Italo Ferreira Training: Professional Surfer Proves You Can Get Strong At Home

Hit a gym-plateau? Here's why you should look to surfers for inspiration.

Italo Ferreira Training: Professional Surfer Proves You Can Get Strong At Home

When you get back from a hard workout, stomach sore, biceps burnt, and chest tighter than a professional cyclist’s shorts, you might forgive yourself the lactic acid build up only to resolve to stretch properly tomorrow.

But what if there was another way? What if you could incorporate functional and flexible movements into your weight-bearing workout? Of course, most of us already do compound exercises in the gym — which is great — but if you are looking to take it to the next level then you might want to look to surfers for inspiration rather than your ripped-but-rigid PT.

Case in point? The man-crush-inducing workouts of Italo Ferreira, the number 6 ranked surfer in the world who yesterday beat GOAT Kelly Slater to progress to the Quarter Finals of the Corona Open J-Bay in South Africa.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Italo Ferreira (@italoferreira) on

As the iconic shots above of Italo’s upper body rotations, intense battle rope steeze and pentatonic kettlebell swings show, Italo is one of the strongest and most explosive surfers in the world.

His workouts also prove you don’t need a gym to get ‘swole’. Also also — as a bonus, these compound exercises promote flexibility, agility, core strength and balance in real-time. So — especially if you go to the gym in aide of some greater athletic goal (and hate stretching) — they are definitely worth adding to your routine.

Then all you need is 25 years of practice and some preternatural talent and you’ll be making some jumps like this…

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Italo Ferreira (@italoferreira) on

Of course this isn’t an excuse to tear up your Anytime Fitness membership — Italo loves a good deadlift as much as the next well-built-lower-back dude — but it is a suggestion that you broaden your horizons if you feel like giving your flexibility, balance and explosive-ness a boost, or if you are simply bored of staring at the fluorescent lights of your gym’s ceiling.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Italo Ferreira (@italoferreira) on

And if you think you have the motivation to keep it up at home, it may even be cheaper, in the long run, to buy the basic equipment and complete your workouts al fresco.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Italo Ferreira (@italoferreira) on

Interested in learning more about functional fitness? Check out the following.