Surfing Fitness

Stiff Neck Surfing

Damn - a stiff neck from paddling is particularly common among surf kooks, but even the pros suffer from this casualty on occasion. Admittedly, it isn’t as serious as losing a limb to a shark attack and being stung by a jellyfish. That said, why suffer from stiff-paddle-neck-surfer syndrome simply because you are too embarrassed to whine about it?

There are several easy yoga poses that can help alleviate the immediate discomfort while also help strengthen the upper back so that the neck doesn’t have to do so much work when you are surfing.

The first, and possibly most famous, is downdog.

How to do it:

• Get on your hands and knees (keeping a flat back), curl your toes under and push back with your arms until your body forms an inverted V.
• Continue to support your weight by pressing your hands and feet firmly into your mat.
• Hold for about 30 seconds and relax back to your hands and knees, and then chill.

Downdog’s close cousin, and nature’s natural surfer, is the dolphin.

How to do it:

• Get yourself into downdog (see instructions above).
• Then drop your forearms down so that your arms look like they are resting on the deck of your longboard.
• Hold for as long as it is moderately uncomfortable. When it gets to be too unbearable, then drop down to your hands and knees, and then chillax.
• Keep in mind that dolphin is more about upper back strengthening, which will help increase the power of your paddle, than this is about stretching.

Check back later for more yoga poses that can help with other casualties of surfing.

Namaste, Surfers

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