5 Ways to Improve Your Paddleboarding And Avoid Getting Sore Shoulders and Back Pain

These warmer months and longer evenings have sent many of us to the water for some summer fun. Stand-up paddleboarding (SUPing), rowing, and sailing are hot on the agenda. Not only great for the soul and the social life, but a fun form of exercise. The only problem is that many of the folk coming to clinic recently have developed shoulder problems because of their exertions.

The biggest cause of the problems we see, is that most aren’t working their arm muscles together when they use their paddle or oar. They aren’t using their grip effectively and struggle to connect their hand with the rest of the arm and body when pushing through the water. As a result, the shoulder must do too much of the work, gets overloaded, then gets sore.

Good paddleboarding and rowing doesn’t just involve using your arms well. You also need to transmit the force of the stroke through your arms, to your trunk and legs. To do this, your shoulder blades and ribcage must move well, and your tummy muscles join in too!

Think you’ve got all that sorted? Read on to find out exactly what to do to get your SUPing even better and avoid getting sore shoulders!

1. Hold on Tight! Make Sure You Use Your Hand Properly

Most people aren’t very strong in their grip and as a result don’t use the muscles of their forearm with the rest of the arm - a huge cause of both shoulder and elbow pain. Focus on gripping strongly through the hand. Lead the reach and movement through the hand.

2. Free Up Your Shoulder Blades to Glide

When you reach forward to put your paddle in the water, focus on feeling your shoulder blades slide around your body, widening them apart. They should also rotate upwards to allow your shoulder to get the right position. As you “power” through the water, the shoulder blade on the paddle side should draw into the middle of the spine as your body rotates to that side.

3. Get Your Ribcage Moving

Your ribcage moves with your shoulders and blades. Your spine is meant to move and join in with your arms. Avoid keeping it rigid and straight through out your stroke!

As you “power” through the water, breath out and allow your spine to go into a slouch type position and add a twist to the side of the paddle. This should be working with your shoulder blades and your breath.

4. Use Your Breath to Engage Your Tummy Muscles

Following on from above, during the “power” phase purse your lips and forcibly exhale like you are blowing up a balloon. This will help your tummy muscles work to move your ribcage, adding control and power to your movement. Commonly people don’t use their tummy enough when SUPing or rowing. This causes more load on the shoulder joints and back and often leads to fatigue and pain.

Getting your tummy muscles working is also crucial to connect the power of your stroke to your legs. Everything needs to work together! When it isn’t, this is commonly when stuff hurts as it overloads.

5. Power Through Your Feet

Obviously, your weight will move on your feet as you adjust your balance! Mostly, your body weight should be centred on the middle of your foot. As you reach forwards to place the paddle, your weight should slightly shift to your heels but as your power through push through your midfoot, like you are pressing on an accelerator pedal of the car. This gets your calves and legs working in the right way to support your back and better transfer the forces throughout your body.

As you can see from above, when done well, rowing and SUPing are great forms of WHOLE body exercise. So put these tips into practice before the summer is out and enjoy your next SUP adventure!

If you haven’t ever been on a paddle board because you think your balance is rubbish or things hurt, it isn’t too late to take it up, provided you get the right muscles working and build up to it slowly. If you want some advice on this or to find out more, please call 01548 852355 or email [email protected]. We will happily set you up with a FREE call with one of our therapists to talk through your problems and figure out a bespoke plan to get you out on the water!

"If I hadn’t gone to see the HealthHub I don’t think I’d be enjoying the active life I have now.  My neck and shoulder would get sore after carrying even a light bag for any length of time, and if I carried heavy shopping I was guaranteed days of pain. In sports, I felt useless because I could barely use my right arm. Now, I am able to spend lots of time outdoors, hiking even with heavy packs, working at a permaculture farm which involves a lot of heavy lifting and digging, and doing all the different sports I enjoy."

You can read more about Niamh's story here