Brisa Hennessy is one of the stars of the Surfing world.
To discover what makes her shine,
we’re putting her through a series of tests
with the help of Olympian Lolo Jones.
We’re pushing Brisa to the max
to learn more about the anatomy of a surfer.
-24. -You got it.
Hi, I’m Lolo Jones and welcome to Anatomy of a Surfer.
Joining me here at the UFC Performance Institute
in Las Vegas is Costa Rican star Brisa Hennessy.
Are you ready for this?
I’m so honoured to be here and to be with you.
-Let’s do it. -Alright.
Surfing is a physically demanding sport requiring
power, endurance and stability.
You also need a great technique allied with a creative flair.
Brisa has all of these qualities
and will be aiming to show them off when
the sport makes its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.
Surfing to me is everything.
It’s my whole life.
I’ve always wanted to fly
and I feel like it’s the closest thing to that.
My strongest asset is hopefully
my strength and my power and...
a little bit of style.
We’ve brought Brisa to a leading sports
science facility.
We’re going to take a closer look
at her physical make-up and if she has any
weaknesses we’ll soon find them in our lab.
First up we’re going to look at
Brisa’s body composition with the Dexa scan.
We’re going to measure your body composition
and see what your lean muscle mass looks like
and your fat composition in your body.
It’s going to give us a real insight into what a surfer’s
athletic physique looks like.
She had a body fat percentage of 19 which is very,
very low and shows how lean and athletic she is.
If we compare that to some of our endurance athletes they
can be down around about 10, 11, 12 per cent.
If we look at international level swimmers they tend
to be around 25-30 per cent body fat for females, so
it just shows how lean and athletic her body is
for this sport.
This next test will examine
just how powerful Brisa’s legs are.
The muscles in the lower body
are all vitally important in surfing.
They help provide the strength
and balance needed to execute moves whilst out on the water.
Brisa this is our countermovement jump test,
so we’re going to measure how high
you can jump into the air and we’re going to
really understand the power that’s in those legs of yours.
Obviously when you’re hitting the lip
and getting into those aerials and landing on the board
leg power is going to be really important to you,
so we’re going to explore that
and see what a surfer looks like.
Yeah that should be really interesting.
Thighs are really important in our sport
and hopefully they kick in today.
That’s cool. Here we go.
In 3,
2, 1,
-go. Up! -Nice.
Brisa’s score of 40 centimetres
was really, really impressive
and very much comparative
to some of these other strength power based
sports such as badminton and some of the really high
explosive sports that require jumping much more than surfing.
So, it just shows how transfer
of physical skills into the event
is really important for the sport of surfing.
I imagine in surfing you have
to have a strong upper body.
That’s very true.
I don’t know how weights are going to compare to the ocean,
but we’ll see how strong I am.
Well, I’m excited.
-Let’s start the test. -Let’s do it.
A surfer needs strong upper muscles
to pop-up onto their board and to dive underneath a wave
when looking for the best surf.
The next test will see her lifting half her body weight.
OK, Brisa this is our prone row test.
This is going to be a strength endurance assessment for you.
Obviously when you’re paddling on the board
chasing take-offs, we’re going to have to understand
how powerful you are in your upper body but also
you’ve got to do that multiple times in a heat right.
We do paddle a lot.
OK, Brisa let’s take the weight off.
In your own time, as many as you can.
Go.
You know that test it sneaks you.
All of a sudden you’re just crushing it
and then the fatigue sets in and she just fought
through it.
Pull, pull, pull.
24.
-I can’t do any more. -Alright.
Her results were phenomenal.
She had a total repetition max of 24 reps in this period
of time and again that’s really, really comparable
with sports such as Olympic level kayakers,
Olympic level rowers and some of those pulling sports
that really require large back musculature.
So, she’s up there with some really competitive sports
and as a surfer it demonstrates that she’s very, very athletic
and possesses good levels of strength endurance.
Let’s take a break from testing,
tell us how did you get involved in your sport?
Well I was born completely off the grid in Costa Rica.
My parents ran a surf school there,
so I feel like surfing has always been a part of my life.
I don’t remember not being a surfer, not being
in the ocean, it just runs in my veins
and in my heart and I’m really happy
I get the chance to represent Costa Rica,
a place where I found my love for surfing.
This is the first time surfing is in the Olympic Games.
How excited are you?
It’s massive. I think the world should know
what we do and what surfing is all about
and it’s going to be really big for the world to see it
for the first time and it gives me goosebumps just
thinking about just walking
or even standing on the podium
or receiving a medal would be amazing.
Are you ready for more testing?
Let’s do it, I’m excited.
In surfing you need to have good stamina,
so let’s check out her endurance in our final test.
The lungs bring oxygen into the body to provide energy.
The oxygen is then pumped to the muscles
engaged in exercise by the heart.
How well this system functions
is key to sustained performance.
Brisa this is our anaerobic metabolic power test, OK.
We’re going to use this upper body ergometer.
You’re going to be turning these pedals over and over
again for three minutes and we’re really going to see
how your physiology can maintain the energy
to produce turning those pedals,
so it’s a pretty rough test.
It sounds pretty gnarly, so I’m a little scared.
The last test was definitely
the most intense one.
Work, work, work.
5, 4, 3,
-2, 1. -I could
feel the comparison of how I feel when
I’m paddling in a heat and that adrenalin
and my heart beating super fast.
It really replicates the upper body paddling movement using
the upper body ergometer
and from that we can determine how much force
and how much energy she produces.
Over the three minutes, Brisa produced an average
power output of 141 watts.
That’s more than many leading female Tennis players
and Judo stars can manage.
Have you ever heard of a VO2 max?
-I’ve not. -Alright, well that is about
how much aerobic energy
or how much oxygen you use
and your maximum capacity to use oxygen.
That’s what this curve is right here
and you can see right here when we finished the test
this is still going up, OK.
So you actually hit
a maximum load of 36
millilitres of oxygen per minute.
That alone is really impressive
and you still weren’t at your peak output,
so coupled with the energy you produced the way
you fuel it really shows that your physical capabilities
for upper body energy production are off the charts.
Let’s go, let’s go.
It’s really cool to see her just pump out these tests.
She had no weak results.
She’s really excited to compete
in her first Olympic Games and more so
she’s ready to represent surfing in the Olympics.
It’s obvious from the data that Brisa is a supreme athlete
and largely the demands
of modern day surfing and competitive surfing
require her to have massive amounts of energy,
good levels of strength endurance,
the ability to be explosive.
She’s got massive amounts of potential
and we’re certainly excited to see her excel.
I’m Brisa Hennessy, I’m signing out
because I’ve got some waves to catch.