Tips from the Pros: Top 4 Surfing Exercises

Stay in shape with training tips from the experts. Earlier this week, we covered paddling, climbing, and hiking. Today, we'll show you how to rule the waves.

Four Exercises for Surfers

Brian Keaulana knows a thing or two about big-time surfing on big-time stages. Son of legendary Hawaiian surfer "Buffalo" Keaulana, Brian is consistently one of the most sought-after figures in the surfing world. The Makaha coastline promoted him to lifeguard captain in 1993 after he braved the dangerous Oahuan "Moi Hole" to save a tourist. He's since become one of the top surf-rescue experts around. Professional tours? Film stunt work? Keaulana does it all. When he's not competing, the 52-year-old has a very brave toe in nearly all waters of the professional surfing industry.   

Keaulana recently shared a few of his favorite exercises with us. 

1. Underwater Breath-Holding

Woah, woah, hold on. We thought these were exercises related to surfing?

Keaulana argues that they are.

"A lot of what I do is cross-training," he says. "A lot of people think about the physicality of being strong. But you need mental strength, too, because the waves are so unpredictable. You need to be able to react to unexpected situations, like when you get thrown from your board. You can't panic. At the end of the day, surfing is the easiest thing to do — surviving is hard. If you can survive, surfing is a cakewalk."

Tips From the Pros: Top 4 Hiking Exercises

Whether your sport of choice is paddling, climbing, hiking, or surfing, we'll help you improve your outdoor experience with training tips from the pros.

Four Exercises for Hikers 

Mark Westman knows what it takes to reach the summit. A Denali National Park ranger who has climbed throughout the Alaskan Range for 20 seasons, Westman conducts high-altitude patrols when a hiker — or nature — takes an unexpected turn. Searching for some exercises to rescue your hiking-related goals? This search-and-rescue expert has your answer.

1. Stairmaster / Stationary Bicycle

In addition to a proper warm-up, Westman says that a staple for every hiker and technical climber is a solid foundation of aerobic fitness. No mountain? No problem — you're doing a few of the next best moves to hiking itself when you hop on the StairMaster or a bike. An even easier way? Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Plus, all of these exercises put less stress on your knees and joints than running. Go for an amount of time (Westman advises longer, moderately-intense durations) that mimics the distance of a true climb.

2. Backpack Training

Tips from the Pros: Top 4 Paddling Exercises

Want to improve your performance in your favorite outdoor sports? This week, we're asking professional athletes to tell us their secrets.

Four Exercises for Paddlers

Today, Olympic whitewater slalom canoeist Casey Eichfeld shares four of his favorite training exercises.

The 23-year-old is currently recognized as the top whitewater single canoe paddler in the United States. A two-time Olympian, Eichfeld was the youngest solo competitor in the U.S Whitewater Slalom Nationals as an eight-year-old, and he was named by Paddler Magazine in 2000 as a "Paddler of the Next Century." He's hoping that third time's the (Golden) charm as he prepares for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro.

1. Pull-Ups

"I am particularly fond of the pull-up because it is a versatile exercise that doesn't necessarily require any equipment," Eichfeld writes via email. "If I can pull my body vertically through the air, then certainly I can pull it horizontally along the water."

No pull-up bar? An easy alternative is to drape a towel over a door to protect your hands and pull yourself up that way. The door's barrier will make it so you can't rock back and forth to swing yourself up, making it a killer for your biceps, your back, and your shoulders. Perform the movement in a controlled, steady motion. Eichfeld writes that you can challenge yourself by progressing to "L" pull-ups (simultaneously raising your legs parallel to the floor) as well as to weighted pull-ups.

2. Single-Leg Deadlifts

Charge Your Phone While Cycling

There are many reasons why biking to work rules. You save money, eliminate the stress of parking, get in a quick workout, and now, thanks to Aaron Latzke and David Delcourt, you can even charge your cell phone using kinetic energy generated from your ride! Yeah, we know, pretty awesome.

The Kickstarter campaign for the Siva Cycle Atom was launched a few weeks ago, and with only a few days left to pre-order, the project has already seen more than $110,000 pledged by 1,200 backers. Needless to say people are pretty excited. The Atom, which reportedly weighs about as much as a banana, is a small device that can be attached to the back wheel of your bicycle. While you pedal, the Siva Cycle Atom converts the kinetic energy into electronic energy that charges up the Atom. You can choose whether to charge your gadget (phone, ipod, etc.) directly while riding or store the energy generated in the battery pack to charge your electronics when you finish your ride. So as long as you have your bike, you can rest assured that you won't be caught without a battery charge.

For more information about the Siva Cycle Atom, check out the video below by the creators or head over to official Kickstarter project site. 

Essay Contest: What Does Wilderness Mean to You?

Are you a young writer who with a passion for the outdoors? Enter our essay contest for a chance to be featured in Sierra magazine!

The Sierra Club's National Wilderness Essay Contest

It has been nearly 25 years since Bill McKibben declared “the end of nature.” What he really meant was the end of wilderness — the idea of wilderness. In the era of climate change, he claimed, we can no longer conceive of a natural world that is free of human influence — a pristine wilderness where our spirits can awaken to authentic nature.

Generations Y, Z and beyond will never know that pristine wilderness; they will know only what humans have created. And the outlook has only gotten worse: in 2005, Richard Louv warned us that “nature deficit disorder” was on the rise. Today’s children, he worried, spend far more time in front of screens than they spend in the woods, and end up radically disconnected from the natural world. They may care about biodiversity, sustainability, and environmental justice—but do they care about wilderness?

So we pose the question: What does wilderness mean to the millennial generation? Does the idea of wilderness have any relevance for twenty-first century environmentalists? Is there still a case to be made for wilderness? If so, how can we make that case?

We invite essays on the idea of wilderness from writers under 30 years old. Visit the contest website to find more instructions and the entry form.

Q&A: Wild Author Cheryl Strayed

At 22 years old, Cheryl Strayed lost her mother to cancer, and she also began to lose herself. As she spiraled downward, turning to men and drugs for temporary pleasure, the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) caught her in her fall. While standing in line at REI, she read a description of the PCT on the back of a guidebook, and while gazing at the photograph of the vast trail, she says that something seemed to "break me open."

As readers travel through the wilderness with Strayed in her memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, we witness the ability of nature to transform and heal anyone who is brave enough to take it on.

Now a year after the book's release, the New York Times bestselling author and Dear Sugar columnist talks to Sierra about her life after Wild, why she considers herself an experimentalist, and how it feels to be superwoman. --interview by Brittany Johnson

In your book, Wild, you mention that you are an experimentalist — the kind of girl that says yes instead of no. Is that still true? 

That is still completely and utterly true. In my youth, I had to reel that in when it came to sex, love, romance, and now in my 40s it is about how to choose wisely the opportunities that I take as a writer. Like, I said yes to writing the Dear Sugar column, I thought, "What the hell, I don’t know anything about giving advice." But it led to a wonderful thing.

What is the last thing you said yes to and regretted?

I feel mixed about it. I get so busy. The irony — I have written this book about how a long walk is good for the spirit and now I can barely find time to take a 15-minute walk around my neighborhood. But I love to be generous to other writers. Just now it’s hard because everyone I have ever met and everyone that I’ve never met wants me to read their book and support them.

The Pacific Crest Trail is 1,100 miles, more than I even want to drive. What convinced you to hike it? 

I was in my 20s and was at this real bottom point in my life. After my mother died, I lost my whole family. I turned to the wilderness as a way of gathering myself. In my grief, I had done a bunch of stuff, taken a lot of risks that were self-destructive and dangerous and not healthy. My hike was to test myself against something that was risky but also really healthy.

Instead of taking away my sprit and taking away my strength — the way that the sex and the drugs were doing — getting that back and building myself back up.

You didn't see another human being for the first eight days of your hike. Did you talk to yourself a lot?

That was really intense! To go eight days without seeing a person. . . . I could have come off the trail after those 8 days and been like, okay I went through something!  I talked to myself a little bit. But there was a long conversation going on in my head. Mostly, "What the hell have I gotten myself into."

You say in Wild that the photograph of a boulder-strewn lake on the cover of a PCT guidebook seemed to “break you open.” You had seen lakes before, what was so intense about this picture?

How Muir Are You?

A self-described "poetico-trampo-geologist-botanist and ornithologist-naturalist etc. etc. !!!!" John Muir was such a well-rounded guy, nearly everyone has something in common with him. The real question is, just how similar to the Father of our National Parks are you? Go through the checklist below to find out how you match up. We guarantee you've got at least a couple things in common with our beloved Sierra Club founder. 

The Muir Checklist

You...

10 Ways to Kick the Cold

Ooh baby it's cold outside! But what to do to fight off that icy weather that's got you shivering and shaking? Whether you love to be outdoors or long to hibernate during the wintery months, we've got some suggestions to help you keep that chill out of your bones. 

Go on a hike: The best way to warm up is to get your blood pumping, and going for a hike is the best way to do that if you’re looking for a cheap and invigorating form of entertainment. Hike the JMT or the Appalachian Trail for a bigger challenge, or head to the closest trail near you for an impromptu adventure.

Go to a movie: After a couple days of lounging around the house, sometimes you just have to get out, no matter how cold it is outside. Movies are a great way to escape from the cold and get rid of that cabin fever. You could check out the latest blockbusters, but why not take the opportunity to educate yourself. We recommend Chasing Ice for a profound look at the effects of climate change.

15 Resolutions You Can Cross Off Your List Today

The New Year is here, and what better way to celebrate than by doing some good! Whether you made resolutions or not, the start of a new year is a clean slate. You may not know what the next 12 months have in store, but you can guarantee that you jump-started 2013 on a positive note by accomplishing any (or all!) of the following eco-actions.

1. Keep the TV off. It's the first week of the New Year, do you really want to waste it sitting in front of the television? We thought not. You could get so much done today if you spend less time watching reruns — and you could cut down electricity usage too. 

2. Make dinner tonight. Why waste the gas and money to go out for dinner, when you can make a nice, hot meal right at home? Go with local, organic ingredients to step it up a notch. Not only will you be saving money, and help out the local economy, you'll have leftovers for later. 

3. Take a shorter shower. In general, it'd be good to cut back on excess water usage. You can install low-flow showerheads and fix leaky faucets for other inexpensive and easy conservation moves, but if you shave a minute or two off of your shower today that's a step in the right direction. Do that for a whole month and you could save 150 gallons of water and be one step closer to being a Water Sentinel. 

App Obsession: DIY.org

In an ever-growing tech society, it can be hard to pull the kids away from their video games, iPhones or favorite TV shows and get them in touch with their own creativity. Crafting pulls out that creativity and allows kids to explore what it is that interests them in a fun, hands-on way, but it's not always easy to come up with something that the kids will think is cool. That's why parents and kids alike will love this app from DIY.org.

Why kids love it:

Not only is it an awesome way to keep track of all the crafty projects that they create, it's a way for the kids to show off their talents to other kids and share ideas on future projects. Much like Instagram, the kids can post pictures of what they've made, but they can also post video. DIY.org also created a Skills section that rewards kids with badges for having completed projects under different categories. For example, if the kids are thinking about building a fort, the fort badge challenges them to build it out of three different materials before obtaining the badge. These badges seem like a great way to get excited about making something rather than watching it on TV and it gets the creative juices flowing by making them complete various tasks before becoming a Maker. 

Why parents love it: