4 Ways To Become More Athletic And Perform Better In The Surf Or Snow
Somewhere between the ages of 20 and 30, most people will start to notice a decrease in their physical performance. Injuries start to occur more easily, you take longer to recover from exercise, you can’t run as fast, jump as high or move as freely as you once could.
But it doesn’t always have to be this way.
When it comes to training for surf or snow sports, there should be one main goal that dictates your efforts. If your workouts don’t achieve this goal then you are really wasting your time.
That goal is to become more athletic
The old saying that “if you don’t use it, you lose it” comes to mind. I would like to improve this by saying “if you don’t move it in an athletic way, you will lose it.” But on a positive note, if you do move it athletically and often, then you can get your physical performance back and even enhance it more than ever.
It’s not uncommon for me to receive emails from clients over 40 years old, who are performing better now that they were in their 20s. All I can put it down to is they are training correctly and improving their athleticism.
So How Do I Become More Athletic?
The basic idea is to move more, move correctly and then move fast (correctly). Here’s 5 ways you can improve your athleticism in the surf or snow by incorporating these things into your training…
Move in 3D
If you want to become more athletic, you need to move in all 3 dimensions or all 3 planes of movement (frontal, sagittal and transverse). It’s no good training using machines with fixed ranges of motion when in real life with don’t normally have those limitations. All that does is train muscles to work in isolation, where as your muscles need to work as an integrated system to move effectively.
When you’re carving down the face of a wave or shredding through some fresh powder you’re moving in a 3 dimensional environment and so you need to be training the same way.
In simple terms this means do more muti-planar, multi-joint, complex movements. Do lunges to the side or at 45 degree angles, not just in front. Do rotational core exercises, not just crunches. Don’t get stuck on fixed motion exercise machines. Move your body the way it was created to move.
Jump More
Jumping is really important because it is highly transferable to surfing, snowboarding and skiing. The concentric phase (pushing up) is important because it builds explosive power in your legs and the eccentric phase or landing phase helps you develop a good breaking mechanism so that you can absorb landings and similar eccentric forces on the snow or on your surfboard.
So make sure you jump often, jump in different directions and also mix it up between double and single leg dominant jumps.
Master Your Bodyweight
In order to really be athletic you need to be able to handle your own bodyweight, seeing as you will be carrying it with you all the time. This means you should be doing more bodyweight exercises like pull-ups and chinups, push-ups, inverted rows, single leg squats and lunge variations.
Using your bodyweight will help build stability and strength that no machine at the gym can do.
Do High Intensity Interval Training
Interval training will boost your athleticism by enhancing your endurance capacity faster than traditional steady state exercise. Scientific studies such as the popular Tabata study show that high intensity interval training can not only improve the subjects anaerobic (short burst) energy system greater than steady state exercise, but also improves their aerobic (longer duration) energy system better as well.
While there may still be a place for steady state cardio, if you want more bang for your buck, do intervals. Try running, swimming, riding, skipping or any other cardiovascular activity and mix up your intervals (30:30, 20:10, 20:40, etc).
Your Athletic Surf or Snow Training Plan
Hopefully now you have a better understanding of what it takes to become more athletic so you can perform better in the surf or snow.
If you want a professionally designed athletic training plan, download one of our step-by-step workout programs below and see the difference for yourself (all programs come with a 60 day money back guarantee, so if it doesn’t work for you, you can get a full refund – there is nothing to lose!) …
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Surfing Workouts – Total Surfing Fitness
Snowboarding Workouts – Total Snowboarding Fitness
Ski Workouts – Total Skiing Fitness
Windsurfing Workouts – Total Windsurfing Fitness
Advanced Workouts – Surf ‘n’ Snow Fitness High Performance Club
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