Five At Home Poses for Surfers
I recently teamed up with the wonderful Yonder Surf School, a local small business forging the way for female surfers on the North East Coast lead by Sally McGee. Sally without a doubt, lives and breathes her craft, and it comes across in every lesson she does. I had the pleasure of attending a Devon Improvers Camp this time last year, and under her ever encouraging eye my surfing came on in leaps and bounds. I can't wait to get back out there when the time comes.
Anyway, whilst we are all still in the midst of being housebound, Sally had the idea of creating a Patreon page, to keep her surf school community together and to also bring together local small businesses as a way of support at this time. Check out the Patreon page here. So this is where I come in, I created a short exclusive yoga video for Yonder's Patreon members which was released this week. So in aid of that, I decided to bring you Five Poses for Surfers, to help keep you moving indoors, and maintain strength so when we get back out on those waves, we can dive straight in!
As always, move within a pain free range, and listen to your body. I would recommend warming up the body first, with a few basic sun salutations. Feel free to try these poses just as they are, or incorporate them into a flow with extra movement or Vinyasa's in between.
- Known as the baby of backbends, this simple pose is great for strengthening the posterior chain and stretching the chest and shoulders. Surfing is a real workout for the back body whilst requiring flexibility in the front body so a simple pose like this is perfect.
- Beginning on your belly, legs long towards the back of the mat, lengthen your tailbone towards your heels, and roll your outer thighs towards mat. This will inwardly rotate the inner thighs creating more space in the sacrum.
- Bring the elbows under the shoulders, with the forearms parallel, fingers spread, palms rooting down into the mat.
- Lift and lengthen the chest towards the top of the mat, using your hands to gently pull the body forward and up. Broaden the collar bones, and keep the back of the neck long.
- Draw the lower belly in to lightly engage the core, creating support and distributing curvature along the backbend.
- Take five to ten breaths here, then lower the chest and head back to the mat, breathing to broaden the back.
- A great pose for lengthening the spine, opening the shoulders, which is great to create space and flexibility for effective paddling.
- Beginning on all fours, knees below the hips, wrists below the shoulders. I like to do a few rounds of Cat/Cow here first, just to warm up before taking this pose as it can be an intense stretch. However I do love it first thing on a morning!
- Inhaling to lengthen the spine, slowly begin to walk the hands forward and exhale as you lower the chest and head towards the mat with control. If it's comfortable, rest the chin or forehead onto the mat. If this isn't possible, use a block or blanket to rest on, for support.
- Keep the hips above the heels, and reach the sit bones high to keep the spine nice and long. Reach the finger tips forwards, and if you feel quite open here, you have the option to take the thumbs a little closer together. Go with what feels good for you.
- Take five to ten breaths here, breathing slowly, with control, and when you're ready to release, walk the hands back in lifting the upper body back to all fours.
- This pose is great for improving your sense of balance, as well as strengthening the wrists, arms and side body, helping your pop up technique!
- From a plank pose, beginning with the left side, bring your left hand a little more into the centre and roll onto the outside edge of your left foot, opening the body to the right. Supporting your weight with your left hand and the outside edge of the left foot as you reach your right arm up and stack the right ankle on top of the left.
- If this is challenging on your balance, as pictured above, you can lower the left knee to the mat for some added stability and support to then build up to using both legs over time.
- Checking that the supporting hand isn't directly under the shoulder, lift up and away from the ground by firming the upper arm, and pressing through an evenly spread palm.
- Squeeze through the midline, creating a long line from the crown of your head to your heels, drawing navel to spine as you arch the right side up towards the ceiling. Take five slow, controlled breaths here, before rolling back into plank pose. Either take a vinyasa, or downward dog, before five breaths on your right side.
- Find length in your side body, whilst strengthening the legs with this grounding standing posture.
- Beginning facing the long edge of your mat, with the feet parallel, in a wide stance. Turn the right toes towards the top of the mat, checking that the heel of the front foot is in line with the arch of your back foot. As you bend your right knee, keeping it above the ankle, reach your arms out wide at shoulder height. This is your warrior 2 position.
- From here, take an inhale, growing taller through the torso, then taking your right forearm to your right thigh, press down through the outside edge of the left foot, take the left arm long, over the left ear, rolling your palm down towards the ground to wrap the shoulder.
- Roll the right thigh outwards, guiding the knee towards the little toe on the front foot, and evenly distribute the weight through both feet. Lift through the arches of the feet, engaging the inner lines of the legs, and root down through all four corners of the feet.
- Maintain length in both sides of the body whilst rolling the left shoulder and hip back, peeling the body open. The right arm is just there as support, you should be able to lift it without the pose really changing.
- Take five to ten full breaths here, before either taking a vinyasa, or downward facing dog, and repeating on the left hand side.
- A challenging pose that requires strength, balance, endurance, and focus...surfers, sounds familiar?
- Beginning in Mountain Pose (Tadasana), root down through the left foot, lift the right leg, bending the knee at 90 degrees. Cross the right knee over the left knee, beginning to bend both legs. At this point, you can either wrap the foot around the leg for a double wrap, or if this is a little too much, just keep the cross of the knees and really squeeze that right ankle into the left calf.
- Reach the arms out in front of you, taking the right arm underneath the left. Bend at the elbows, and once again go for a double wrap bringing the palms towards each other, or just squeeze the backs of the hands together.
- Draw the navel in towards the spine, take an inhale, and as you exhale slowly bend the knees, lifting the forearms up and away from the body, rolling both shoulders down and around the ribcage.
- Option to stay here, or as you take your five to ten slow and steady breaths, bend further into the knees bringing the elbows down as you curl the arms towards the knees.
- Find something non moving to gaze at, and if you wobble or fall out of the pose, smile, and try again. Repeat on the right foot, with the left arm under when you're ready.
All of these poses will help open up and strengthen parts of the body, and mind required for surfing, whilst hopefully keeping you moving during a very still and stagnant time. I hope you enjoyed them, and hopefully we'll be out waiting for that next swell sometime soon!
Stay safe, and as always, thank you for reading. xo