Referring to the side of the back that you have your top hand on the paddle. i.e. if your top hand is the right like me, I’m talking about the right upper back and vice versa.
Anyone else has debilitating upper back pain after paddle up sessions that keeps you out of the water for at least 4 days until you tolerate paddling hard again?
I’m not sure but it seems to be the muscles connecting the scapula to the spine maybe rhomboids, but it feels really deep like it’s painful even to breathe deep right now.
If you have something similar and found a way to make it better, other than waiting 5 days between sessions, please share!
Paddle ups are like sprinting. A sprinter warms up for 50 minutes. Does 3 sprints. Cools down for 30 minutes. Or something like that.
If you’re doing more than 6 paddle ups in a session you will hurt yourself.
The boring solution is going out and paddling at 50% effort for lots of sessions. To make this more fun as opposed to mind numblinbly dull. I do this in the surf. Focus on technique at very low effort paddling out and around. Then use the wave to help me paddle up so I don’t have to do more than 80% effort. I do maybe 2-3 full 100% goes at unbreaking waves per session. So I’m still being assisted.
Top arm/shoulder hurting, paddle is too long. Lower back hurting, paddle is too short.
I had some similar pain after a session where I had a lot of paddle up attempts. Upper back on the side of my top hand. Took a couple days off and feels normal now but haven’t paddled yet. Had some prone sessions and that type of paddling didn’t bother it. Plan to warm up and stretch before next session but interested to hear other peoples input.
Some of these stick mobility stretches and warm ups match up good for SUP warm ups and recovery. Some are silly but search through them and you’ll find some good ones on YouTube. Also just get some PVC pipe from a hardware store, these actual sticks are way overpriced
That should be a good length. I think Hdip gave an excellent answer. A long warm-up is crucial, and not many max efforts per session. Always use any extra help available (tail wind, boat wake, etc). I usually go out for an hour, and will do about 6. Now it’s a bit more because I get up on most of the passing boats.
