Surfing, Core Strength and Pilates

What the pros do off the board

Most of a surf session is spent paddling, which means holding your back in extension. The seconds you spend standing ask the body to spring from flat to standing, then rotate through turns on a board that never stops moving. All of that runs through the trunk.

Stephanie Gilmore, the world champion from the Gold Coast, said in 2019: "Core strength is important, and the best way I've found to activate and develop that is Pilates." Olympic surfer Caroline Marks puts it the same way: "With surfing, you're constantly always turning with your core so making sure that's really strong is very important."

Gold Coast physiotherapist Brad Beer explains why it matters:

"Being stronger through the core will mean that you can surf for longer periods at a time and also reduce your chance of injury because you will be operating from a stronger base and so not exposing the back or joints."

At Shift Movement Studio in East Brisbane I use two methods. Reformer, chair and Cadillac Pilates load the trunk through rotation, hip mobility and shoulder stability. Foundation Training, Dr Eric Goodman's bodyweight method, strengthens the back of the body and teaches a clean hip hinge. It needs no equipment, so you can do it on the beach before you paddle out.

Stephen came to the studio to fix his pop-up. He wrote on Google:

"I came to Jill as someone wanting to improve my pop up in my surfing. It was super interesting to learn how important it is to balance muscle groups out and have worked on functioning everything from my big toe to my hip flexors ! Thanks …"
Stephen, Google review

New clients start with a private session ($135, 60 minutes) so I can watch how you paddle, pop up and stand, then build a programme from what I see. Book at shiftmovementstudio.com.au or call 0448 888 492.

Sources

Shift Movement coach guiding a surfer through a Foundation Training hip hinge