Stand up paddle boarding is a fun sport that lets you experience the water in many refreshing ways.
No wonder it has been gaining popularity massively for the past ten years—it had the highest number of first-time participants in 2013. Paddleboarding is now becoming the ultimate family activity.
But did you know that standup paddle boarding isn’t just a fun activity, but also has incredible physical and health benefits?
In this article, we’ll reveal to you seven amazing health benefits of stand up paddle boarding, and after reading, you’ll have another reason to spend time on your paddle board as often as you can.
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Key Takeaways
- SUP is a low-impact activity that helps you burn calories without hurting yourself.
- It improves your balance and helps you focus in your everyday activities by training your concentration
- Stand up paddle boarding is also good for your mood. It reduces stress levels and releases endorphins and serotonin in the brain.
- SUP also has cardiovascular benefits; it helps with weight loss and reduces your overall risk of a heart attack or stroke. It’s great for your health all around.
1. SUP Is A Low Impact Sport
Are you worried about getting hurt? Don’t be. Stand up paddleboarding is a low impact activity.
One of the things that you should be least worried about is damaging your ligaments, tendons or spinal cord. SUP only requires minimal movement that helps you lose a lot of calories without hurting yourself.
It is a great sport for athletes who are experiencing knee pain, hip pain or shin splints. It helps with the healing process (as explained later in the article). Other sports like soccer and tennis can barely guarantee this kind of safety.
2. SUP Helps To Improve Your Balance
From the first time you get on that board onwards, your balance has to improve; else you will be doing more swimming than paddling. In stand up paddleboarding, you must stand upright on your board; and you will need a lot of leg strength and core stability to maintain that balance.
While this improves your balance in paddleboarding, it also enhances your balance and your focus in everyday activities.
Again, it will make your joints and ankles stronger through stability training and reduce chances of injury. Football players and any other athletes looking to improve their balance in the field may want to do standup paddling.
It could act as a beneficial break from their hard and strenuous training.
3. SUP Reduces Stress
In today’s busy and frantic world, many people are ever stressed and angry; which translates to negative implications for their health and wellbeing in general. Here is a solution for that; paddling. Water soothes your body in a very natural way and exercising reduces the level of stress.
Now imagine having those two combined. On top of that, add the refreshing sounds as you coast through the water, the thrill of being on the water, the harmony created by the rhythmic pattern of your stroke and the fresh soft wind on your face. Even the thought of it makes you feel your stress melting away.
Stand up paddle boarding facilitates the releasing of endorphins and serotonin in the brain loosening the grip of stress on you. Do not run to your psychiatrist every time you have a lot on your mind; go and be on the water, experience the sensation and relax.
ALSO READ: Is SUP a good core workout?
4. SUP Improves Cardiovascular Health And Your Overall Health
This benefit alone is reason enough to go paddle boarding. With the current average lifestyle, cardiovascular diseases have become quite common.
Stand up paddleboarding reduces the chances of stroke, heart attack, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in addition to enhancing your general cardio fitness.
It will not only help you burn calories while doing the sport but also help you stay healthy in the long term by reducing body fat, losing weight and enhancing muscle mass.
To make it more interesting and increase your heart rate, invite your friends and get into a race.
5. SUP is An Amazing Full Body Workout
This sport thoroughly works your upper body, but that is not all. It uses just about every other muscle in your body.
The leg muscles are always engaged in helping you attain stability, the shoulders, back, and arms are used in propelling the paddle board while the abdominal muscles and the core muscles are continuously working to sustain balance.
You can be sure to feel the impact the next day. But do not let soreness discourage you; it gets better as you continue doing it. Just keep going—and guess who might end up with abs of steel.
6. SUP Is Great For Rehabilitation Injuries
As pointed out earlier, stand up paddle boarding is a low impact activity. It is, therefore, the perfect exercise for those in rehab, especially athletes who have sustained injuries and would like to recover in a shorter time.
It will help increase strength gradually without causing further harm as it is quite gentle on joints and muscles.
Of course, your body might get a bit sore the following day but that is a good sign that your body is building up strength and your muscles are gaining stamina.
In the long run, the activity will enable hypertrophy of your heart leading to a fitter you.
7. SUP Facilitates Weight Loss
Very many people are struggling with weight issues. The strenuous nature of most exercises does not make things better, and it ends up feeling like a punishment. Not so with standup paddling.
With this exercise, you can happily embrace the “fit is not a destination, it is a way of life” saying.
You must not feel as if you are aiming at an unreachable target anymore; this will become your way of life and you will love it.
On average, you will burn about 500 calories in an hour, imagine that. You do not need to do it every day to shed off the extra weight, choose a couple of days in a week or just weekends.
Even better, paddle boarding is so much fun you will barely notice the effort you are putting in.
Conclusion
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Stand up paddle boarding is a uniquely wonderful sport full of tremendous advantages for your body and mind.
It is a low impact sport, so your safety is taken care of. An activity that enhances balance and reduces stress is exactly what the world needs right now.
Additionally, it improves your cardiovascular health, works almost every muscle in your body, is a good core workout, and is great for rehabilitation injuries and facilitates weight loss.
What more would you want in a sport?
Did I miss any health benefits of paddle boarding? Let us know in the comments below.
See you out there on the water.
As a happy new owner of a SUP after experimenting last summer, I have found my new healthcare regime:)