Outside of anglers, most people don’t realize that fishing is actually a great full-body workout. But, as with any sport, it’s important to stay fit and limber to avoid injuries.
People who love to fish often find themselves in unusual positions for hours on end, which can cause pain and discomfort in the shoulders, arms, legs, or back area. By incorporating a few simple exercises into your weekly routine, you can help strengthen these key areas, so you spend more time on the water and less time in bed recovering!
Always remember to consult with your doctor before attempting any type of exercise on your own.
Fishing Exercises for Anglers
1.) Focus on Your Core Muscles: Maintaining a strong abdomen area can help protect your back and even improve your posture. Fishermen do a lot of oblique work while casting and working lures for extended periods of time, so practicing a few simple ab routines, such as medicine ball twists, at least three times a week can help you strengthen these essential core muscles.
How to Perform a Medicine Ball Twist:
- Begin by sitting on a mat with your knees slightly bent and your feet flat on the floor.
- Hold the medicine ball to your chest area.
- Carefully lean back at a 45-degree angle and begin to engage your core muscles.
- With your feet still firmly placed flat on the floor and the ball held up to your chest, slowly rotate to the right, gently twisting from your lower back.
- Come back to center and then repeat for a set of 10 twists.
- Once complete, perform the same series of rotations; but this time, twist to the left 10 times.
2.) Build Shoulder Strength: The back and forth motion of casting and reeling can really put strain on your rotator cuff. Kettlebell swings are an effective way to help strengthen your shoulder muscles, with the added bonus of firming your glutes, hamstrings, core, and hand grip, too!
How to Perform a Kettlebell Swing:
- Keep your body tall and straight and remember to focus on holding your core muscles in.
- While gripping the kettlebell with both hands, let your arms hang loose with your shoulder blades squeezed together.
- Begin to bend the knees slightly, remembering to shift your bodyweight to the ball of your heels.
- Lower your bottom down and bend over into a tabletop position.
- With your kettlebell positioned in between your legs, quickly hike the bell upward using your core and remember to keep your fleet planted firmly on the ground.
- With control, allow your kettlebell to swing up to where your arms are fully extended in front of your chest and allow it to move back down between your knees.
- Repeat this motion 10 times.
For more tips on how to perfect the kettlebell swing technique, watch this YouTube video from Men’s Health.
3.) Improve Lower Body Muscles: Lower body workouts like squats help you strengthen your hamstrings and quads, which, as you know, are key areas of the body you need to use when you finally catch fish. The best part is squats are also effective at improving your back muscles, core balance and stability, and calves.
How to Perform a Squat:
- Keep your back and torso straight
- Bend your knees so they are parallel to the tips of your toes.
- Keeping your body weight on your heels, dip your hips below the knees into a squatting position.
Upgrade Your Seat Suspension for Less Back Pain
In addition to staying active and healthy, a key piece to ensuring you spend more time on the water and experience less back pain the next day is by upgrading your pedestal-style seating to an affordable seat suspension system. A shock-mitigation system like the Smooth Moves Advanced Air kit will allow you to tackle rougher waves with less vibrations and hits along the way.
Browse our website to learn more about the benefits of upgrading to Smooth Moves or find a dealer near you today!
