Anaerobic Fitness: The Power behind your surfing fitness!

While aerobic fitness provides the base and core for your surfing fitness, Anaerobic fitness provides the power, strength, and speed.

Endurance is definitely a valuable asset, but without any power or strength backing it up you will be wasting a large part of your body's capabilities and capacities for any exercise.

High intensity, short duration exercises rely heavily on your anaerobic fitness. Since the majority of surfing is done in short bursts of power, it is essential thatyou use the aerobic base you have to peak your anaerobic levels.

Your anaerobic and aerobic systems work together to provide the responses necessary depending on the type of exercise you are doing.

Your anaerobic metabolism releasesenergy much faster than your aerobic which is why it is mainly taxed in short duration exertions.

However your anaerobic system is also more wasteful on your energy supplies, but this can be aided by having a strong aerobic base.

Your aerobic system helps in speeding the recovery times needed after these short bursts of energy.

While the aerobic and anaerobic systems work together, they also have their tradeoffs. The stronger your anaerobic system, the more muscle and weight you carry whichmakes aerobic work more difficult.

If you focus too heavily on aerobic work some of the fast twitch muscles of your anaerobic system will be essentially converted to slow twitch aerobic muscles.

This is why you must find the optimal mix for you. Everyone's ability and muscles tendencies are their own and while the body is by far the greatest adaptive mechanismin the world, it will peak when you play to your strengths.

I have a very strong aerobic capacity but by peaking this out, my anaerobic levels are not as high as they could have been if I focused on them.

I have worked a lot onbuilding strength and more fast twitch muscles, but through time and experience have found that my body is just meant for endurance and stamina.

Play to your strengths, but don't abandon the other aspects of your fitness.

So what are the best ways to build your anaerobic fitness and bring the power to your surfing.

The most common anaerobic workout is weightlifting but you can also build it with any high intensity, short burst exercise. Such as sprints, drills, basketball, etc.

I have found that I get the most out of my surfing when I focus my anaerobic work on my upper body. When your surfing the majority of your power is going to come fromyour upper body, especially your chest and shoulders.

Also you want to keep your lower body rather flexible, so I wouldn't suggest bulking them up to much as itwill hamper your flexibility.

With anaerobic workouts you generally aren't going to want to do them more than every other day. Your muscles need the time to recover and rebuild all the fibers that you tear while working out.

I typically opt for weightlifting as I find it the fastest and easiest way to realize the anaerobic gains. I generally do 3 sets of 15 repetitions and target my back, chest, shoulders, and arms.

The typical ranges for weightlifting that I've found are 2-5 sets and between 8-15. With the lower repetitions per set generally being a higher percent of your max and the higher repetitions being slightly lower.

If you focus on higher weights and less reps you will generally build more size, while if you focus on more repetitions and lower intensities you will build more leanmuscle.

As an aerobic guy I generally opt for the lean muscle as it allows for more flexibility and less bulk, but it's your call.

Your workouts are going to be replicated in your abilities in the water. If you focus on more weight and shorter reps you can expect stronger drives but may tire faster. Where if you focus on lower repetitions you can expect a slight drop off in power but will be able to maintain it longer.

I personally feel that to really get the most out of my surfing I will give up a little strength to be able to surf longer, but in some situations and types of surfingit may be necessary to get that extra power. Like big wave surfing for example.

Remember though Anaerobic fitness is only part of your overall fitness. You will also need to maintain your:

Aerobic Fitness - The Key to Surfing longer

Flexibility - For maneuverability and speed in the water

Core Strength - For balance and control

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