Competition Series > Cross Training

Author: Alistair Taylor
25th November 2007

For competitive bodyboarders, or athletes in general, that want to take their performance up a couple of notches, cross training is one popular way of doing so.

The average bodyboarder probably doesn't know a thing about cross training or its benefits - but then the average bodyboarder might just be content with the odd weekend surf and having a bit of fun. If you however want to raise your surfing to above average levels, competitively or not, here are some ideas on how to do it.

Cross training is essentially other forms of exercise that work the muscles you don't use so much in bodyboarding. There are also different types of cross training, some which are more cardiovascular in nature, like running and swimming, and some more for strength, like lifting large chunks of steel around in the gym.

Bodyboarding is a pretty good all around exercise, working a good array of muscle groups. But it can be pretty easy to get lazy in bodyboarding, especially if you surf a spot with a big fat channel, like Kalk Bay, and can get out without wetting the top half of your wetsuit, or North Beach on a small/medium sized day, where all you need to do is stroll along the pier, jump off and you're in the lineup. But these things don't help when you're one day faced with surfing some heaving 6ft surf with no channel. Endurance training, like running or skipping (jumping rope if you're American), can help boost your fitness, so you can take 99 sets on the head and barely break a sweat. Fitness is a big plus in bodyboarding, as you'll not only be able to surf longer and harder and catch more waves, but you'll deal with currents easier, make it out in bigger surf to impress your friends, and be safer too if you're getting flogged in really big surf. You'll also find you'll be able to surf a wave harder from start to finish, whereas if you're unfit, you might find that after 3 or 4 maneuvers, you're huffing and puffing, because well executed maneuvers do expend a fair bit of energy.

Strength training can also be useful in the case of injury prevention, but sort of goes hand in hand with stretching. A piece of wood is also quite strong, but bend it enough and it will snap - in bodyboarding, your back is one the parts of your body that takes the most abuse, landing airs and backflips and so on ... so having a strong back is important, but it must also be flexible. Other trouble areas for bodyboarders are the shoulders – many riders have experienced the trauma of a dislocated shoulder, so being strong and flexible here will of course help prevent you from being another victim of this rotten occurrence.

If you go to a gym, there will usually be someone on hand to give you some tips on lifting weights, so that you don't actually injure yourself trying to work on injury prevention. It's also a good idea to follow a good nutrition program when working out, whether surfing, cardio training or weight training. After you train, your muscle stores will be depleted of nutrients, and the time that they are most responsive to being replenished is within 30 minutes of completing exercise. If you have a good feed or meal replacement shake or something in this time, it'll help you recover strength faster, instead of leaving you feeling tired and drained, especially the day after. Exercise can give hangovers too, just with different symptoms.

As for stretching, there are a lot of books and online resources on the subject, so it's easy to find info. As a general rule, you should be warmed up and loose before surfing so as to prevent injury while you're doing all those super tweaked inverts, and then it's also good to stretch down after you surf, and realign all your differently worked muscles. When stretching, never 'bounce' in the stretch, but exert slow and even force to extend your stretch. And never stretch to the point where it is painful – that is called 'injuring yourself for no good reason' and it is not curable. If the surf is firing and you're on the beach frothing to surf, try to be patient and stretch properly – bad stretching is worse than no stretching at all.

You should also never stretch a muscle that is injured - that will just make it worse. Injuries take time to heal, and there is not much you can do about that other than rest, eat well and take your mind off surfing for a bit.

One final very important thing as an athlete or human in general, is that you drink lots of water, and also drink lots of water, and just to be safe, drink some more water. Water is the oil that lubricates your joints and muscles, and without enough of it, you seize up. It is important for a thousand reasons. Alcohol, by the way, has the opposite effect of water, dehydrating you, and then starting a vicious cycle by causing your body to need more water so it can flush out the alcoholic toxins, and each time you get thirsty and drink some more alcohol, you're just making it worse. Then you die. OK not really but it's a step. And cigarettes and drugs, for hopefully obvious reasons, are no good either. Your body is like a fine tuned machine, even more advanced than the most complex machinery in the world today (or ever yet to be invented, more likely), so feeding it with garbage makes little sense. You wouldn't put coke in the gas tank of your Ferrari, so think about your body in a similar way.

Follow these basic health guidelines, and your favourite bodyboarder will soon be writing to you for tips on how your surfing got so good so fast.

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