It’s 2018, and some of you may not have heard of using Paddleboarding as a workout routine. This may lead you to wonder if paddleboarding is even a valid form of a workout after all.
If you’re looking forward to adding an extra bit of fun into your workout routine, then prepare yourself to become fit in this stand-up paddle boarding workout! But of course, many of us will only take part in an exercise if we know it will be useful. Therefore how many calories does paddle boarding burn?
Through this fantastic stand-up workout, you can quickly burn 1,000 calories or more if done for an hour. But of course, it depends on the type of paddleboarding workout you’ll perform.
Unlike max-effort racing, and laid-back excursions which you may find only burn around 500 calories an hour. According to the Vivotion official blog, when paddleboarding in turbulent waters, the act of paddling taps on your shoulders, back and core.
You also have to put significant overtime in your leg muscles to keep you upright and stable. During this article, we will break down the different kinds of paddleboarding workout and how many calories you are likely to burn per each specific workout.
Sounds exciting. Are you ready for this?
Paddleboarding Is the New Fitness Trend
While reading the title above, you may ask yourself if a paddle boarding workout is worth your time. Or maybe you’re in the midst of wondering if this workout trend is even a good workout.
Before learning about how good paddleboarding is as a workout, let’s define what physical fitness is. Its importance is pretty much connected to this kind of exercise.
Physical exercise is any physical activity that can enhance or maintain a state of physical fitness whilst simultaneously maintaining overall health and wellness. If you want to know about one of the best physical workouts there, Paddleboarding is one of them.
Stand up paddle boarding can offer a fun and relaxing activity that the majority of can do. As you may have heard, stand up paddle boarding is one of the best workouts to take part in if you are looking for a full body workout.
Therefore it is no surprise that people with all body shapes, sizes and ages are taking part in standup paddleboarding as a fun, effective, fitness low-impact workout.
It’s a combination of balance, strength, and endurance. It’s not only an excellent core workout but also works your toes, legs, back, shoulders, arms and neck simultaneously.
If by merely balancing on your board you can improve your balance, strength and endurance imagine the impact of working out on the river, or even better the ocean!
There’s not a perfect experience that breaths in the fresh salty air while soaking up the warm sun and enjoying the majestic view of mother nature. This method of workout, Paddleboarding fitness, could be your new life-changing fitness escape.
Sounds exciting and exciting, huh? Now that we know how good paddleboarding is for your routine workout, we have listed below the top ten benefits that paddle boarding workout has to offer.
Paddleboarding Fitness Philosophy
Cris Dobrosielski, a coach at a Canoe, Kayak & Paddle Sports Club, explained that the intelligent fitness training would directly enhance the muscular endurance required in paddleboarding. She also believes that the likelihood of overuse injuries will decrease and it will make the entire experience more manageable.
She also believes advanced levels of SUP will see improved results as a result of core training. As a certified with PaddleFit and leads yoga and fitness classes on paddle boards, she believes that taking the time to learn the correct form and technique is key to enhancing your SUP experience.
The Top 10 Benefits of Paddleboarding Fitness
When done enough, paddleboarding can help to vastly improve your balance. Paddleboarding requires a large amount of core stability and leg strength to maintain balance.
Why? Because you have to stand upright on the board. This not only helps you to have the right balance while paddle boarding, but it can also help to increas your focus and balance in day-to-day activities too.
We all want to have a full-body workout and paddleboarding can help you with that. Due to the balance that is required to paddle board successfully, your leg muscles, combined with your core, back and abdominal muscles are likely to work hard in the hopes of stabilising your centre of gravity. This is while your arms, back and shoulder also work hard to propel the paddleboard through the water.
Naturally, almost every muscle in the body is used at some point during paddleboarding. Standup paddling is a shallow impact exercise.
This workout can also help you reduce stress. This is due to how water naturally soothes your body. But, do bear in mind that after spending a day out paddleboarding, you are highly likely to feel sore all over your body.
However, the soreness is a good thing because that means you are building up your overall body strength. Meaning, thorough paddle boarding, your overall strength has the potential to improve.
This will give you not only a total-body workout but also a cardio workout. You can get a good cardio workout if you spend enough time out on the water paddle boarding.
Improving your endurance can be classed as a another benefit of paddleboarding. But not only that, but paddle boarding can also help reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes while improving your cardiovascular capabilities. Lastly, one of the main benefits of paddleboarding is that it gives you the oppurtunity to connect with earth.
Paddle Board Exercises & Calories Burned
In reality, the number of calories you have the potential of burning from paddle boarding is dependant on how hard you are willing to push yourself.
It doesn’t matter if you decide to go for the low impact workout session some days, and other days you choose to put on your game face and work for that high impact session. In fact, no matter which level of intensity you decide to go with, SUPing is sure to improve your balance, upper body strength, core and endurance.
SUP Exercises
Here are some of the popular SUP exercises you can do for your shoulders, abs, legs, and butt:
* The Bottoms Up Move
* Sculpting Movement
* The SUP Press
* The Row
* The Superman
Paddleboarding Techniques
The following techniques before are easy. Don’t worry if you didn’t get it in the first place.
Always remember that practice makes perfect.
Once you have achieved the basic steps, if you want to take more advanced skills, you can be developed with more practice or with an instructor if you want some guidance.
* First things first, get on the board. Just like hopping into the surfboard, you need to put both of your knees on the board. You can paddle while kneeling if that will make you more comfortable.
* Once you’re ready, stand up. You can slowly stand once you’re stable in kneeling. Then position your feet shoulder-width apart, and knees slightly bent, look forward, and don’t forget to engage your core muscles.
* Proper usage of the paddle. Grip the paddle with one hand positioned at the top with the other positioned at the mid-shaft.
* Cruise. Just imagine that you’re in a boat and for you to be able to get in your destination, you have to paddle and cruise. Put the paddle in the water, making sure it sits few feet in front of you. Pull the paddle towards you with your arms and slightly rotate your body.
Three Essential Components in a SUP-specific Workout
There are three essential components in a SUP-specific Workout that you need to know. We have listed the elements for you down below.
First are your muscles. The core, legs and arms muscles that are targeted during the SUP workout.
Your abdominal core muscles help stabilise your body. On the other hand, the legs muscles: quadriceps, hamstrings and gluteals support the body on the paddle board.
While the arms muscles: latissimus dorsi in your upper back is one of the most important muscles for paddling. But the triceps, biceps, deltoids and pectorals also play an important role.
The next essential component is your balance. Coordinating your muscles are not enough for this workout, that’s why having a proper balance is also essential.
If you want to stay upright on a paddleboard, you need to have strong feet for balance. For an easy and effective way to train your feet and ankles, SUP fitness experts advise for you is to practice in barefoot.
The last essential components for this workout is your movements. The key for this one is to find your rhythm between staying stable and torso rotation.
Different Paddleboard Workouts
With so many different types of Paddleboard workouts – from surfing and racing to touring, yoga and recreational paddling, once reading this you will probably find yourself wanting to cancel your expensive gym membership and instead jump on a SUP.
The following paddleboard workouts below are courtesy of Isle Surf and SUP.
SUP Surfing
One example of a specific paddle boarding exercise is SUP surfing. In some avid surfers opinions, SUP surfing is a fantastic form of cross training you can do, that will not only improve your stamina but your surfing too.
The Isle Surf and SUP measured the average number of calories typically burned during a surf session at Coronado Shores on an average chest to head high day with light winds.
*In an active one-hour surf session you are likely to burn somewhere between 623 to 725 calories on average.
* Perfect alternative exercises for surfers when the waves are small
* The choppier the waves, the hard you will be required to work. But remember, the hard work will result in more calories burned and increased overall muscle growth
SUP Racing
Racing could be the highest intensity exercise of stand up paddleboarding. This is because of the fact the effort is constant, with no slowing down and your heart rate working at full throttle.
* Typically, you are likely to burn 713 to 1,125 calories if completing an hour of high-intensity racing
* Perfect paddleboard exercise for those who are competitive and like to go fast (vroom!)
*The number of calories you burn will depend on the intensity of your strokes, the form of your strokes, as well as the current wind speed and water conditions
SUP Touring
The features of SUP Touring include paddling for long distances at a moderate pace without any breaks.
* You are likely to burn between 615 and 708 calories in an hour on average
* Perfect paddle exercises for adventure seekers
* Has the potential of being very relaxing to cruise the flat water after a grueling day at the office burning calories away
SUP Yoga
It is no surprise that SUP yoga has the potential of being calming and meditative when done at a low intensity. Although, they can also be exhilarating and intense for the mind body and spirit.
As a test, over the duration of an hour, Helen at San Diego Paddle Yoga (via Isle Surf and SUP) practiced a vinyasa power SUP Yoga exercise sequence.
*When done energetically, you could burn between 416 to 520 on average in an hour
* Varying levels of wind and flowing of the water will affect the intensity of your workout
* A great alternative to practicing yoga in a studio
Recreational Paddling
When paddling at an average paddling pace, you’re likely to burn roughly twice the calories you’d burn when taking part in a moderately paced walk.
The most common type of standup paddleboarding is recreational use. This is an easy paddle with calm water, light winds at a slow walking type pace. At a typical casual speed, you’ll burn about twice the calories you’d burn on a moderately paced walk (2.5 mph).
When done at a low intensity, over the duration of an hour you could burn 305 to 430 calories. Which, to me, sounds a lot more fun than an hour of monotonous swooping around on an elliptical machine.
We hope we get to answer all of your questions about Paddleboarding exercise. This method of workout is something, and we wish you will not stop yourself from trying it.
Good luck with your Paddleboarding fitness journey. We believe in you!
Author Bio: Isabel Speckman is a North Carolina-based freelance writer and work-from-home mother of three. In her ten years as a professional writer, she’s worked in proposal management, grant writing, and content creation. Her writing skills may be confirmed independently on Vivotion. Personally, she’s passionate about teaching her family how to stay safe, secure and action-ready in the event of a disaster or emergency.
