Advantages of Choosing Paddling Over other Workouts
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Advantages of Choosing Paddling Over other Workouts
Summer is arriving, and with the oncoming lift in the lockdown rule means that you need to start working on that summer beach body. Considering you have spent most of your lockdown period indoors, it is highly likely that you want to spend much of your summers out in the open.
Therefore, outdoor recreational options are currently the more superior and better choice in terms of working out. Paddle Boarding, in this instance, is one of the best and most viable workouts, rather than squeezing out sets in a gym.
You may ask yourself, why paddle boarding out of all the other options available. Well, for one, if you intend to lose the quarantine weight to gain more muscle definition, then paddle boarding stands out as the better endurance and muscle building exercise against others.
If you go the gym to lose weight, it will require you to indulge in intense calorie burning workouts that are monotonous and repetitive. Which is why, most people will quit halfway through their gym membership.
Hence, options such as paddle boarding makes for a perfect muscle building and endurance training session that also enables you a sublime and serene time exploring the waters. In other words, it empowers you to learn a physically demanding skill, along with giving you the access to undiscovered ventures around lakes, creeks, and rivers.
Apart from paddle boarding, options such as kayaking or canoeing are also available. However, paddle boarding can be more efficient in terms of a workout for many reasons. For starters, if you are interested in fishing, then both paddle boarding and kayaking are great for fishing.
Even though kayaking is easier for beginners, it does not offer the same value in terms of a workout. Moreover, other advantage of the paddleboard is the portability, lightweight, durability and core strengthening options.
Before you immerse more into the details of paddle boarding fitness and workout aspects, the article will briefly introduce you to stand-up paddle boarding, as a sport, and a recreational activity.
What is Stand-Up Paddle Boarding?
Stand Up paddle boarding is a sport that is very similar to surfing. Both require a board, except there is a difference between paddle boarding and surfing. Paddle boards come with a paddle that you can use to thrust yourself forward even in stagnant water flow conditions.
This ultimately means that you can paddle board in any water body. Whereas, surfboards are more suitable for riding alongside the tides of the ocean. They do not have the versatile design and application of the paddle boards.
Another standout aspect of stand-up paddle boarding is the touring and exploring element. Paddle boarding can be all about exploring new places and seeking adventure if you want it to be. It does not have to only serve your core strength and fitness.
Stand-Up paddle boarding allows you to push yourself and take up different challenges, whether on the tides of the ocean, or the rapid flow of the rivers. This is an integral part of the stand-up paddling journey.
How Long Does Your SUP Tour need to be?
There are no rules on how long your SUP tour needs to be. It can be for one hour, one night, one week, or even more. The duration of the Stand-Up paddle tour depends on your spirit of adventure. For longer time on your paddle board, you will benefit from having other pieces of equipments as well.
Paddle boards come with straps front of the board in which you stick food, wallet or other essentials that you will need on a log tour. Filling the essentials inside a dry bag will help your supplies stay dry. These resources are crucial for overnight paddle boarding trips.
Stand-Up Paddle board touring and exploring is accessible for people with a wide range of abilities. Nevertheless, you still have to be realistic about your level of paddling, and apply that to your specific plans of touring.
For example, the longer you plan to Paddle Board, the better your skills need to be, to ensure that you easily manage the distance. There is nothing stopping you from an inland or coastal paddleboard tour, as long as your skills are sufficient.
Safety precautions are also incredibly necessary when stand-up paddle boarding because of the increasing risks involved. Different types of water bodies encompass many different challenges and risks.
Where can You S-U-P Tour?
The accessibility of standup paddle boarding is amazing. You can paddle in any body of water, including a swimming pool. Just because you can use it anywhere, does not mean that you can aimlessly start paddle boarding anywhere.
If you are touring larger distances, you must be aware of a few other things than paddling equipment such as access on canals and rivers, and winds tied in currents and coastal waters. Each water body presents its own risks that you must understand before you begin your paddle board journey.
Another great thing about paddle boarding is that there are really no rules on who you should paddle board with. If it suites you, you can go on a solitary adventure and push your limits, or you can go as a part of a group. Both are extremely fulfilling in their own ways.
Solo touring allows you to take a side step, away from everything, and reflect upon your own thoughts in solitude. This can be crucial for the betterment of your mental health, especially if you suffer from anxiety or depression.
Studies show that spending time in nature is an activity that can heal mental health damages and bring peace and calm to a troubled mind. On the other hand, going on an adventure as a group allows you to learn from others in the group, and build a strong connection with them.
Like solo adventures, spending a sociable time on the paddle board is also emphatic for your mental health. It rejoices everyone together, providing the essential element of camaraderie and collaboration amongst the people. In other words, it can provide you with the inherit need of humans as social beings.
What Board do You Need?
If you do not have a specific paddleboard, it does not mean that you cannot go touring. However, if you are very serious about a paddle boarding, selecting a specific board that serves your particular purpose will help you in a number of ways.
Each design of the different types of paddle boards corresponds to the different Paddle Boarders. For example, some boards have a longer, narrower and sleek outline that produces more glide for tracking. On the other hand, the broader and rounder paddle boards have a design that contributes to more stability.
Do You need Planning?
Generally, paddle boarding requires a slight bit of planning. First, you need to have an idea of where you want to go, and then, you have to make sure that you enough food, water and kit for the time you will spend. Scoping out the water before you head into it helps you stay safe, content and confident.
Where Should You Start?
For beginners that want to paddle board as a form of recreational workout, then the key is to start small. As you gain confidence and balance on the board, you can gradually take on new challenges and venture further into the waters.
Pushing yourself on the paddle board will help you burn that extra energy and experience a truly effective and intense workout. If you want to start, you can research on some of the local canals and slow moving rivers near your area.
Main Challenges When S-U-P Touring for Endurance
Paddle board touring is just as challenging as you make it. Depending on how hard you want to push yourself, along with your fitness levels, paddle boarding can either be gruesome, or a relaxing time on the water.
Nevertheless, much of the enjoyment and satisfaction comes from pushing your mental and physical boundaries, seeing new places and enjoying the outdoors comes in second. Some of the first challenges that you will face when you are travelling longer distances is fitness and endurance.
Moreover, getting the right board, along with paddle and balance coordination can entirely help. Planning your route, and understanding the risks of the water type, along with strategizing what to take is also a big challenge.
Overnight trips on a paddle board can involve camping and other equipments. Ultimately, paddle boarding helps you become more self-sufficient and gain the strength and endurance to travel onto distant waters.
Fitness Benefits of Paddle Boarding
If this is the year in which you promise to re-evaluate your life, and come out of pandemic as a fitter and better version of yourself, then paddle boarding can be your first step towards that goal. There are few options better than standup paddle boarding in terms of workouts, traveling adventures, and stress relief.
With only a board, rowing paddle and water, you can create unforgettable memories that will make you forget about the atrocities of the pandemic. If your goal venture in the outdoors and immerse in the beauty of nature, along with getting into shape, then paddle boarding will help immensely.
Not only that, if you have a family, then paddle boarding can help you spend more time with the family and friends. In terms of workouts, the best ways to get a good workout while paddle boarding is to enter into a competition, considering that you are familiar with surf boards.
The body mechanics involved in stand up paddle boarding allows you to perform a full-body workout, and train for long distance endurance training. If you do not have the time to indulge in long distance endurance training, you can take part in shorter paddle sessions that are more intense.
These sessions require a high-energy load in a short span of time. Most athletes of paddleboard racing perform these short circuits to build their explosive speed and strength. This type of training also helps in S-U-P surfing.
Standup Paddle boarding, when you perform it with good form, can target you core muscle, arms, back and legs. To compete in the stand-up board competition and events, you must have an athlete’s physique, which is proof that stand up paddle boarding is incredible for building muscle and loosing body fat.
Other forms of fitness that involve paddle boarding include SUP – Yoga. This is a form of yoga that combines paddle boards with the incredible workout of yoga. Currently, it is one of the fastest growing fitness trends that you can find. It is nothing different from a normal yoga session, however, instead of a yoga mat, you perform the yoga poses on top of your paddle board, which is floating on the ocean.
Performing Yoga poses on the board is a more challenging session than conventional yoga. It greatly challenges your strength, balance, and your flexibility. This balance and coordination to stay on the board also translates to fishing.
Fishermen that want to enjoy their fishing experience and burn significant calories at the same time can benefit emphatically by fishing on a paddle board. Staying upright on a paddle board burns more calories than simply sitting down with a reel. Thus, they can combine their patience, and strength into getting the best workout, along with a good fishing time.
A wide and stable paddle board is ideal if you want to fulfill your fishing desires this summer, without skipping put on a workout. Paddle boards are available in all shapes and sizes, and so, it can provide a workout to anyone regardless of their physique, shape, or fitness level.
Each paddle board has a particular volume that corresponds to any particular weight. This allows you to get a paddle board that you can also share with another individual. Thus, unlike other workouts, it does not restrict or limit anyone because of their Body Weight.
Paddling with Your Core
To get the best workout out of paddle boarding, it is essential that you paddle board with your core. When you first get on a paddle board without any instructions, most tend to use their arms for paddle, without engaging their core muscles.
This is a setback due to many reasons, for starters, it does not contribute in moving your board forward, and secondly, it does not help you get a full body workout. Instead, it can actually put you at risk of an injury.
It also wastes most of your energy, without pushing you forward faster, and results in making you feel like you are not strong enough. Only with the correct engagement of your core, will you be able to transfer the sufficient energy to your board, in order to move with more power.
Your paddle stroke will be the strongest when you move the kinetic chain of energy form your legs, to your core and into your arms. These mechanics apply anytime you have to generate power through your limbs.
The first things that will help you engage your core is your grip on the paddle. How you hold your paddle is crucial if you want to stroke efficiently. The best way to do that is to put your top hand on the handle and the other hand on the shaft.
The distance between your hands should not be too close together, or too far apart. When your hands are too close together, it is extremely difficult to engage the core. To really engage the core, it is important to slightly bend down and rotate back towards the tail while performing the stroke.
The rotation and the springing of the knees helps you produce a much more powerful stroke, when you spring upwards into the rotation of your body. You cannot produce this technique without engaging your core muscles for every stroke. Hence, this explains how paddle boarding can be incredible for your core.
Paddle Boarding as a Calorie Burner
Paddle boarding can be one of the best exercises for burning calories. The simple act of standing up on a board, while constantly stabilizing your muscles to remain upright requires energy. Now when you add that function to the act of rowing against the tides of the water, you get a workout that drains your energy and burns incredible amount of calories.
The calories burnt while paddle boarding increases significantly as you start getting more comfortable on the board. This is mainly because you are always looking to level up in terms of challenge, as you get better. Thus, long distance paddle boarding, and participating in racing and surfing will gradually increase your caloric burn.
To compare the major difference in caloric burn, recreational paddling will burn about three hundred to four hundred calories an hour. Now, if you add competitive paddle boarding and intense endurance runs to the mix, the caloric burn can increase to a whopping thousand calories in an hour.
Even if your goal is not to compete, just having a distance and time in mind, and trying to beat your own record can help you attain these numbers.
Paddle, any time of the Day
Unlike most other outdoor workouts, paddle boarding does not limit you today time. If after dark is the only time you have, an easy installation of lights on your board can be a quick solution. Investing in a set of waterproof LED lights allows you to paddle board even in the dark.
Along with waterproof lights, a headlamp can also be a great addition to your paddle board night workout sessions. Ultimately, paddle boards allow you all the accessibility and convenience to attain a workout that is neither a hassle, not heavy on the pockets.
If you do not have the storage space or trunk space to carry around a large solid board, then perhaps choosing an inflatable can help solve all your problems. Moreover, if pumping up a paddle board does not come easy to you, then investing in a battery pump will make your life easier.
You can explore some of the world’s most beautiful places on a board, and thus, backpackings around the world with an inflatable board can your next vacation idea.
Remember to be Safe
Like many other workouts, paddle boarding also come with safety concerns. Nevertheless, you can counter those concerns by taking certain measures. The first measure involves purchasing an inflatable board.
An inflatable, in comparison to a hard board provides you a softer surface since it is a fibrous material. Therefore, it provides a softer surface if incase you are to fall onto your board. Other tips that help with safety involve informing someone where you are paddling.
This tip especially applies if you are paddling in a distant location for touring purpose. Equipments that help with safety involve your leash to keep you board close to you and your PFT, which is a belt that acts as a lifejacket to keep you afloat when you fall.
To Conclude
Paddle boarding subdues most other workouts when you factor in aspects of serenity, nature, endurance, and outdoors. A workout offers great value apart from physical exertion. For nature enthusiasts that are desperately waiting for the lockdown ban to lift, paddle boarding may be the best ways to make up for all the time lost, having fun in the sun, even though sun time is never enough.
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