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Why Paddle Boarding is a Great Exercise

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Why Paddle Boarding is a Great Exercise

Many people believe that paddle boarding is just a fun way of getting around on a water body. As much as that is true, it is also true that paddle boarding can be an incredible option for fitness. In fact, many people that are regular paddle boarders gain significant amount of muscle without stepping into the gym. This is mainly because paddle boarding makes for an amazing full body workout, when you do it right.

A paddle boarding experience can provide you an intensive endurance training, while at the same time, it can also provide you with a relaxing time under the sun, depending on what you prefer. For workout freaks that love the idea of a good workout and hate being indoors, paddle boarding is an ideal way to exercise. Moreover, it is also incredibly enticing for people that love being around a water body.

Stand up paddle boarding is a new and improved way for people to take up a recreational water sport that also involves good amount of exercise. You can perform stand-up paddle boarding on either flat water, or sea. It allows you to enjoy at any water body.

Paddle Boarding Works your Muscles

Paddle boarding contributes to a demanding amount of stress on some of your core muscles and arms. First, you have to stand in a semi-squatted position, while maintaining your balance when paddle boarding. To keep upright when the wavering forces of the water is forcing you to bend backwards or forwards requires you to tighten your abdominal muscles.

This is similar to doing a standing plank, where letting go of your abdominal strength results in you falling off. Ultimately, when you paddle board for a long time, your abdominal muscles tend to strengthen, in order to adjust to your paddle boarding needs.

Thus, paddle boarding is an activity that can help you make changes to your abdominal muscles without signing up for a gym membership. Moreover, it can also be emphatic for your arm strength since you have to constantly grip the paddle and row it against the tides of the water.

Gripping the paddle tightly is one of the best ways to increase your grip strength and build forearm muscles. There may be no better ways to increase your forearm strength than the plain old ways of rowing. Rowing is one of the most conventional forms of exercises that help you gain arm strength.

Even gym goers cannot deny the effectiveness of this movement and they replicate the same rowing movement in the gym. You have the option to perform this movement in the most practical and best ways possible, on top of a paddleboard and staring down on the horizon along beautiful scenic pleasures of either a sea or a river.

Paddle boarding allows you to work your core muscles amidst the wondrous natural atmosphere, while nature’s elements pierce through your skin. This makes paddle boarding a great exercise, better than staring down at the cemented walls of an indoor gym.

Rowing will not only work your arms, but to properly row, you need to engage your back muscles. This means, that the engagement of the arms and trap muscles makes it an amazing exercise for you. Overall, intense paddle boarding will give you a physique that depicts functional strength, with low body fat, and incredible muscle definition.

It will not only make you look attractive, but also help you feel good, confident and strong on the inside. Paddle boarding is ideal for people that want to lose weight. Even though it is fun and relaxing, if you do it long enough, it can be an ideal way to train for endurance.

Along with muscle soreness, paddle boarding can be emphatic for burning calories. You have to take into account that it is one of the best things for an outdoor venture as well, which means that with paddle boarding, you have an exercise in which you can wander across large water bodies and burn calories at the same time.

How many Calories can Paddle Boarding Burn?

This questions runs across almost everyone’s minds, before they take up the activity of paddle boarding. So how many calories does paddle boarding actually burn? The answer to this is not definitive. However, you can make estimation by comparing it to the simple act of standing. This is because there is not much difference between standup paddle boarding and standing.

In both, you have to stand up right, except when paddle boarding, you have the board separating your feet from the surface of the water. Thus, standing on the paddleboard is more challenging than standing on solid ground.

Simply standing static without any movement can help you burn about 206 calories an hour. This caloric burn comes from your legs, back and abdominal muscles contracting so that you can stand upright. Alternatively, standing on a paddleboard will be much more challenging and demanding because it requires much more energy from your muscles to keep you standing upright.

This is purely because paddle boarding requires you to hold your balance and engage your arms, legs, back and abdomens so that you can stay upright when the tides of the water are forcing you to fall in the ocean. If you just compare the caloric burn of standing on a stationary paddleboard with standing on a solid surface. The difference is incredibly significant.

Now when you add paddling to the equation, you have a maximized caloric burn that can surpass many caloric burning exercises. The caloric burn when stand up paddle boarding can reach up to anywhere between 300 and 400 calories an hour. This does not go without saying that more intense paddle boarding such as surfing and racing can even help you cross that caloric burn.

When you take part in intense and gruesome stand up boarding adventures, it will not just reward you in mental satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment, but also help you burn about thousand calories in an hour. You can even sign up for applications that help you track how much calories you burn on the stand-up paddleboard.


Stand up Paddle Boarding for Posture

To safely standup paddleboard, without falling off, you have to maintain your posture and bring together you feet, legs and back at a position that displays an upright and straight stance. In some conditions when stand up paddle boarding, you have to maintain posture strictly, and even the slightest bend can put you off balance.

Many people that have trouble surfing are opening up to stand up paddle boarding for fun times with the family and great exercise. Paddle boarding, amongst many disciples is a great option for making your posture better. With standup paddle boarding, you can cure your slouching posture and improve the many ways to stand.

Getting Started with Stand up Paddle Boarding

Now that you have decided to get started with standup paddle boarding because of all the benefit that it entails, you must consider a few things before you purchase a standup paddleboard.


Buying your First Stand Up Paddle Board

When picking out your first stand up paddleboard, you have to consider some factors before you can decide on your paddleboard. If you do not do that, then you are likely to end up with a purchase that provides you with no functional use and does not serve the specific function that you initially bought it for.

You must know all the different types of paddle boards and the difference between a solid board an inflatable paddle board. A solid board is a paddle board that the manufacturers make out of bamboo and other similar material. On the other hand, an inflatable board is basically air trapped inside a carbon fiber material, which you can inflate, roll up, and pack it inside a bag.  

The difference between the two boards is not immense, except the inflatable board has the advantage of portability and convenience. Whereas, a solid board requires storage space and maintenance. Other than that, paddleboards can differ in shapes and sizes and buying each correspond with different activities and function.

Function

In terms of function, you can either race and compete on a paddle board, or spend a recreational and relaxing evening with your family or yourself. Thus, the three types of paddle boards include racers, surfers and recreational paddle boards.

For racers, you should look for long boards. You want to make sure that the shape of the board is long and narrow. This shape optimizes speed and decreases the drag. The second type of board that you can find is surf paddle board. These surf-inspired paddle boards usually come with pinched-in noses, tails and also display a narrower width.

Paddle boards that are narrower in width allow the paddle boarders to ride the waves much better. They also provide quicker responses whenever you are trying to pull of maneuvers. Next in line, you will find distinct paddle boards that are perfect for recreational uses. These boards are broader in width, much narrower and have a rounder tail then the racer and surfer kinds.


Height and Weight

Now we have to talk about the influence of your weight when purchasing a paddle board. This is one of the most important considerations that you have to make when you are purchasing your paddle board. Keep in mind that each paddle has a certain weight limit.

Therefore, if your paddle board does not match your weight and buoyancy, then it will not respond with the same floatation levels and will not be able to hold your weight. Make sure that you have a good estimate of the weight that you plan to put on the paddle board.

This will allow you to purchase a paddle board that has the maxed out weight limit. Just so it can match the weight limit requirements. This board will allow you to paddle board with having your kids on the same board, and also letting your dogs hop along with you on the board.

Moreover, if you are shorter and lighter, then it is better that you invest in smaller boards with lower volume just because do not need more floatation to accommodate a heavier individual. Keep in mind that the physique of boys and girls are different. Boys usually have bugger and broader shoulders, whereas women, in general have bigger hips.

This has an effect on the center of gravity. Men will usually have a much higher center of gravity, which is why the suitable board for men is one that is heavier and bigger. On the hand, women’s shorter and lighter frame enables them to get on smaller boards.

Environmental Factor

Environment also plays a huge role when considering the choice of board. If you in an area that is not new to strong winds and breezy conditions, then you are likely to have water bodies that will have bumps and choppier conditions. Alternatively, you can reside around water bodies that encompass much calmer conditions.

Depending on the conditions of where you are at, different kinds of boards will allow you to optimize your performance, while other kinds of board will put a slump in your performance. Therefore, make sure that the shape and size of your board is best for the conditions that you are mostly going to face.


Goals

You have to also consider your aims on the board. What do you plan to do with your purchase. Are you planning to just be a weekend warrior and paddle maybe once or twice a month, then you definitely want to invest in a board that will match your skill level and your progression on the board.

On the other hand, if you are paddling multiple times a day, then keep in mind that you will be progressing fast. Thus, if you plan to be very frequent with the paddle board, then make sure that you do not pick a board that is too easy.

This means that you will become very tired and bored of that board because it will no longer be a challenge for you. Instead, you want to make sure that the board that you pick allows you to maneuver high skilled techniques.

Basic safety of Paddle Boarding

Before you enter the waters with your paddle board. You want to make sure that you are abiding by the basic safety instructions. It is incredibly important to be aware of the conditions. Make sure that you do not go out in the presence of strong offshore winds. This can very dangerous.

Thus, make sure that you thoroughly examine the skies, trees and the weather to get a good idea of the wind. If the wind is strong and blowing away from the shore, then you have to be careful because it will likely carry you straight out into ocean.

An un experienced paddle boarder will have a very hard time getting back to the shore and may encounter tough situations. After you have made analysis on the wind and decided that it safe enough for you to get into the water. Then you have to select a good launch spot. This is the spot from where you will enter into the water body.

If you are at the beach, then try to look for a spot that has a sandy bottom. This will help you avoid any injuries, such as wound and cuts if you happen to fall. Good sandy entry also ensures that the water is deep enough to limit your chances of getting hurt.


Attach the Leash

Make sure that you attach a nylon leash on the board and attach it to your body. Usually, this leash is not attached to the board and so make sure the nylon strap is strapped over the leash string so that is firmly attached to the board.

The other end goes around the ankle and so this keeps your board from floating away from you if incase you fall.

Basic Paddling Instructions

Now that you have made sure about the basic security instructions are in place, you must adhere to the basic standup paddling techniques. Firstly, make sure that you are carrying the board in and out of the water. Dragging the board across the beach always outs it at a serious risk of damaging it.

Carry the board into the water to where the fin does not touch the sand. In other words, when you lay your paddle board down on the water, make sure that the fin does not bump into the sand when you jump on top of it.

When you are first starting out, you do not have to try to stand on the board. Instead, beginners can have fun on their knees. For beginners, it is much easier to start on their knees because they can balance better and get a feel for the water.

Moreover, a good indicator of where to stand on the board is the handle. Make sure that you use the handle as a measure of the centre of the board, which is where you want your body weight to be. Moreover, if you want to stand, then you want your feet to be parallel to the handle and pointing forward.

Before you jump on to your feet, you can first get on your knees and take a couple of strokes forward with the paddle, then, as soon as the board starts to drift forward, start making good reads on the flow of the water. This will help you balance better.

Once you decide that you are comfortable, put the paddle in front of you holding it perpendicular to the board. Keeping your grip on the paddle, spring upwards and plant your feet in the center of the board, at shoulder width. Then, make sure that you maintain your posture, stand upright and start paddling.

Always make sure that you do not stop paddling as soon as you stand. Use the paddling movement as a source of your balance. Take a couple of strokes on one side and then switch your strokes on the other side. By doing so, you can keep the board going straight.


To Conclude

Paddle boarding is an excellent form of exercise because it requires strength, endurance, concentration and a mindful connection with the tides. Hence, the perfect exercise can combine the mind, body and soul together, making people stress-free and healthy.