Top 5 Upper Body Exercises for Female Surfers
So you want to get better at surfing, you’ve been working on your pop-up, you’ve been improving your balance, but you’re still not where you want to be. Have you thought about upper body strength for paddling?
As women, we need to be training our upper bodies for strength to paddle harder and longer. Men are naturally stronger than women when it comes to upper body strength, but that doesn’t mean all hope is lost! Here are my top 5 upper-body strength training exercises for female surfers. Start with 3-4 sets of 10-15 reps with 30-60 seconds of rest between sets.
Pull-ups: the hardest fought exercise for women, in my opinion. I remember doing my first unassisted pull-up and feeling like a BOSS. Start in a dead hang position on the pull-up bar. Squeeze your abs and pull your shoulder blades down toward your butt. Continue to pull until your chin is over the bar and lower with control. Add a band if 10-12 unbroken is daunting, or start with smaller sets!
Bent-Over Row: Begin with the barbell on the floor. Send your hips back as you grab the barbell, about shoulder-distance grip. Brace your core and squeeze your shoulders to pull the bar off the ground and in toward your upper abs. Lower with control and repeat. Use a weight where the last 2-3 reps are a challenge, but you can still maintain good form. Keep your core engaged the entire time to protect your back.
Bench Press: Your pop-up maker right here! Before you put the barbell in the rack, you need to set up the proper height. Set up your bench, then lie on your bench and reach your arms up. Your barbell should fit right in the center of your hand. Set up the height and put the barbell in the rack. From there, pull your barbell out of the rack with your arms extended right over your chest. With control, lower the barbell to your sternum, squeezing your shoulder blades together for control. From there, punch the bar off of your chest to the ceiling and repeat.
Strict Press: Being able to press horizontally (push-up, bench, etc) and vertically (strict press, Arnold press) is key for shoulder health. For this pressing variation, you’re going to be standing. Set your barbell up in a rack at collarbone height. Unrack your barbell onto your shoulders with your elbows under the bar. Brace your core as you press the barbell toward the ceiling, driving your head through between your arms. Move your head back and out of the way before lowering the bar back to your shoulders.
Dips: When I dip, you dip, we dip. Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. If you don’t have dip bars in your gym, you can easily create the same setup with two boxes. Start by jumping to the top of the dip with your arms straight. Lower your body until you feel a stretch in the front of your shoulder, and aggressively press your hands into the dip bars as you come back up to your starting position. Dips can be tough, so you may want to start with less reps or use a band to get the full rang of motion with support.