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MEET THE TALENT<br />
SHAPING UP WELL<br />
Regular smorgasboarder readers will be familiar with Clayton Beatty - the face behind TotalSurfingFitness.com and the regular fitness<br />
column in the magazine. He goes surfing at his local beach when the waves are on and spends time on a balance board in his home gym<br />
when they’re not. He’s an exercise scientist from Perth with a website that provides workouts for surfers to help improve fitness and<br />
generally whip you into shape for surfing. We asked Clayton what got him inspired to create the site and his business, and figured - being a<br />
travel edition that he gives us his pointers on getting fighting fit to make the most of a trip.<br />
“I grew up in the South West of WA and<br />
used to bodyboard up until my early 20s. By<br />
that stage a few of my mates had switched<br />
over to stand up and I decided to make the<br />
change myself. What got to me early on was<br />
how much I struggled with the fitness side of<br />
surfing, especially paddling out to the line up.<br />
“I remember lots of times, even surfing small<br />
waves, how long it would take me to paddle<br />
out and how frustrated I would get. By the<br />
time I got out, my arms would be so fatigued I<br />
would have no energy left to pop-up properly,<br />
even if I managed to paddle onto a wave.<br />
“This was frustrating me for quite a while as<br />
I wasn’t getting out in the water consistently,<br />
so it was like I was starting over, learning to<br />
surf every time I got in the ocean.<br />
“Around the same time I was studying<br />
exercise science at university. I was keeping<br />
reasonably fit playing other sports and going<br />
to the gym, but none of that seemed to make<br />
much of a difference to my surfing. I was<br />
doing more traditional bodybuilding-style<br />
workouts at the gym and even managed to<br />
injure my knee going too heavy on the leg<br />
press machine. This led to minor knee surgery<br />
to repair some cartilage damage.<br />
“Not long after my knee surgery I had a<br />
snowboard trip planned to Canada with some<br />
mates, and knowing I had to rehabilitate<br />
my knee effectively, it lead me to start<br />
doing some more research into strength<br />
and conditioning for extreme sports like<br />
snowboarding and surfing.<br />
“Unfortunately I couldn’t find much specific<br />
training information, so I set about learning<br />
more about general sports conditioning so I<br />
could apply it to surfing and snowboarding,<br />
whilst adding a few of my own tweaks to the<br />
workouts.<br />
“This changed my training style from more<br />
isolated muscle exercises to focusing on<br />
multi-joint functional movements, using more<br />
free weights and bodyweight training tools as<br />
opposed to machines.<br />
“The results in my own training were that<br />
I was moving a lot more efficiently and the<br />
injury niggles were starting to disappear.<br />
I also found my surfing start to improve. I<br />
noticed that I could pick up where I left off<br />
when I surfed, even if I had been out of the<br />
water for a month or so.<br />
“In early 2008 I thought it would be a good<br />
idea to share my training ideas with other<br />
surfers so I created TotalSurfingFitness.com<br />
and uploaded a comprehensive, <strong>12</strong>-week<br />
functional training program using only<br />
dumbbells and a swiss ball. Straight away, I<br />
started getting surfers from all over the world<br />
using my workouts to improve their surfing<br />
fitness and I was getting great feedback on<br />
their results.<br />
“Since that time Total Surfing Fitness has<br />
just kind of snowballed into what you see<br />
today. I have since added other workouts<br />
and programs including snowboarding and<br />
skiing, and have also added more advanced<br />
workouts using lots of different functional<br />
training equipment. I‘ve also revised the<br />
workouts, updating them to my current<br />
training philosophies.<br />
“My programs are now used by surf and<br />
snow athletes from all over the world, men<br />
and women, from teenagers to older surfers<br />
in their 50s, 60s and even a few in their<br />
70s. A large portion of surfers who use my<br />
programs are those that are getting prepared<br />
to go on a surf trip to make sure they are<br />
going to maximise their time in the water.<br />
“I understand the importance of staying in<br />
shape when you don’t get to surf all the time.<br />
So, hopefully people can learn something<br />
from my training advice and use it to enhance<br />
their surfing fitness and catch more waves.”<br />
<strong>12</strong>0 jul/aug 20<strong>12</strong>
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