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HOME  FEATURES Stand Up Paddling Advice from ASP Triple Crown Chiropractor Dr. Sam Vella
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Stand Up Paddling Advice from ASP Triple Crown Chiropractor Dr. Sam Vella |
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By: Dr. Sam Vella, Chiropractor
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Monday, 07 June 2010 |
Isn't it amazing that just a few short years ago there were almost no stand up paddlers in the water and now, whether it’s the ocean, lakes or rivers, our sport is growing at an amazing rate and you’ll find a stand up paddler in a body of water in almost any part of the globe. With so many people getting involved in our sport, there will inevitably be a few common or reoccurring injuries that people are prone to develop. This article is written to touch on a few of the most common injuries and how best to prevent them.
As the old saying goes, “The best offense, is a good defense…” and protecting yourself from injury in the first place keeps you in the water. You may have noticed that as you are paddling and you become more and more fatigued, your posture becomes worse, you start leaning more forward on your board, your paddling stroke may change and your balance quickly goes downhill. This fatigue can result in various injuries, whether it’s going over the falls and having a major wipeout or straining muscles and/or ligaments due to overuse. Most of the time, these injuries can be prevented by listening to your body and taking a few precautions before and after your SUP session.
As a chiropractor, I am always looking at and evaluating posture, alignment and biomechanical motion (the way our body moves). It makes sense, that one of the first steps to protect yourself is making sure your body is aligned and moving properly so it CAN protect itself. There is a law (much like a law of physics) within the body. ANY MUSCLE THAT CROSSES A DYSFUNTIONAL JOINT WILL BE WEAK. What would cause a joint to be dysfunctional?
 Misalignment, tissue inflammation, arthritis, over use just to name a few. This means that you could have only one vertebrae out of alignment and EVERY muscle that crosses that particular joint (and many major muscles cross several vertebrae each with at least 6 or more joints) will be weak. That one misaligned vertebrae can cause your back to fatigue much faster, your posture to be off as you stand on your board or your paddling power to be significantly decreased. These events, in turn, can and will lead to injury over time. The most common areas for these dysfunctional/misaligned joints to occur are the neck, shoulders, low back and hips. Roughly 90% of the muscles in the body cross over these areas as the saying goes “take care of your body and it’ll take care of you.”
As much as SUPing is a great workout, which is why many people choose to do it besides the fun factor, it is important to practice a few habits that’ll keep you in the water paddling circles around others.
1. Make Sure Your Body is Properly Aligned. As a chiropractor I recommend getting your body checked out 1-2 times per month. You tune up your car, you go to dental, eye and health checkups, so make sure the foundation of your frame is aligned and moving properly. Also make sure to go to a chiropractor who adjusts more than just the spine. The shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles are equally important. When calling a chiropractor for your first visit, specifically ask if the Dr. does “extremity adjusting” meaning your legs and arms. Making sure your spinal bones and other bones of the body are in the correct position and moving properly will help prevent over use problems, give you more paddling strength and endurance, increase your balance and help your body function at its optimum level.
2. Keep Your Body Flexible. The joints of the body and discs of the spine stay healthy through motion. They pump in fluid and nutrients and pump out the toxins through a process called “imbibition.” Yoga is excellent for this. I happen to prefer and love Bikram’s or hot yoga. The workout I get is amazing and I am amazed about how much my surfing, athletic ability, and endurance improves after a yoga session. You may notice that as we age our bodies stiffen. The stiffer our bodies become, the less they are able to absorb impact or stress (think of a car with no shocks, pretty rough ride). Your body’s ability to handle a big wipeout or stress (like paddling for 2 hours) put upon it, is in direct relation to how your body can absorb that stress or impact. More flexibility equals more shock absorption qualities of the human frame and healthier joints. Remember that motion is how the joints, discs and cartilage stay healthy.
3. Warming Up and Cooling Down. Before we just go out and start paddling do some light stretching for the neck, back, arms, shoulders and legs. Loosening up the muscles and joints of the body will actually make them stronger and work better. It is also just as important to stretch out AFTER you paddle as it will help the muscles get rid of lactic acid (the chemical that makes you sore) and also cause the muscles not to tighten up so much after a session.
4. Proper Nutrition. Would you put poor quality gas in a Ferrari? How do you think it would run? When we are fueling our bodies, it is the same concept. The better the food/fuel the more power, strength and endurance we have. Make sure you put good fuel in your body before you SUP, and also make sure you help your body recover faster by putting good fuel in it afterward.
What’s great about our sport is that many of us have found that stand up paddling is much easier on the body than regular surfing. So much in fact that I’ve seen many surfers give up regular surfing entirely because of how much easier SUPing is on their bodies and how much more fun they have. It’s also great to see the waistlines shrink due to the high rate of calories our bodies burn when we are SUPing.
I firmly believe that SUPing is one of the most healthy sports we can do for our bodies, not to mention one of the most fun. With a few healthy decisions and habits like the ones above, we should each find ourselves SUPing well into and beyond our golden years. After all, a true SUPer never dies, they just paddle off into to the sunset…
Yours In Health,
Dr. Sam Vella
Chiropractor
Dr. Sam Vella is the owner and chiropractor of Vella Chiropractic located on the North Shore of Oahu, HI in Haleiwa. He specializes in sports chiropractic for surfers and athletes, family care and assisting people achieve their maximum potential through chiropractic, holistic care and nutrition. He is the attending chiropractor for the ASP World Surfing Tour for the Triple Crown Events at Haleiwa, Sunset and Pipeline. You can contact him directly at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or call Vella Chiropractic at (808) 637-2608. www.vellachiropractic.com
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June 21, 2011
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