Mark: Today, I'm going to be talking you through how to put a wetsuit on properly to improve
the lifespan of your wetsuit, but also your flexibility, mobility and performance when
swimming in a wetsuit. I'm sure many of you out there are very confident in putting a
wetsuit on, but very few people are really getting enough flexibility and mobility from
their shoulders. Hopefully, I've got a few tips to share with you on that.
Let's run through a bit of a step-by-step guide on how to put your wetsuit on.
[music] First off, if you're used to using a surfing
or sailing wetsuit, well, these swimming or Teflon wetsuits a very different. Whereas
with a surfing wetsuit you might be quite aggressive and forceful getting in and out
of it. If you were to treat this wetsuit in the same way, it's probably not going to last
you very long. The neoprene, the material on these, is a very subtle material. That
means it's very easy to sink your nails into it, to snag it on some rocks, or worse even
rip it. They do need a little more looking after and care. That's where these little
things might come in. You may find these flashy white gloves in
your box when you first purchase some wetsuits. The idea of these is that you wear them on
your hands and that stops or hopefully prevents you from putting your nails through the wetsuit
and putting it on very carefully. They do a very good job of that particularly, if you
do have long nails. Let's be honest, who actually carries these around regularly or probably
has lost some after a week or two of using their wetsuits?
Today, I'm actually going to be running us through how to put the wetsuit on well without
using these gloves whilst not damaging the wetsuit.
[music] Let's get this wetsuit on us. Probably, worth
me pointing out, this is the front of the wetsuit. That's the back, zip on the back.
Front, back. We want to undo the top zip open. Neat little trick for actually getting the
wetsuit on nice and quickly or at least, the legs is putting on a plastic back on one of
your feet, or at least, just maybe leaving your sock on, that will still work. Then carefully,
obviously try not to dig your nails in, pull that up on over your first. That's really
nice and simple. Repeat the same for the other leg.
That's my feet in and my lower legs in. Now, it's time to start pulling it up the body.
This is where things can go wrong. My tactic here, is always to try and grab as much material
as I possibly can, rather than putting too much strain on a small area. Now, you also
want to make sure that you're not getting your nails anywhere near the suit. Personally,
I've got very short nails. If you have got long nails, well, you might need to be a little
bit creative with your grip when you're grabbing this material or make sure that you're using
some gloves. Start pulling the suit up as much as you can, then go back down to the
lower leg and put the bottom into place. You might be surprised to see that I'm pulling
mine quite far up my leg. That's simply due to my height. Don't be surprised if the ends
of your suit don't actually meet your ankles or receder. Now, you need to work the material
up your legs bit by bit, carefully grabbing the neoprene and shifting it up, making sure
you're not being too forceful. Then you want to continue bit by bit bringing that material
up and towards and over the hips. Now you want to make sure the crotch area is nicely
pulled up. If it's not, then you actually want to head back down the legs, see if there's
any areas that rooked up, particularly around the knees. Iron those out, pull them up. You
might even need to go right back down to the start the ankle region and actually pull the
ankles back up and then start that whole process again, pulling material up.
Back to the hips though, if you can, try and grab a big bunch of the material and safely,
obviously, pull that up and over the hips. Just working that material up. Do you get
the picture now? Bit by bit on both sides. The idea is simply to get as much material
up into this upper body, so that it's not pulling down on your shoulders and causing
tension, and also just make your life a lot easier, for getting the arms in.
[music] If you're happy and you feel like you've got
enough material up the suit, then yes, it's time to start getting the arms in. Again,
you can use that little bag trick, putting your hand into the bag and slipping your arms
through. Also, I would advise taking your watch off, at least just to get the wetsuit
on, to start off with. One arm at a time, slipping the hand through getting the end
in place and then working the material up your arm. This is the really important area,
one that most don't get right and can really help with mobility in the shoulders or reduce
that burning shoulder feeling. Essentially, you want to work as much material
up into the shoulders as possible. If you do move too much up there, it's easy enough
to push it back down and after and then same again on the other arm. We're almost there,
but not quite finished because we're actually going to head back down the body now. You
might want to go right back down to the leg, start that whole process over again, working
material up your legs and then to your crotch. Two things that everyone should do at this
point is, one, bend over ever so slightly. You should see some folds appear around your
stomach region. That means it is much easier for you to grab hold of that material. Start
working that material up your body into the chest region as you stand up. That's done,
but then, also next one is put one of your legs out to the side, maybe, a bit of bending
it. Again, that allows you just to grab hold of that material quite easily. Start working
it up over your hip. Don't stop there keep working that material up and into your armpit.
Again, the same on the other side. I'm giving my secret away a little bit, but that little
tactic has been absolutely a winner for me over the years. You should feel it really
frees up your shoulders once you've done it. That is it, really. It's just time to check
for any rooked areas or other areas that you feel you need to address. Otherwise, time
to zip the wetsuit up. You may find that you just got a standard zip on your wetsuit, or
you may have the opposite, which is like a top-down zip. I used to have this on a lot
of my wetsuits. The idea here is that nobody can accidentally unzip your wetsuit during
the swim. Believe me, it has been known to happen. Also, when you come out of the swimming,
the idea is that you can grab the zip, pull upwards and almost pull the arms off in the
same action. Again, quite an elite sort of thing.
I've got a standard zip on mine, so I just simply have to pull it upwards. Then you may
notice on the end of your cord, you've got a little Velcro tab. This is still in most
of the cords. You just attach that to your Velcro tab for the neck up to the top, and
then pull the neck tab across. You want to make sure that that's nice and tight, not
so tight that is cutting off the blood to your head. Equally, you want it to be tight
enough that there's no gaping holes that the water can flood in through. That is it really.
The only final bits of advice would maybe to apply some anti-shave bar mousse, just
simply some Vaseline around your neck particularly if you're swimming in the sea with salt water.
It just adds that extra layer of protection and glide between the skin and the neoprene.
Also, you may want to consider putting some baby oil or something similar onto your forearms
and your lower legs. This is just simply to whip the wetsuit off nice and quickly and
easily after swim, Again, getting quite elite there. We'll address that in more detail in
another video. If you have enjoyed today's video, please
do give it a thumbs up. If you've got any questions at all about how to put a wetsuit
on, then do just drop them in the comments section below. Don't forget you can follow
GTN over on social media and subscribe to us on YouTube.
[00:07:42] [END OF AUDIO]