Can Surfing Help Improve Your Posture?

It’s easy in modern life to ignore your posture. We spend much of our time hunched or leaning forward to look at phones, work on computers or even drive. This leads to curving of the spine and poor posture all around.

Bad posture can affect your well being and health, making it harder to move and stand. Staying active through exercise and sports can help counteract these effects. But when it comes to surfing, does it help or harm?

Surfing can help improve your posture, if you have good form and outside training.

You can help improve your overall posture with surfing, as long as you have good form and balance your surfing with outside training.

Without good form and outside training, surfing can lead to imbalances and misalignment in the body causing posture to worsen.

In surfing much of your time is spent paddling where you’re lying face down with your neck raised up. While this can put strain both on the lower back and neck, with proper form, it’s actually a great way to counteract sitting hunched forward at your desk job.

However, without good paddling technique, it can instead lead to pain and stiffness in the low back and neck, harming posture.

Turns and maneuvers are a great way to work on rotational ability and core strength, two key components to good posture. But, tweaks from poor body positioning while executing these can cause misalignment.

Lastly, a surfer’s stance when in the upright position requires placing one foot forward and one foot back with the body hinged slightly forward. With good form this can train your upper body to hold proper posture when not surfing.

At the same time however, unless balancing your stance before and after surfing, standing with the hips out of alignment this way can cause a chronic imbalance of the hips.

This imbalance creates problems with posture. On top of misaligned hips, if you have poor upper body form while in your surfer’s stance, curving the spine too much and rounding the shoulders, you can actually increase bad posture out of the water.

If you use surfing to focus on good body positioning, while training to improve out of the water, surfing can help to better your posture overall.

Table of Contents

Proper Surfing Positions

The first way to help your overall posture is to work on how you hold yourself while surfing.

While surf positions can throw you out of alignment, paying attention to how you’re holding your body will actually help your ability to stand properly. So let’s get into what good surf posture is.

Paddling

When paddling, your core should be engaged and the legs pulled together. Doing so will help to relieve pressure on the lower back that may be causing poor posture.

Keep your arms drawn in close to the ears while paddling versus out in a v formation. Not only will this help your speed and efficiency, it keeps your body in line and prevents shoulder injuries that worsen your posture.

Keeping a strong paddling position will allow your body to counteract the way we normally sit with the spine, head, and shoulders rounded forward. An especially important movement if your work requires you to sit at a desk or computer.

Popping Up

When popping up, place the hands shoulder width apart. Focus on keeping your chest and shoulders from collapsing by keeping the shoulders back and your chest open.

Keep your feet and legs together while engaging the thighs and core. Maintain core engagement as you get your feet into position.

By holding your body this way, you maintain better body alignment, and keep the back safe while the spine gets a good stretch.

Standing

When in your standing stance, place the feet about shoulder width apart, front foot pointed forward, back foot turned out slightly, with your knees and hips slightly bent.

This lower body positioning will help keep you stable on your board.

Keep your upper body straight and your arms on both sides versus curved over or bent close to your board. Pull in and engage your core muscles to help hold this position.

Not only does this help your surfing performance, it will help train your body to hold this upper body form out of the water.

There’s a lot that goes into good surfing form. In addition to understanding and reading the waves, and actually catching them, you also have to pay attention to how you hold your body.

Good form will improve your surfing ability, and help you keep good posture outside of surfing.

Exercises to Help Posture

While maintaining good positioning while surfing will help some with posture, there are certain chronic imbalances it creates that need to be mitigated outside of the water.

Surfer stance places weight chronically on one foot over the other and keeps the hips out of balance. Then add turns and body rotations, you have a recipe for misalignment and poor posture.

It’s important for maintaining overall health to balance these positions to keep the body in alignment. Practice these exercises before and after surfing for the best results.

Forward Fold

Stand with feet hip width apart, toes pointing forward
Hinge forward at the hips, bending as far forward as you can towards your toes
Drop the neck and allow yourself to hang in this position
You can grab either arm by the elbows for an added stretch through the side body
Keep your weight balance in the middle with hips aligned and back relaxed
Refrain from bouncing
Hold thirty seconds, repeat if desired

Hip Lift

Lay on your back, feet planted on the ground, hip width apart
Place your arms out to the side, palm up, back and shoulders relaxed and flush with the ground
Place your right ankle across your left thigh, just above the knee, creating a triangular shape
Keeping the leg bent at a 90 degree angle, lift the left foot up until the calf is parallel with the ground and the thigh is perpendicular to it
Hold the left leg in this position while at the same time pushing the right leg against it, this should create a stretch in the right hip
Keep arms out to the sides with back against the ground and core held in for support
Hold thirty seconds and repeat on the opposite side

Sitting Twist

Begin in a seated position, legs together and extended out in front of you
Keep feet flexed, thighs engaged and turned upwards
Bend the left leg to cross over the right thigh
With your shoulders back, core engaged and back slightly arched, raise your right arm and place it on the outside of your left knee
Use your back muscles to allow the body twist, turning your head to look over the left shoulder
Place your left hand, fingers pointed out, on the ground close to or against the glutes
Keep shoulders back, chest open with a slight arch
Hold for one minute and slowly return to start
Repeat on opposite side

Downward Facing Dog

Start in a tabletop position, hands flat on the ground, arms extended directly below the shoulders, knees on the ground directly under the hips, calves extended straigh out with feet flexed
Engage the core and lift the hips up and back, extending the legs into a sort of pike position
Weight should be in the hands, placed towards the front of the palms, inner arms facing forward
Knees can be bent to prevent pulling a hamstring but weight should be evenly distributed with hips aligned forward
Keep eyes looking down, allowing neck to relax
Hold for thirty seconds, lower back to starting position

Elbow Curls

Start in standing position, feet hip width apart, spine in alignment, shoulders back
Make a loose fist and place knuckles up to the temples, thumbs pointed down
With shoulders down, open the elbows back as far as you can, feeling a stretch in the chest
Close elbows forward to touch, feeling stretch in the upper back
Repeat for fifteen reps

Incorporating these moves into your pre surfing warm ups and post surf stretches will go a long way to maintaining proper body alignment and posture in your everyday life by bringing your body back into balance.