Gym and surf

[Naeco78]

My abs went dormant after my 20s. Recently tried to revive them again but started getting really bad abdominal strains when I go for a backside hack. Might be some truth to the saying.. you can't pull fat

[ToniFry]

I know this thread is 5 years old, but I can relate to the struggle of balancing surfing and gym time. It can be tough to find the energy to hit the gym after a long day of catching waves. But if you're feeling sore, it's important to listen to your body and give yourself some rest. Personally, I like to mix up my routine by doing some outdoor workouts on the beach or going for a swim instead of hitting the gym on surf days.

[oldmansurfer]

I do a lot of daily exercises to keep my hips working. They probably help my abs as well. While I was a skinny kid I always had core muscles and even now they seem to be okay. I have something more similar to a keg than a sixpack but under that I am strong. Three days a week I do ten leg raises with both legs together then 20 to 30 single leg raises with the other knee up and then 20 to 30 single leg raises with the other leg flat on the ground and 20 to 30 sideway leg raises on my sides. I think these seem to be good for core but I originally did them for my hip muscles. I also do a bunch or elastic band exercises for my shoulder and I can feel them in my core so they must be good for that. 2 days a week I do dumbbells (15 pounds) . I do a series of ten standing presses where from shoulder height I raise them directly over head then bring them back down behind my back and raise them back up to overhead then I do 20 half squats holding the dumbbells. The reason I do half squats is that I have a knee problem that is aggravated if I do full squats but when squatting I bring the weights close to the floor and when standing I do a curl with both arms. This creates additional stress on the squatting as well on the curls. I then do 20 toe rises while doing curls with the dumbbells where I stand up on my toes on one foot while doing a curl with the arm on the same side. Then I bend over at the waist and do 10 times pull up to my chest then back down then bring the dumbbells backwards to parallel with my back then back down. Then I lay down and push the dumbbells up from a position with my elbows on the ground to straight up from there then still laying down I move the dumbbells overhead with arms straight touch the floor above my head and back down to my waist which I can feel in my core. On the days I do weights instead of laying on the ground leg raises I stand on one foot and raise my leg forward and back down then to the side and back down and then knee up and back down them to the rear and back to the front again. This is probably good for core as well and I do ten for each leg. It seems to keep me in reasonable shape when I am not surfing. But surfing is better.