Is Paddle Boarding a Good Workout?
Going by the way Stand Up Paddle Boarding has taken off all over the world, I think it's pretty safe to say people are definately using it as a training tool as well as a social and wellness tool.
Whether you're cruising in the bay or blasting through waves, it's the wobbly board surface, unstable nature of water and the occasional extra challenge of winds that adds to the difficulty of balancing on a SUP board. This offers a complete full body workout that activates your core as you have to depend on these muscles all the time to stabilize yourself and secure yourself onto the deck of the board.
It's almost as if your core and abdominal muscles are griping the board. In turn, you work on conditioning your back, arms, legs and even your toes and feet whilst paddling. A good half hour on a SUP board will make your quads and calves sore for sure. Once you get used to SUPing it's an excellent cardiovascular exercise as well as uplifting and relaxing in a way few other sports can match.
Core Training Makes Paddle Boarding a Good Workout
Traditional resistance training targets each muscle group separately but when you paddle board all the core muscles work together to keep you standing and dry on your board. As you balance yourself, you are actually moving your body weight around, shuffling it between your feet and at the same time using the paddle to propel yourself forward on the uneven water surface. Additionally, to propel the SUP forward, you have to rely on a controlled and coordinated rhythm of paddle strokes.
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| Even standing on the board without momentum is engaging your core |
Stand Up Paddling is probably the only sport that appears difficult at first and yet manages to quickly develop amazing and rewarding abilities in beginners in under 10 minutes. Everyone, adults and children alike find SUPing tricky to start with but quickly learn to coordinate and utilize core muscles to have fun in the water while staying dry and feeling in complete control of the board.
Every specific genre of SUPing has its own set of health benefits. Surfing challenges and engages the leg muscles a lot as they cushion the landings, take the brunt of turbulence from crashing waves and keep you on the board. Adventure touring improves cardiovascular fitness with long drawn out cruises on rivers and lakes, while race SUPing competitively, improves muscle coordination and helps improve muscle response time (fast twitch muscle groups as well as other anaerobic benefits)
In the end it really does not matter what kind of SUPing you take part in or wish to try because you will still manage to work out your entire body while having plenty of fun doing it. It's all about fun, but if we can have fun while getting a great workout, in turn clearing our mind and improving our health, then that makes this amazing sport all the better.
