Wakeboard fitness

Wakeboarding is an amazing sport when everything goes well, but it can also be full of injury and pain. Although nobody can guarantee you injury-free riding by following a few steps, we can help you reduce the chances of injury with some simple advice.

Always warm up

You've all heard it before, whether from a teacher during a PE lesson or your gym instructor - ALWAYS stretch before any exercise. Wakeboarding is definitely no exception. The pull from the cable or boat will place a lot of strain on your shoulders, back and core, so it's vital you warm up the muscles and joints to prevent any injuries. Rather than Static stretches (those were you hold the body part(s) still), Dynamic stretches, where you stretch the body with movement, are preferred.

How to warm up before a session

• The Dynamic Back Stretch for 30 seconds
• The Dynamic Chest Stretch for 30 seconds
• Dynamic lunges or Squats for 30 seconds

Strength and fitness

Although all over body strength is beneficial for any sporting activity, the main areas to concentrate on are certainly, shoulders, back and core.

Doing exercises that imitate the movements you make whilst riding is the most effective way of preparing your body for wakeboarding. Exercises like the Pullover with Dumbells or Reverse Flyes with Dumbells will help strengthen your back (Lats, Rhomboids + Deltoids) and give you extra strength to pull the handle in towards your body whilst riding.

Core muscles

Most of the time riding will be spent with your legs and hips facing a different direction to your head and shoulders, this means you will be twisting your trunk and placing a lot of strain on your core muscles. Although this might not feel like hard work, it will over time, place a lot of stress on a particular set of muscles. Its very important to strengthen these

What to do...

To help you stay injury-free and body-strong, our friends over at iBodz.com have put together a wakeboard fitness program for us which covers all the necessary elements of an effective program; warmup, exercises and cool down.