Q & A!

In response to the question, what would be the most effective way to lose weight and keep the weight off, with regards to training?. The best way to lose weight in terms of training is through cardiovascular training, these are exercises such as hiking, running, swimming, and cycling on and off road, and if you enjoy working out in the gym you can work on the rowing machine, treadmill and orbitrek to name a few. The key is to enjoy the exercise you are doing so that it does not feel like a chore to lose weight, but rather a part of the day that you look forward to, this way you will exercise for longer and not drop out of your exercise program. You should be doing your cardiovascular training three times a week for 30-45 minutes a day. With busy schedules this can be difficult, so maybe try waking up early and starting your day with exercise, it might not sound great but you’ll find that you have more energy throughout the day and are in a good mood. You must remember that your diet must be healthy and maintained in order to lose weight. Eating badly will defeat the purpose of training to lose weight.

Sport Scientist

Daniel Gibson

The Core Of Surfing –Part four


This week we focus on core strength and its importance to your surfing, when one says core muscles most people automatically think stomach muscles (rectus abdomonis) , which to some extent is true but their are actually many muscles that make up your core from your deep muscles to your superficial muscles.

Your core muscles serve the purpose of balance and stability, pretty much two of the most important aspects of surfing at any level. Your core muscles also control posture.
Basically your core muscles maintain your centre of gravity (C.O.G) over a base of support , easy enough on land, but when surfing remember our centre of gravity is now moving and your base of support is unstable (liquid) challenging your balance and stability.

This is why it is so important for a surfer to have good core strength.
90% of in completed turns are due to the surfers centre of gravity moving beyond the limits of stability causing the surfer to fall (nose dive – to much weight over front of board, dig rail – putting to much weight on one rail or getting left behind- to much weight on back foot.)
Where as a surfer with good core strength will detect these position changes in the centre of gravity and subconsciously correct him/herself and bring the centre or gravity back over the base of support (within the limits of stability) and successfully complete the turn.

Your core muscles are:

· Rectus Abdominis - located along the front of the abdomen, this is the most well-known abdominal muscle and is often referred to as the "six-pack" due to it's appearance in fit and thin individuals.
· Erector Spinae- This group of three muscles runs along your neck to your lower back.
· Multifidus - located under the erector spinae along the vertebral column, these muscles extend and rotate the spine.
· External Obliques - located on the side and front of the abdomen.
· Internal Obliques - located under the external obliques, running in the opposite direction.
· Transverse Abdominis (TVA) - located under the obliques, it is the deepest of the abdominal muscles (muscles of your waist) and wraps around your spine for protection and stability. (sportsmedicine.about.com)

I can’t stress how important it is for a surfer to train their core as part of their general surf training. Attached are three photos of simple core exercises you can do 1.) Ballance on knees on gym ball. 2.)Modified bridges on the ball. 3.)Modified plank on the ball.

So after this four part series any surfer should have enough knowledge on surf training out side of the water to optimise performance.
If you still feel you need guidance or even a general training program don’t hesitate to contact me.

Wade Botha
Sport Scientist and
International Surf Judge

Dynamic stretching techniques for surfing

As requested , we have put up a few basic dynamic stretches one can do before paddling out, As dynamic stretching involves movement we felt that a video would be better than simple photos of the stretches, this is our first video blog so sit back and enjoy.

Alternate Sports Solutions Team

The Core of Surfing – Part Three


This week we focus on Flexibility , there is a lot to take in on flexibility and core strength so I thought I would separate them and put up a post about core strength in a fourth part next week

Flexibility

Every surfer knows (or should know) how important flexibility is to their surfing , not only does increased flexibility minimize the risk of injury but it facilitates your body through your turns , lay backs especially or when squeezing into a tight barrel.

Like any form of exercise stretching needs to be done prior to commencement of the activity. I have just returned from the first South African PST (pro surf tour) event in Cape town and I was shocked to see how little of the competitors actually stretched before their heats , this was even more shocking considering they were competing in the cold Atlantic ocean ,cold reduces flexibility and thus increases the chance of injury .Considering how many times a surfers muscle contract and stretch and the quick explosive muscular contraction performed to turn the surf board , it is highly important to warm up and stretch before you surf.

How you ask? Pre surf stretching should be dynamic opposed to the traditional static way of stretching (stretch and hold for 10 – 30 seconds) , dynamic stretching is an active form of stretching which consists of controlled swinging movements of the arms and legs to gradually take you to the limits of your range of motion, there are no bouncy or jerky movements. Dynamic stretching is useful for active aerobic warm ups .A very functional type of stretching, which imitates of emphasizes the movements of the activity to come. Dynamic stretching increases the temperature in the muscle (“warm up”) and increases the athletes range of motion.

Important muscles to stretch for surfing:

Rotator cuff muscles (muscles found in the shoulder)
Upper and lower back
Biceps and triceps
Pectoral muscles ( chest)
Obliques
Glut muscles (buttocks muscles)
Quadriceps
Hamstrings
Gastroconemius (calf muscle)
Ankle
After a surf or a day of surfing static stretching can be performed to relax the muscles and remove waste products as well as to improve flexibility , stretch to an end position and hold the stretch for 30 seconds , static stretching does improve range of motion (flexibility).
Yoga is an excellent form of flexibilty training for surfers , this should be added to your daily schedule ther are various dvd's out there with yoga exercises for surfers (Yoga for surfers Vol 1-3 , as well as Taylor Knox has his own set of surfers exercises dvd's out which cover flexibility and yoga.)

References:
Stretching and Flexibility - Types of Stretching by Brad Appleton
Essentials of strength training and conditioning by T.R. Baechle and R.W. Earle

Wade Botha
Sport Scientist
International Surf Judge

“Am I Overtraining?”

There is a fine line that divides a good training program, which applies an appropriate amount of stress on the body to allow for physical adaptation to take place, from a program which will push an athlete over the edge resulting in “burning out”. According to T.R. Baechle and R.W.Earle (The Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning) overtraining can be defined as excessive frequency, intensity or volume of training which leads to illness, extreme fatigue or injury. Basically it is a result of weeks of pushing the body’s physiological boundaries. Athletes that are most susceptible to overtraining are endurance type athletes.

Causes of overtraining:

• Your program: The factors which cause overtraining are lack of rest or recovery. If your training program increases volume, intensity or duration too quickly then you are highly susceptible to becoming burnt out. When designing a training program it is very important to remember that we must give our body’s sufficient time to adapt to the current training stressors before increasing the loads. Typically an endurance athlete has five to fourteen training sessions a week and accumulates 800-1000 training hours in a year. Only 20% of that time should be spent in a heart rate training zone of greater than 80%, otherwise the athlete has a high chance of falling victim to overtraining.
  
• Nutrition: It is essential that athletes have large amounts of post exercise carbohydrates and energy to replenish the body’s glycogen stores. The less time your body spends depleted of these energy stores, the less chance you have of burning out.
  The average individual that is training more than five days per week should be having between 3000 – 3500 calories per day. Calories are units which express the amount of food you are having. These 3000 calories are made up of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Ideally your daily meals should be comprised of 55% carbohydrates, 15% protein and 30% fat; however, everybody’s recommended daily caloric intake differs according to their size and the amount of exercise done from week to week. To calculate your own recommended daily caloric intake visit the following site: www.calculators.hpathy.com/calories-need.asp
  
• Recovery: To minimize the risk of overtraining, you should include at least one rest day per week and one recovery week for every four weeks of hard training during the climax of your training program. Your recovery week must include similar training frequencies (number of training sessions) but of lower intensities. It is vital that you are getting at least seven hours sleep a day.
  
  International travel, lack of sleep and personal life stressors accelerate the overtraining process.
  
  Markers of Overtraining:
  
  Emotional and behavioral changes
  
  
• Mood disturbances – anger, depression or irritability
• Sleeping disturbances – falling asleep easily, waking up abruptly and finding yourself taking a nap later in the morning are signs associated with overtraining
• Prolonged general fatigue- occurs throughout the day
• Athlete does not look forward to competitions
• The athlete cannot progress in his/her training program
• Loss of appetite
• Loss of libido
• Increased fluid consumption at night
  
  Physical changes
  
  
• Heart rate – if an athlete takes longer than five minutes to reach his resting heart rate after exercise. Resting heart rate (taken upon wakening, before getting out of bed) has increased by 10% for several days in a row. A rise in the athletes sleeping heart rate and a rise in heart rate for particular exercise is a sign of over training
• Physical complaints- diarrhea, a sore throat and sore muscles are signs of overtraining and the athlete finds that he/she keeps on getting ill. This is because the immune system is weakened in the over trained individual.
• Gradual loss of weight
• Loss in menstruation in women
• Decreased physical performance
  
  Tests:
  
  Hormones: Exercise laboratories can conduct tests where they collect blood or saliva samples and look for unusual ratios of particular hormones such as estrogen, testosterone and cortizol.
  Blood lactate: Concentrations are tested during and after maximal exercise. This also shows whether or not an athlete is over trained.
  Nervous system: Heart rate variability (the time measured between each heart beat) is recorded. The time between beats in a fit and healthy individual does vary during exercise, where an individual who is burnt out will have consistent times between each heart beat.
  Questionnaire: Owen Anderson uses a short questionnaire to monitor performance status of the athletes. Each morning the athlete assesses themselves against the following six questions:
  
• I slept well last night
• I am looking forward to today's workout
• I am optimistic about my future performance
• I feel vigorous and energetic
• My appetite is great I have little muscle soreness
  

They rate each statement on the following scale:
1 - Strongly disagree
2 - Disagree
3 - Neutral
4 - Agree
5 - Strongly agree
If their score is 20 or greater then they have recovered enough to continue with the training program. If their score is below 20 then they should consider taking a rest or an easy workout until their score rises again.

Treatment:

An over trained athlete needs to take three to six weeks off training and pay special attention to his/her diet. If overtraining occurs within the athletes in season (the competitive phase) then the athlete must train at 70% of his maximal heart rate [(220 – age) X (0.7)] but doing a sport other to the one concerned. For example, if a canoeist has burnt out then he/she should put the canoe away for three to six weeks and include running or/and swimming into the training program. To summarise- a training program should make you train, not strain.

Clinton
Sport Scientist

The Core of Surfing – Part 2

This week’s focus is on anaerobic / Plyometric training for surfers.

Surfing is comprised of various functional movements (bottom turn, top turn, cut back, boosting ect.) which require a high rate of muscular contraction.
The effiency of these movements is determined by two factors:

• Proper function of the muscles / muscle groups.
• Speed at which the muscular forces are used.

This force-speed relationship is termed as power; power is a crucial element to top level competitive surfing – (speed, power, flow – taken from the 2010 Asp Judging Criteria.)

Plyometric training is anaerobic in nature and is known for increasing the production of muscle force.

“During Plyometric exercise the muscle spindles are stimulated by a rapid stretch causing a reflexive muscle action, this reflexive response increases the activity in the agonist muscle (the prime mover, main muscle involved in the movement.)and increase the force produced by the muscle” – Essentials of strength training and conditioning – T.R Baechle & R.W Earle.

Which for the surfer means the muscle is pre loaded or spring loaded. And can contract more explosively , making your turns bigger, faster and more powerful as well as helping you muscles deal with the impact on landing from a big turn , close out re-entry or a floater. But Plyometric training benefits more than just your wave riding, it helps with your short explosive bursts of paddling to catch waves and your jump up to your feet, there fore both upper body and lower body Plyometric training should be included in to your program.


Plyometric exercise examples:

1.) Split Squat Jumps – start in the lunge position, explosively jump up using you arms to assist the movement. On landing return to the lunge position and immediately begin the movement again.

10 repetitions after each set rest and then repeat with your other foot forward.

2.) Double leg zigzag hop’s – ten cones set out 60 cm apart in a zigzag pattern, Start with feet shoulder width apart, start on outside of the first cone explode and jump diagonally across to the out side of the 2nd cone and so one in a zigzag movement until the 10th cone, remembering to keep your shoulders and hips facing forward at all times.

3.) Lateral cone hop’s – Start on the right hand side of the cone, using a double leg hop jump over the cone from side to side for 30 seconds using hip and knee flexion , keeping shoulders and hips facing forward .A double arm upward swing can be used to assist the movement.


These are just three examples from a long list of exercises both upper and lower body. For more examples that you could use, contact the alternate sports solutions team and we will gladly assist.

Next week’s focus will be on Core training and Flexibility.

Wade Botha
Sport Scientist
International Surfing Judge