The Popularity of paddle boarding has really taken off in the last five years and for good reason. It’s a great all around exercise that engages your full body and gives you a plethora of different physical and mental benefits that will only benefit your health. How else could you get exercise by standing on water? Below are just a few of the highlighted benefits that Stand up Paddle Boarding brings to the table.
Paddle Boarding Burns Calories
Depending on what kind of paddle boarding you do, you can burn anywhere from 300 to 1,000 calories burned per hour. According to Isle, Sup Racing can burn well over 1000 calories while a casual paddle boarding session can burn anywhere from 430 to 305 calories per hour. The range is dependent on many factors such as size, fitness level ect. As you can see from the above picture the different types of paddle boarding forms are well in the range of calories burned if you were doing other popular outdoor activities such as running, swimming and biking.
Paddle Boarding Greatly Reduces Stress
Paddle Boarding is one of those outdoor exercises that can greatly reduce stress by keeping your mind occupied. There is no doubt that there are a lot of great benefits of being outdoors but paddle boarding amplifies this tenfold. Navigating a Paddle Board actually takes a bit of concentration. After all you are in charge of propelling the board forward, steering as well as balancing to keep you from taking a dip in the water! On top of all of that being on the water has a meditative effect that few other elements can beat. Speaking from experience, no matter how terrible your day is going it always seems to get erased away when paddling in calm, crisp waters with the sun beaming down on you.
Paddle Boarding is great for Rehabilitating Injuries
Paddle Boarding is the perfect activity to rehabilitate injuries without losing activity levels. You see many college and pro athletes go paddle boarding to help rehab their injuries because it is an exercise that can go at any pace you like. Activities they would normally do such as running or swimming can easily re-aggravate the injury with one wrong movement. Doing the whole paddling motion also helps keep muscle memory and activate the muscles to keep blood circulating throughout your body so that your aggravated tissue can be repaired.
Stand Up Paddle Boarding Can Eliminate Lower Back Pain
One half of America’s working force suffers from back pain and 80% of them have experienced a back issue at some point in their lives . What Stand Up Paddling can do is strengthen your core through repeated use over time. Back pain is the symptom of your body being imbalanced and having a weaker core or back compared to the rest of your body. As a result your posture suffers and makes the problem even worse. When you stand up and paddle you are using a combination of you abdominal muscles, oblique’s and lat’s that get strengthened bit by bit each time you go out and paddle. This in no way means that your back pain will be cured after just paddling two or three times in the summer. It must be consistent for you to start seeing results like anything really.
Paddling Gets you some Vitamin D!
It is no secret that you need sun in order to live a happy and balanced life but do you know what happens when you spend too much time indoors? A lack of vitamin D can cause muscle weakness and spasms, as well as depression and metabolic deficiencies that can lead to dire consequences down the road. By increasing your time outdoors you are raising your vitamin D levels to make you stronger, and help avoid issues down the road such as MS, Hypothyroid disorder and liver diseases just to name a few.
Paddle Boarding can greatly improve your Balance
I can especially vouch for this one. Balance has never been my strong suit, in fact just looking at a balancing beam makes me go slightly numb inside. Thankfully overtime having learned how to paddle board I have improved my balance tenfold! I have more confidence in my balancing technique because I have strengthened the combination of my hips, spinal erectors, oblique’s as well as abdominal muscles through paddling over and over again. Great balance also improves your posture which improves your overall health in the long run.
Perhaps the Biggest Benefit of all.
Paddle Boarding is truly enjoyable. All of this would be null if you absolutely hated doing it! If you add paddle boarding to your routine you will get these and many more benefits that will contribute to your overall health. Paddle boarding is not just an exercise but also an adventure all in itself. You never know who you will meet and what you will see until you actually go out there.