SURF TIP: Understanding Surfer's Aches & Pains

SURF TIP: Understanding Surfer's Aches & Pains
By Dr. Tim Brown, D.C.
Artwork by Phil Roberts

Surfing is one of the healthiest sports in the world, but there are also hidden, often slow, and insidious dangers. Surfing, combined with ADL (Activities of Daily Living, things like sitting at a computer, driving, and sleeping) causes muscles in your body to become shortened and weakened due to imbalances from overuse and lack of flexibility. The idea is that if you contract a muscle, it shortens. Continued use of that muscle will cause the body to react by setting that muscle into a shortened position. Since muscles attach to your bones, the shortened muscles pull your joints slightly out of alignment. This puts stress on the joints and signals your nervous system to further shorten and tighten your muscles to protect the joints that are under stress. In time, these unnatural positions become the main reasons why our bodies breakdown and become injured. We are preloading our joints before we even use them. Stiffness and arthritis set in and all you’re left with are the memories of the good old days.

As the first installment of a two-part series, this month we’re looking at exactly what kind of problems the average, everyday surfer may experience. If any of these injuries sound familiar, stay tuned because next month we’re telling you how to solve them. If you have any questions you want answered about your surf-related injuries, send them to surferedit@surfermag.com and we’ll let the good doctor take a crack at it.

I: (FRONT PORTRAIT)

A. Imbalances caused by overuse and lack of flexibility, combined with being right or left-handed result in postural stress, pulling the shoulders, neck, and head forward and out of alignment.

B. Surfing creates tight hip flexors. The front foot hip rotates forward, pulling the spine, hips, knees, and ankles out of alignment.

C. The buttocks contract and shorten, rotating the hip, so your back foot turns out. When muscles are overused and under stretched, the joints of the spine, hips, knees, and ankles become prone to injury.

II: (BACK PORTRAIT)

A. Tension created by imbalances in the hip cause core instability; your surfing ability decreases, making surfing less enjoyable.

B. Increased muscle-shortening keeps the right shoulder under stress and out of alignment, decreasing its flexibility, coordination, and strength.

C. Due to resistance in only one direction when pulling the arms through the water, the muscles responsible for pulling become overused and loose their flexibility.

D. Muscle imbalances from being right-handed causes the right hip to draw upward as the right shoulder is pulled down, creating ongoing stress that over time affects all of the joints in the body.

III: (PADDLING PORTRAIT)

A. The neck, chest, and the internal rotator muscles of the shoulders all shorten and limit normal range of motion in response to routine activities.

B. The natural curves that support the spine and proper posture are altered and increased stress and muscle imbalance is created.

C. Not only are the muscles and joints in the neck and shoulders under extra stress and working harder, but the lower back muscles are also working harder to hold up the torso, fatiguing the muscles that protect the lower back.