It was a hard slog today at the clinic after spending the
last couple of days on the beach covering the 2014 Australian SUP Titles. However,
I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the mechanics in this unique sport,
which relate to one of the biggest complaints I was approached with over the
four days of competition.
Lower back pain was the most prevalent complaint at the
titles, especially in the surfing events for both men and women. Now anyone who
has seen SUP would know that there is a lot of bending and twisting going on –
and in the physio world we know that bending + twisting can = lumbar disc
herniation. Yet after the marathon event (~20km of bending and twisting) there
still were more sore shoulders than lower backs. So, let’s take a look at the
hips and mechanics of surfing a stand up paddleboard just out of curiosity.
We know that in SUP surfing, the boards are more ‘voluptuous’
– wider and have more volume making sharp turns more of an effort compared to a
short board. We also know that to perform a nice turn a number of movements
come into play such as compression (essentially squatting), driving the back
foot through the turn (internal and external rotation) and weight shift across
the pelvis for rail to rail transitions – all of these usually occurring at the
same time.
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| The Pelvis |
Your hips are two balls sitting in a deep socket. It’s at
these two joints, along with the muscles around the hips, that squatting, internal
and external rotation of the leg and weight shift occur. Now let’s say for whatever
reason; tight muscles, poor joint mobility, decreased strength – the list goes
on, that you’re hips aren’t performing their duty to allow these movements.
Somewhere else has to make up for that lack of range and the next best place is
– you guessed it, the lumbar spine!
I’d liken it to asking Pavarotti to sing Justin Beiber. It
really isn’t made to do that job and so something is going to give out – most likely
the heart if we’re still talking Pavarotti…
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| Justin who? |
Give me a yell if you think your hip mobility needs a leg
up!
Josh Carter
Doctor of Physiotherapy
BExSSc (Clinical Exercise Physiology), DPhty, APAM, ESSAM
