Having spent 48-or-so weeks either sitting at a desk, or these days just as likely on a couch or in your favourite café, there’s no doubt you’re frothing to get to Peniche and get some sun, sand and waves. But…
Whether you’re a beginner set to take your first surf lessons and rent your first surfboard, or an experienced surfer who hasn’t had your saltwater fix for a while, a summer surfing adventure in Portugal can be a holiday for everything but your body.
So how do you save yourself from spending your first night in Peniche unable to lift your arms and, even though the cocktails at the Baleal beach bars are fantastic, forced to only consume things you can drink through a straw?
By doing some light preparation.
And yes, we know you’re going to say ‘Ain’t nobody got time for that’, which is why we’ve put together this guide of quick and easy surf fitness suggestions that only take a few minutes out of your busy schedule.
Even if you only do a couple of sessions each week, your body and your surfing will thank you for it, and you’ll have even more fun in our fabulous seaside surfing town.
So where do you start?
Firstly, by taking it slowly
Improving your fitness is a marathon not a sprint. And tearing into a new workout regime like you’re a testosterone-fuelled teenager on a Red Bull rush is just going to cause you to pull something, possibly a muscle you didn’t even know you had, and put you out of the water for weeks.
Secondly, by keeping it low impact, both on your body and your schedule
Pounding the pavement, particularly if you’re a few pounds overweight, is punishing on the joints you really do want to save for surfing – knees, hips and ankles. And finding the time and energy to fit extra hours of exercise into your life, is just as much of a grind.
Thanks to the wonders of the interweb though, there are now millions of free online fitness routines that are easy on the bones and can make a difference in twenty minutes or less.
Sure, they may not turn you into an Olympic contender, but for the 99,999999% of us who aren’t professional surfers, they’ll at least loosen up those joints and muscles stiffened by a sedentary 9-to-5 lifestyle.
And to save you the time and trouble of hunting for them, we’ve paddled through the heavy chop of conspiracy theorists broadcasting the ‘truth’ from their parents’ basements and barrel-dodged the right-wing rabbit holes of YouTube to find some that actually work.
In short, our four top surfing fitness tips to get you tuned up for your Peniche surf vacation are WARM UP, PADDLE. STRETCH REPEAT. And below you’ll find some great options for all of them:
To warm-up or not to warm-up?
There’s plenty of debate out there regarding whether to warm-up or not.
Personally, we find that getting the joints and muscles moving before a surf makes that first pop-up a little smoother and less like a ‘Rice Krispies’ commercial. That is without the accompanying snap and crackle.
But these days, your suggestive public gyrations are just as likely to make you an unwilling social media sensation. So, we’ll leave it up to you.
Either way, this series of simple, no equipment needed surf exercises courtesy of Hawaiian Pro Surfer Koa Rothman works really well as either a quick one or two-rep warm-up or a full-on, full-body home workout that can be done in under twenty minutes.
As your arms will tell you, surfing is paddling
Paddle strength and endurance is essential for avoiding those dreaded spaghetti arms and making sure you can still breathe by the time you make it to backline.
So, if you have a bit more time on your hands or are already swimming regularly , here are a couple of great pool training routines from Luke Hardacre, a Surf Coach at the popular OMBE Surf Academy.
Beginners Routine
- 8 x 25m laps freestyle warm-up with a 60-second rest after.
- 4 x 50m laps alternating between freestyle and backstroke every 50m or two laps of 25m with a 15-20-second rest between alternating strokes
- 8 x 25m laps freestyle at an even sprint that doesn’t impact form with a 10-15 second break between laps.
- 60 seconds rest
- 8 x 25m laps freestyle medium pace with a 10-15 second break between laps.
- 4 x 50m laps freestyle medium pace with a 20-second rest every 50m.
- 8 x 25m laps alternating between a freestyle sprint and calm and easy backstroke, with a 10-second rest between laps.
- Finish – Rehydrate after every swim, you’ve just swum 1200 metres.
Recommended Routine
- 8 x 25m laps freestyle warm-up with a 60-second rest after.
- 8 x 25m laps freestyle at an even sprint that doesn’t impact form with a 10-15 second break between laps.
- 60 seconds rest
- 5 x 100m laps at a good pace with a 30-second rest between each 100m.
- 60 seconds rest
- 4 x 50m laps freestyle medium pace with a 20-second rest every 50m.
- 12 x 25m laps alternating between a freestyle sprint and calm and easy backstroke, with a 10-second rest between laps.
- 4 x 25m alternating between freestyle and stroke of choice to cool down. Set an easy pace and good form.
- Finish – Rehydrate after every swim, you’ve just swum 1500 metres.
For those of you who are short on time or too lazy to do all that counting and calculating, getting even a few laps in each week works out all the right muscles to make paddling less painful.
And if you still have energy and space in your schedule after that, the next best thing to do is to misquote Bruce Lee…
When in water, be like water
Stretching, like warming up, is another point of contention in many sports. But in surfing, a little extra flexibility, unlike a lack thereof, never hurt anyone. And yoga’s a great place to start.
There are literally thousands of free video routines out there, but our go-to is Yoga With Adriene. She has hundreds of videos to choose from that are easy to follow, suitable for all levels and of varying durations starting from as little as five minutes.
You can also find workouts made for specific needs, like the surfers’ yoga routine below, and new videos drop daily on YouTube, so you shouldn’t get bored of repeatedly going through the same motions.
Plus, with over 11 million subscribers, she must be doing something right.
Finally, the hardest part of any new workout routine is just keeping it up and doing it regularly.
But, if you can fit a few minutes of any of the suggestions into each week, you will start your summer surfing holiday in Portugal feeling fitter, fresher and more energised.
Or at the very least, less unfit.
And if you can’t find the time to do any of that, or just want a more relaxing way to improve your flexibility and loosen up mind, body and soul for your Peniche surf trip, get in touch with our friends at The Ocean Clinic Baleal.
This collective of therapists and practitioners, most of whom are surfers themselves, offer a range of different programs, treatments and therapies that’ll smooth out any kinks before or after surfing.
These include Yoga, Osteopathy, Physiotherapy, Chiropractic, Deep Tissue Massage, Thai Massage, Ayurvedic Massage, Kinesiology, Reflexology, Reiki and Quantum Healing.
Pretty much everything you might need to ensure that your body gets a much-deserved holiday too.
Enjoy.
And if you need any more advice or help planning for your Peniche surf holiday, just give us a shout.