Poling a skiff is a genuinely physical job, a lot like climbing a rope or rowing a boat, and staying strong at it comes down to three things: the right push pole for your boat, grip and pulling strength, and shoulder work that moves the joint in more than one direction. A listener in Southwest Florida wrote in asking why his shoulders were exhausted by midafternoon on the platform. In this Physical Friday I answer him with the equipment advice and the exact exercises I used to rehab my own shoulders after surgeons told me I would be stuck working in a box.
Listen now: press play in the player above and follow along.
Because poling is hard physical work, a lot like climbing a rope, rowing a boat, or throwing a cast net. You are pulling down on the pole, pushing a loaded boat, often straight into a 20 knot wind with two big customers aboard. Everybody gets tired, including veteran guides. Fatigue by midafternoon is normal when you are new to it, and it improves with technique, with time on the platform, and with the accessory exercises I cover in this episode.
Eighteen feet is the minimum, 21 feet is the standard for most flats guides, and 24 feet is what many move to for tarpon season when they are poling deeper water and crossing channels. Beyond 24 feet the pole gets wonky to manage on the boat. Shorter than 18 and you run out of reach from an elevated poling tower. The pole also has to match the boat, a heavy boat needs a stiffer pole, a light skiff can use more flex.
I prefer an all-carbon pole and I stay away from fiberglass. Early fiberglass and hybrid poles would shed fibers, and after a day of poling you felt like you had been installing insulation, itchy and terrible. Stiffy is the brand I always used the most and the one I recommend. A push pole bends like a pole vault pole, you load it and it propels the boat forward, so flex matters: too stiff and you get no bend, too wimpy and it cannot recover.
Pull ups are the king, especially rope and towel pull ups, because gripping a round object and pulling down is exactly what poling is. Pair the pulling with overhead pressing so the shoulder is trained in both directions, and build the grip with farmer's carries, bar hangs, and even kneading a bucket of rice. Finish with prone snow angels, also called swimmers. Those movements cover strength, grip endurance, and the shoulder balance that prevents overuse injuries.
First, see an orthopedic specialist if you have real pain, I am only an expert on my own shoulders. What worked for me was training the shoulder in many directions instead of only the poling motion: pull ups, overhead presses, hanging from a bar for up to two minutes, prone snow angels, and the Crossover Symmetry band program, a product I bought myself and love. Surgeons once told me I would be limited to working in a small box in front of my chest. Today I have full, pain-free range of motion.
Every good fishing guide I know has a strong grip, built over years of poling, cast nets, and lifting. To build it deliberately, knead a bucket of rice with your hands, do farmer's carries with anything heavy, dumbbells, kettlebells, or two five gallon buckets, hang from a pull up bar, and do pull ups on towels and ropes of different diameters. A one inch rope is close to push pole thickness, which makes rope pull ups the most specific grip training a guide can do.
Tell someone fishing is a physical sport and you may get funny looks, but poling a flats skiff into the wind all day is nothing like sitting under a shade tree with a bobber. When a listener asked for exercises to fight polling fatigue, I realized I had never dedicated an episode to it, even though shoulder problems from this exact repetitive motion nearly ended my own range of motion. Watch or listen above for the full answer.
Here is the program I walk through in this Physical Friday. I cover the details and demonstrations in the episode.
I unpack each of these in the episode. Press play in the player above.
A push pole works like a pole vault pole. You load it, let it bend, and it propels the boat while you walk up the pole and recover for the next push. The guides who pole all day without wrecking themselves are using that load and unload instead of raw muscle, the same way Burton told us a cast net opens when you swing the weight instead of muscling it. I break the technique down in the episode.
There was a time when orthopedic surgeons told me I would have to operate inside a little imaginary box, no reaching overhead, no working out wide, drive the steering wheel with my hands close. I did not accept that, and the rehab work I describe in this episode gave me back full, pain-free range of motion in my fifties. Press play above to hear exactly what I did.
If you have been poling for twenty five years and your shoulders are truly giving you trouble, go see an orthopedic surgeon before you self-prescribe anything. I am a meathead with rehabbed shoulders, not a doctor. Bring them these exercises, get their opinion, and build a plan together. I explain where the line is in the episode.
The best way to get better at poling is to pole a lot. The accessory work, pull ups, rope and towel pull ups, presses, farmer's carries, hangs, and snow angels, is what lets you do that for decades without your shoulders paying the bill.
Do not get frustrated by midday fatigue, it is normal, and it fades as you build. Press play in the player above to watch or listen to the full episode.
poling a skiff · push poles · Stiffy push poles · flats fishing · tarpon season · pull ups · rope and towel pull ups · farmer's carries · rice bucket grip training · Crossover Symmetry · prone snow angels · Ross Enamait · shoulder rehab · overuse injuries · fishing guides · Physical Friday · Tom Rowland Podcast
Physical Friday is my weekly fitness series for fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen — the training, nutrition, and mindset to stay in the game for life. Watch and listen to every Physical Friday episode from Tom Rowland.
I'm Tom Rowland, a professional fishing guide based in the Florida Keys, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, and the longtime host of the Saltwater Experience television show. On the podcast's Physical Friday series I share the training, nutrition, and recovery practices that keep fishing guides, anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen strong and healthy for life, in short, focused episodes you can put to use right away.
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