Everyone’s talking about that photo. The one where surfer Gabriel Medina levitates alongside his board while celebrating a near-perfect score at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
It’s not just the result of expert camera work and impeccable timing, but also a display of elite athleticism, with Medina launching himself into the air after achieving an Olympic-record score of 9.90. But how do top-level surfers develop the strength needed to conquer some of the world’s biggest waves?
"The most exhilarating part of a surfing competition are the moments where your back is against the wall," Italian Olympic surfer and Technogym athlete Leonardo Fioravanti tells me. "You need a score, there’s 30 seconds to go and the wave comes, but you still have to make it happen."
To prepare for these moments, it goes without saying that surfers need to hone their craft on the water. But they also have to work hard in the gym to build a body that’s strong, powerful and mobile, allowing them to spring into action when the perfect wave turns up.
"For the upper body I do a lot of chin-ups and push-ups, then dumbbell and kettlebell exercises," Fioravanti says. "This is to help my paddle power, for when I have to do longer paddling to get back to the line-up, or do short and explosive paddling in which you have to be fast to catch the wave.
"[For the lower body} I usually do squats followed by fast runs, because you want to keep that speed as well as strength."
This is secondary in his regular sessions, however. Before touching any heavy weights, Fioravanti starts most training sessions with some mobility work.
"As surfers, we train as athletes," he says. "I need a lot of mobility, so I have a long routine of mobility exercises that I usually do before I start my weightlifting, mainly to keep my hips mobile. Then I go for weights, and also cardio training on the bike."
Mobility work can largely be done with just your bodyweight, but for the strength training and cardio sessions he turns to the Technogym Rack and Technogym Skillbike respectively, with the former being his favorite toy in the gym.
"I think it’s because I can squat on it, I can do chin-ups, pull-ups, and so many other different exercises – and you can definitely get strong on it,” he explains.
Beyond skill, strength and mobility work, there’s another area that Fioravanti says he works hard on too: mental strength.
"To become the best version of yourself you have got to be strong physically, and you definitely have to be strong mentally. These are two things that you can train.
"Physical strength and mental strength go together, because if you feel strong physically you will feel stronger mentally as well. Mental strength allows you to be able to put yourself in tough situations as much as possible and find a way to stay calm through those moments."
The final piece of the puzzle is sleep, which Fioravanti says he tracked using a Whoop 4.0, one of the best fitness trackers.
"It was pretty interesting to see how I slept and how I recovered – I think there’s lot of improvement [to be made] there," he says.
As a fitness writer, I love hearing how Olympians prepare for their specific events. Without fail, they pour endless effort and hours of training into perfecting a performance that, in many cases, is over in a matter of seconds.
It's all the more staggering in a sport like surfing, where the pros pull off death-defying acts with a degree of nonchalance few could match when faced with a 40ft wave. And Fioravanti's comments make it clear that it's no coincidence these athletes are at the top of their game.
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