If you are up to a surf and yoga holiday there are some things you should keep in mind to really make the most of this experience. Let’s find out together what we are talking about with our list!
1. The Right Mood
To really get ready to your surf and yoga holiday you should start practicing both disciplines on a daily basis and take your time to understand what this experience is about. You have to consider it as a chance to reconnect, to challenge both your body and soul, to grow a little bit at a more precious level. You have to face this trip with an open mind, an open heart and ready to nourishing yourself with all the good things you are going to learn, to experience and live during your days-off by the sea. Settle a little routine waking up early, try to spend most of your time outdoor to start reconnecting to nature, to the world and the whole universe. You don’t have to push too hard on yourself during these days but, instead, be gentle and commit to a gentle and easy yoga practice and choose some easy scenario to surf just as a warm up to your next adventure. The most important thing during these preparation days is your commitment: try to be persistent and present during your time on both the mat and the surfboard. Some time is better to spend some short quality time than hours of random practice. Of course, if you need that you have to go for it. These amazing disciplines are strictly related to your inner vibe, to your body and mind so you have to really feel when it’s the right time to practice and you have to respect your body and mind when it comes to your own limits. Once you accept them and you work on your little obstacles you find all over your journey, you will be ready to go beyond and to grow, learning something more a little bit, every day.
2. Body Ready
Before heading to this incredible surf and yoga experience your body has to be ready to the huge amount of activity and physical presence you have to put in this type of journey. Don’t underestimate the importance of a full, rich and various nutrition plan eating all the veggies, a tons of proteins and staying hydrated all over the preparation.
3. Workout to Surf
Elasticity is the ability of muscles to relax and tend to be a fundamental asset in table sports especially in its freestyle component, all centered on twisting, contractions and stretches, the tension phase should be reduced through appropriate exercises involving hands, wrists, forearms, biceps and triceps in the arms, dorsal and abdominal muscles with weights. Strength, composed of power, resistance and coordination, is paramount in all disciplines. The ability to lead the table and body with the right strength, speed and sensitivity determines the ability to close the various radical maneuvers as well as to perform aerials or other tricks.
Resistive force is achieved thanks to repeated loads, isometry and natural-weight training without weights, while the explosive force is trained with submaximal loads with repetitions that are exhausted, performed quickly or with plyometric exercises. So three weekly weight training sessions by subdividing muscle groups appropriately during the three appointments with the gym are ideal for your workout to which you will need to add a portion of aerobic activity (cyclists, racing, etc.) to maintain weight and make “breath”.
4. Learn How to Warm up Before your Surfing Session
This will be crucial and fundamental to your surfing experience. You will have our team to support you but it would be better to really know how to boost your movement with a perfect execution. Warming up (10/15 minutes max) before entering the water is essential, as it allows your muscles to be “ready to use” as soon as you put your feet in the water. Especially in the winter if you do not get warmed up, your muscles may start cramping because of the cold water as you start your first arm. Heating consists of exercises, muscle actions and physical activity that aim to increase body temperature and facilitate neuro-muscular conduction. This can be done with some free-body exercise, a lightweight stretch and some stretching exercises dedicated to the limbs and major muscle groups (pectorals, backbones, legs).
The warm up is often overlooked due to lack of time and desire, yet warming is a fundamental part of training (sea or gym) and must therefore be addressed with caution.
The benefits are many: prevention of muscular injuries, especially if the sea exit is particularly demanding (wind and waves). Your warm up is critical to reducing accidents and sports trauma due to its ability to decrease muscle viscosity and lactate formation at the start of performance. Finally, warming raises body temperature, reducing the frictions at the articular level, while biochemical reactions are favored at the muscle level.These preps are perfect to perform in a gym or at home, at your own pace as we know that
it’s not so easy sometime to have the right outdoor scenario or even the sea nearby where you live, especially if you live in a city! These preparation will be what you need to get ready before heading the incredible beach that will host you for your surf and yoga holiday with us.
If you need some more action to your routine try to add some running session, some treadmill and of course, some swimming session as its fundamental to get ready to make it to your board if it slipped away and you have to endurance your strength and resistance.
5. Yoga Sessions to Insert Daily to your Routine
Create a little and easy routine to warm up your body: do a series of Sun Salutations, which awaken your muscles, toning and improving elasticity. To keep the muscles and backbone flexible, there are good positions for a torso twist. For example, Matsyendrasana, which tones the abdomen and relieves back pain. Useful to increase the elasticity of the back are also other positions stretching the back and neck, correcting the posture: for example, Utthita Parsvakonasana and Utthita Trikonasana. Both asanas tone and strengthen the muscles of the back of the body, and in addition, being standing posture, improves the sense of balance and strengthens the legs, ankles, calves.
Doing yoga before and after the practice of surfing will help you achieve perfect performances: eliminates the pain that might prevent you from surfing the best way it helps to improve lung capacity, thus increasing resistance increases strength in the arms, agility in the movements improves strength and post-workout recovery allows you to have your mind relaxed and concentrated, even in the most demanding situations It is not indispensable to be yoga experts, the important thing is to perform the positions properly, to enhance the surf experience.
6. A Little Meditation to Boost your Focus
If you want to take things to the other level before heading to your surf and yoga holiday you can add some meditation to your regular daily routine. As we all know surf requires a lot of concentration and mental focus and, especially before jumping on your board and ride the waves, you need to stay calm and relaxed with a mindful and synchronized breath together with the moves.
Meditation can be a useful tool even to face the entire journey in a positive and zen attitude, something that can be really helpful to really embrace this experience in a proper way. Try to meditate at least 5 minutes a day, first thing in the morning or before heading to bed setting an intention and focusing on how you really feel at that specific moment in time and be mindful and ready to accept what’s next.
