Yoga and surfing are great partners. Both improve balance, strength, tone muscles, and help you find your breath.
The best advice ever given to a surfer is “If you want to stay in the water till a very old age, without a doubt you need to do yoga every day”.
For many avid surfers, yoga is their key to staying limber, building balance and strength on and off the water. Not only is it is easy to see how yoga will improve your balance, it will also improve your ability to paddle out and catch waves.
Additionally, another benefit of yoga is the prevention of injury. During downtime between surf sessions, muscle tissue can turn into stuff that is stiff as a brick. Yoga will also help you reduce anxiety, and keep you calm in case of a massive wipe out.
Lastly, it helps you find your breath. Breathing properly is important in any sport or exercise. It increases lung capacity, gives your body the maximum amount of oxygen per inhale and expels more Carbon Dioxide when you exhale. It should be noted that controlling your breath will also help you reduce stress and anxiety.
You could spend 30 minutes to an hour each day doing yoga to maximize its benefit, but most importantly even doing 5 minutes each morning will help you. Because yoga relies completely on one’s body weight to stabilize, stretch, and strengthen the body, you do not need any equipment, just a few feet of space.
As an example, we have listed for you the top 21 yoga poses you should consider doing. You can do all of them in each session or pick some to create a custom session. These yoga poses do not need to be done in any order.
To learn how to do each pose, we suggest supporting a local yoga class or if unavailable, search the poses online. However, before starting any new fitness routine, consult your physician.
Downward Facing Dog
Most importantly it strengthens the spine, arms and wrists. Stretches chest and lungs, shoulders, and abdomen.
Upward facing dog
Stronger hands, wrists, low-back, hamstrings, calves and Achilles tendon
Bow pose
Stretches the entire front of the body, ankles, thighs and groins, abdomen and chest, and throat, and deep hip flexor. Strengthens the back muscles.
Locust pose
Strengthens the muscles of the spine, buttocks, and backs of the arms and legs. Stretches the shoulders, chest, belly, and thighs.
Balancing Table
Builds abdominal and lower back strength. brings flexibility to the spine, shoulders, and hips, stretches the torso.
Extended puppy pose
Stretches the spine and shoulders. Strengthens and stretches the arms, hips, and upper back.
Cow faced arms
Stretch of hips, ankles, thighs, shoulders, armpit, chest, deltoid, and triceps. Strengthens spine and abdominals.
Four limb staff pose
Strengthens arm, shoulder, and leg muscles and Develops core stability.
Kneeling Crescent Lunge
Stretches the hip flexors and quadriceps
Plank pose
Tones all of the core muscles of the body, including the abdomen, chest, and low back. It strengthens the arms, wrists, and shoulders.
Pigeon Pose
Stretches deep glutes, groins and psoas.
Warrior 2
Stretches your hips, groins and shoulders.
Extended Triangle Pose
Stretches and strengthens the thighs, knees, and ankles, stretches the hips, groins, hamstrings, calves, shoulders, chest, and spine.
Eagle pose
Stronger arms, legs, knees and ankles.
Boat pose
Strengthens abdominals, hip flexors, and spine.
Chair pose
Strengthens the thighs and ankles, while toning the shoulders, butt, hips, and back. It stretches the Achilles tendons, shins, and shoulders.
Camel pose
Improves spine and shoulder mobility. Stretches the feet, ankles, hip flexors, abs and shoulders. Strengthens the thighs, glutes, back and neck.
Seated forward bend
Stretches the spine, shoulders, hamstrings.
Reclining hero pose
Stretches and strengthens the ankles and improves flexibility in the spine.
Bharadvaja’s twist
Deep stretch to the spine and Stretches the shoulders and the hip. Improves balance.
Extended side angle pose
Deeply stretches the groins and hamstrings. This pose strengthens the legs, knees, and ankles, while also stretching and toning the abdominal muscles.
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