SUP is known for being a no-fuss sport. The gears needed are minimal and you only need a short amount of time to learn it. But aside from that, one thing that makes SUP amazing is the health benefits that it offers.
Is SUP Boarding Hard?
Stand up paddle boarding has its difficulties, but it is very doable. So doable in fact that people of all ages, fitness level and skill level can learn the sport. The ease of getting started on the sport is one of the many reasons why SUP became very popular so fast.
While SUP does have its learning curve and you need to be able to possess skills like balance, these are things that are easy to learn especially under the supervision of a certified instructor.
How Hard Is It to SUP?
Compared to other watersports, SUP is not that hard and is relatively easy. As a beginner, getting on the board and balancing may be a little difficult but these are things that you can learn in no time.
In SUP, you don’t need to work with any motor or technology while balancing yourself in the water. This makes it so much easier as ultimately, it’s just you (and a few other gears) on the board.
Is SUP Good or Bad for Your Back?
SUP can be good and bad for you back; it just depends on how you handle yourself while doing the activity. There is a risk of experiencing some lower back pain while doing the sport due to the technique used in SUP. But if you think about it, the good trumps the bad in this sport.
In order to be good in SUP, you need to strengthen your core muscles. In doing so, this can relieve lower back pains because the muscles that you build will support the spine. As you continue to develop muscle fitness, this can relieve nerve impingement.
This is not to say that SUP is a cure for all lower back pains. If you are already experiencing back pain prior to engaging in SUP, you may want to check with your doctor if this activity will be good for you. Conversely, if you started getting back pains after getting into the sport, it is important to go and seek medical attention.
Is SUP Boarding Good Exercise?
SUP is an amazing full body workout. The activity is an excellent fitness activity wherein it works your upper body, legs, and core while still being a low-intensity activity. It is fun plus it has all the benefits of spending hours at the gym.
It is an activity that pretty much works with your whole body from your shoulders down to the tips of your toes. You might look serene on your Instagram photos but what your friends don’t know is that spending time on your board is an entire killer workout unto itself.
What Muscles Does SUP Work?
When you are on your board, all the muscles in your body work. From your shoulders down to your arms, to your core, and down to your legs, these muscles are all being used in the sport.
Some people assume that it’s mostly the arms and the upper body that is being highly developed in SUP but it’s actually the core. SUP engages a lot of your core muscles when you paddle. These muscles include your abdominal muscles, rotator cuffs, supraspinatus, deltoids, pectoralis major, latissimus dorsi, and traps.
How Many Calories Does SUP Boarding Burn?
How many calories does SUP burn, you may ask? Well, the short answer is A LOT. And the long answer is if you do the sport for an hour, you can burn anything between 305 to 430 calories.
Paddling at a relaxed pace can burn twice the number of calories that you would when walking at a moderate speed for an hour. If you paddle at a moderate pace, much like the speed that tourers take, you are guaranteed to burn at least 615 to 708 calories in an hour alone.
If you paddle even faster, SUP can burn 713 to 1,125 calories in an hour. Talk about burning a massive amount of calories while not even moving your legs!
Which Is Better Exercise – SUP or Kayak?
SUP easily takes the cake in being a better exercise compared to kayaking. SUP works with every single muscle of your body, from your shoulder to your toes. It is a fun way to tone and strengthen your muscles and core.
On the other hand, kayaking provides more of what experts call isolated workouts. It just works mostly with your upper body including shoulders, abdominals, chest, back, and arms.
But at the end of the day, you still get to decide on your fitness goals. If you want a full body workout then SUP is the way to go. But if you want to pay extra attention to your upper body then kayaking is the better water activity for you.
What Does SUP Yoga Mean?
SUP Yoga is pretty straightforward; it is practicing yoga on a stand up paddle board while floating in a body of water. It is one of the popular activities that you can do on a SUP.
Yogis recommend practicing yoga on a paddle board because it can highly improve your yoga skills. This is because practicing yoga on a SUP requires you to be more focused, balanced, and exert more strength.
Some of the benefits of SUP yoga include:
- Improving your balance
- Becoming more flexible
- Being more focus
- Improving breathing techniques
- Strengthens muscles
- Highly relieves stress
SUP Yoga is best done on calm bodies of water including lakes, harbors, and bay. The best kind of paddle board for SUP yoga are inflatable ones. This is because they are generally more stable on the water than other kinds.
Aside from that, it sits higher on the water and it has more platform space which makes practicing yoga and doing poses easier.
