Are you keen to practice yoga for surfing? Can doing regular yoga actually improve your surfing skills? Absolutely, yes! Yoga is also one of the most recommended activities to improve surfing skills, especially your pop-up and balance on the surfboard.
It doesn’t matter if you haven’t done much Yoga before. Whenever you start practicing Yoga regularly, you can choose your own Asanas and intensity to gradually improve in your own sweet time. Yoga is undoubtedly one of the best work-outs with heaps of benefits for your mind, body, and soul.
Benefits of Yoga for Surfing
Yoga for surfing can help build endurance strength, flexibility, balance, and mental focus – all important fitness aspects to improve your surfing skills. Adding yoga to your daily work-out can be particularly beneficial if you don’t live near the ocean, and don’t get to surf as often as you would like. If you are a keen surfer, yoga can definitely help you become more aware, of your body and its capabilities, be safe, and recover faster post surf sessions.
One of the main physical benefits of Yoga is that it helps you improve your sense of balance, which is essential in surfing. So, if you’re a beginner at surfing or planning to learn, we highly recommend getting into a yoga routine before joining our surf camp.
Here are some of the best yoga poses for surfing no matter your surf level:
1. Adho Mukha Svanasana – Downward Dog
Adho Mukha Svanasana or the Downward dog pose is a widely used basic yoga pose, and it helps you tackle any tightness, tension and imbalance in your body. It engages the core and builds overall body strength and flexibility, particularly in wrists, arms, shoulders and back that are important for paddling. It also stretches your hamstrings, calves, and spine that can help you maintain your alignment while paddling out.
2. Virabhadrasana II – Warrior 2
Warrior II yoga pose can help gain strength and endurance in your legs, hips, and core. A strong lower body is essential to maintain a well balanced and stable stance keeping you centred and steady on the surf board.
3. Utkatasana – Chair Pose
After you pop-up on the surfboard, staying low and steady is very important when manoeuvring waves. The Chair pose engages the quadriceps, glutes, and core muscles that are particularly helpful in maintaining a low stance after a fast pop-up on the surf-board.
4. Bhujangasana – Cobra Pose
Bhujangasana or the Cobra pose can improve your paddling technique on the surfboard. The cobra pose stretches your spine, strengthens your back muscles, and opens up your chest that can help you avoid back strain from paddling for extended periods of time.
5. Navasana – Boat Pose
Navasana or the boat pose works abdominals, obliques, hip muscles and your core. Core strength is extremely important to ensure quick pop-up and staying balanced while surfing. Without a strong core – your surfing level will be difficult to improve quickly.
6. Vrksasana – Tree Pose
Vrksasana is one of the best yoga poses to not only increase stability and balance, but also to improve concentration and mental focus. The muscles in the legs, ankles, and feet form the base of this pose teaching your body and mind to maintain stability, and stay centred. It requires regular adjusting to maintain balance during this pose, just like your stance on the surf board.
7. Setu Bandhasana – Bridge Pose
Glutes and lower back are engaged when getting back on or sitting on your surf board. The lower back helps maintain posture while paddling out. The bridge pose opens the chest, strengthens your glutes and lower back.
Regardless of your surf level, including these yoga positions in your daily work-outs can really help improve your surfing skills by increasing your strength, flexibility, balance, and mental clarity. Get started today, and by the time you come to our surf camp in Morocco, you’ll see a big difference in your surfing ability.