How to Strengthen Your Ankles and Feet for Surfing
One of the most common surfing injuries that surfers sustain is ankle injuries. Ankle injuries are often caused by forceful landings and are especially common among new surfers or competitive surfers who are practicing complex aerial maneuvers. To prevent such injuries from leaving you landlocked, strong ankles and feet are essential. Aside from preventing injuries, strong ankles and feet also provide stability on your board, which is vital for improving surfing performance and advancing your skills. To learn how to strengthen your ankles and feet for surfing, continue reading.
Utilize a rail-to-rail surf balance board
Utilizing a rail-to-rail surf balance board is a great way to strengthen your ankles while simulating surfing scenarios such as top-to-bottom carving or trimming down the face of a wave. The unsteady surface of the board helps challenge your ankles’ stability—similar to the way a surfboard moves while surfing—in a safe and controlled environment. In addition to strengthening your ankles, using a surf balance board also helps strengthen leg muscles and specifically helps SUP riders improve paddle balance. Plus, it is much more fun than simply doing reps of regular exercise.
Standing heel raises
Standing heel raises are an easy exercise to strengthen your ankles and feet pretty much anywhere. All you have to do is stand up straight with your feet hips’ width distance apart. Then slowly lift your heels. Once you are on the balls of your feet and toes, slowly lower yourself back down. For optimal strengthening effects, make sure to exercise slow, controlled movements rather than quickly bouncing up and down. By doing a few sets of ten heel raises a day, you should start to notice a difference in the strength of your ankles and feet.
Sand walking
As if you needed another reason to spend more time at the beach, sand walking is a great way to help strengthen your ankles and feet. The exercise is simple, just take off your shoes and walk barefoot on the sand. The uneven surface and soft texture of the sand will naturally help strengthen your feet and ankles as well as your calves. You can do this exercise before or after a surfing session and gradually increase the distance you walk as your muscles get stronger.
To start strengthening your feet and ankles and improving your surfing abilities, consider purchasing a rail-to-rail surf balance board from Ebb & Flo. Unlike regular balance boards, our boards are specifically designed for surfers to simulate a truer surfing motion. Rail-to-rail balance training offers a wide variety of benefits, such as improved stability, balance, fluidity, recovery, and full-body awareness. For more information regarding our innovative products, contact us today.