Exercises For Wakeboarding

A few exercises to activate those water sports muscles in preparation for the summer season.

Wakeboarding and surfing as well are dynamic sports that require your body to fire multiple muscle groups at all times. Legs, core, back, and arms are all in use when riding. So why not practice exercises that mimic muscle group multi-use?

This list of exercises will help strengthen the tiny muscles around your major joints such as knees and shoulders. These are the most vulnerable spots for a wakeboarder. Lack of strength and endurance around these joints can lead to big damages.

Teaching these smaller muscles to find stability while larger muscle groups such as the back and legs are in use.

Walk-Outs: start standing and while keeping your legs straight, walk both hands out and back from the plank position. Do this as a warm up and add push-ups later in the set. Do 3 sets of 10 at light intensity, add push-ups and do 3 more sets
Thread the needle: From the elbows plank position, bring one arm at a time, under the body as far as it can reach and back out until it points straight up in the air. Do 3 sets of 20 alternating arms
Shoulder Taps: From the upright push-up position and feet spread slightly, alternate bringing one hand up and reaching around the alternate shoulder. Do 3 sets of 20 alternating arms
Grab the bosu ball and do 3 rounds of 20 body weight squats. The bosu ball forces your knees and hips to find stability while tracking. This will help protect you from awkward landings and transfer the impact safely through the legs.
On the Bosu ball, do 3 sets of 10 standing lunges with your front foot on the center of the ball. This requires even more stability in the knee and will strengthen the muscles around the tendons.

Wakeboarding is a dangerous and extreme sport and you must do what you can to protect your body. Even for the best riders in the world, many have 1 or 2 rebuilt tendons.

Many aspiring pros become injured due to lack of precautionary conditioning. Then during the recovery stage, these riders learn to train their body specifically for their sport and can come back stronger and become better riders than ever before.

With the right effort spent in daily exercise routine, you can help protect your body from unwanted injury!