in, and the swell runs flat, these can at least help keep you sharp for when it picks up again.

There are numerous surf-specific workouts around, focussing on increasing paddle power, your stance, upper body power and so much more. So, we decided to pick through the noise and focus on what's functional versus what's just filling space. Here's a few exercises to keep you surfing longer, push that one percent improvement or just stay sharp during flat spells.

Improve Your Paddling

Vertical Pulls: This can be done with any pull-up bar. Not a full pull-up – hold the bar shoulder width apart and pull to engage your lats. Hold for between five and 10 seconds, then relax. Repeat this for five sets, or go for as many reps as possible (AMRAP). Vertical pulls will build your lats and biceps, increasing strength through your back. The working theory being this will make paddling much easier. Paddling is mostly down to technique, but having that extra strength is only going to help.

Standing Pulldowns: This is a great exercise for the mid-lats, underneath your armpits and around the middle of your back. Stand shoulder width apart, take a lat pull down bar, rest your hands on top of the bar and push it down. When you're feeling comfortable enough, you can add weight as needed to increase resistance. This can be done after the vertical pulls to help round out a different part of your back. Again, as with vertical pulls, it's part of the same package to up strength right across that surface area.

Barbell Rows: The bent-over barbell row will cap off exercises to increase your pull power while paddling. Stand shoulder width apart, use a 20kg barbell, stick your butt out, bend the knees and slowly pull the bar into your stomach. Keep your head facing forwards at all times. This exercise will help improve strength through your lower back, which can act as a stabiliser during paddling – your pop-up, balance, the works. One of the unsung heroes of the surf, exercise training.

Improve Balance

Shrimp Squats: How to make you swear uncontrollably. While standing, put your arm palm down straight out in front of you at eye-level. Lift the opposite leg until your heel hits your butt, grab it with your vacant arm – this is the starting position. Then, squat down on one leg until your opposite knee is one-to-two centimeters above the ground. Stand up. Repeat. These will feel alien at first, but after a few weeks, the shrimp squat will become an essential part of your routine, improving balance right across the board.

Single Leg Deadlift: Stand on one leg, raise the opposite one out the back and hinge from the waist, tilting forwards while keeping your body and plant-leg straight. You can hold a weight down by your side, but get the motion right first. Then change sides. Like the shrimp squat this will improve your balance across your whole body. Much-needed to improve stabilisation while surfing.

Reaching Romanian Deadlift: Similar to the single leg deadlift, except, hold a kettle bell out front and reach as far out as possible and perform the same exercise. While the single leg deadlift focuses on your hamstrings and balance, this exercise is geared towards working your glutes. Similar position as the single leg deadlift, but have a soft knee versus a straight leg. You need your glutes to be strong as a core functional foundation for everything else.

Improve Power

Push-Ups: Push-ups are the quickest way to improve over-all power across a large parts of your body. Including your chest, biceps, triceps, back, core – all the elements that make up great foundations for surfing. You can also break these out into different variations; wide armed press-ups for chest, narrow arms for triceps, diamond grip for tricpes, one-armed for core. You can bake a push-up routine into any workout, like a five minute HIIT finisher to end your session would work wonders. Push-ups can help improve your pop-up and are about as close as you're going to get to replicating the movement on land.

Jump Squats: A simple squat, but add a jump as you come back up. This will help improve power out of your quads. Building a strong lower-body foundation is critical for turns, pop-up, stability and how much you can drive out of a top turn.

One Arm Swing: Another exercise that will work your posterior chain, core, shoulders and improve your grip. You can use a kettlebell or dumbbell here. Stand with a neutral spine, holding weight in one hand and hinge swing from the hips, raising the weight up to eye-level and return to start. This will help improve your overall power across pretty much your whole body and is a great way to increase stamina.

Improve Flexibility

Pigeon Pose: One of the best hip-flexor exercises you can do to help increase your flexibility. Start in a plank, then lower your waist to the floor. Bring your right foot forward and angle your heel towards your left hip, with the other leg straight out the back. Lengthen your back and try to push up through your palms. Hold this for 30 seconds before changing to the other side. Hip flex is important for surfing because it allows for a sharper pop-up and you can engage in lower, more powerful turns.

Rotational Shoulder Pull: A little movement that does a whole lot. Lay on your back, wrap your arms across your chest so your hands reach over to your opposite shoulders. Lift your shoulders slightly off the ground and pull one way, then the next. This will help stretch through your core, abs and stretch out the top half of your body. Our natural daily rhythms cramp us up, especially if you're sat at a desk all day.

Spinal Twist: While laying on your back, pull your left knee to the opposite side of your body, place your hand on the knee and twist the other way. This will pull through your hip and spine. The aim here is more post-surf recovery. With a long session in the water, you can compress your spine quite a bit. This exercise after surfing will help release some of that tension – and can be done before surfing too to help limber up the hips and spine. A critical stretch to help prevent cramp before and after surfing.