Fit for surf holiday

saluedo

I'm going on a surf holiday before Christmas so I have 3 months to work on my conditioning. I'll be doing lessons for 4 hours a day for 6 days plus hopefully some "free time" surfing on top of that. I've been surfing on the west coast a few times but just for weekends and for 2 hours at a time but felt no pain, just sore. Is there anything I should work on to help me through the week long session?

gerk86

So from doing a bit of surfing to basically a week long session?? haha, I reckon you'll want to sleep for a week after day 2.

My advice would be bed early and warm downs after each surf.

saluedo

Yeah, we reckon that we'll be smashed after the day's sessions. Plus there's a 2km walk to the nearest town to get a beer. Should be early nights and a lot of warm-downs.

mechwarrior

my advice would be the same for any other sport:

- make sure you warm up to get the best from the muscles
- make sure you stretch for 10min for every every hour of exercise (seem a lot and boring but if you manage to do that for 2 weeks, you can always come back tell me if you feel the difference or not)

- avoid fast-food and try to eat when you're not hungry - doesn't make much sense on it's own - try to eat every 2/3 hours - having more (but smaller) meals will speed up the metabolism and you'll see results a bit faster in muscle endurance/stamina

- since you're doing loads of hours, make sure you get isotonic drinks for replenishing after exercise - since at that time (right when you finish) you will be hungry, your body will assimilate pretty much everything you take - better if you give protein or balanced protein/carbs than chocolate full of fat and sugars

... in fact, you will notice that once you start doing the last two i mentioned, you'll notice yourself using a lot less sugar in either coffee/tea or craving for cakes and the likes...

.. hope it helped...

kodute

Take a wander over to the fitness forum. Those lads will set you on the right path fairly quick, probably diet clean-up, weights, intense interval cardio sessions.

Also do plenty swimming in the meantime. Again the swimming forum can provide some insight and maybe a training plan.

You have 3 months to prepare, plenty time if you plan correctly. Don't forget the holiday part of this...its all about having fun! :cool:

saluedo

All I was going to do was run 5kms about 4 times a week and do about 3kms swimming each week. Thanks for all the tips. I now realise that I'll have to work push-ups and squats in to this too. 3 months is loads of time though.

mechwarrior

don't forget the stretches - veeeeeeeeeeery important if you want your muscles to develop

ThOnda

I have found that swimming was quite good preparation for surfing.