Is Kayaking A Good Workout?

Having a passion in life is always good. Finding anything that gives you pleasure from your day-to-day work and regular life is always hard for people who don’t have much interest. But when someone has kayaking as their passion and preferred pastime, they can be considered quite interesting in life.

Choosing something to do as a pastime that is a one-time thrilling experience for some people proves how interesting as a person you are. Kayaking is not only stimulating and exhilarating, but it’s also an activity that strains your body physically.

Fighting strong white waters, river currents, or ocean waves on a narrow, lightweight boat with a stick with paddles at both ends can really strain all of your muscles. So, is kayaking a good workout? I would say one of the best workouts one can do.

Water currents are used to produce electricity. The power water currents have, is astounding. Fighting that with a small, lightweight two-person or single-person boat is a thrill of a lifetime.

So, why is kayaking a good workout?

Is Kayaking A Good Workout?

Kayaking is not a boring activity like going to the gym and following the same routine. Every single kayaking session can give you a different experience. Also, if you are thinking about kayaking as an alternative to working out at the gym, you have to treat it like a workout.

The usual session time of kayaking initially can be of an hour or so. If you take it as a regular activity, consider kayaking for 1 to 4 hours each day according to your fitness routine.

Kayaking Is Good for Which Part of Your Body?

Kayaking is an upper-body workout. It strains almost every muscle from your hands to your back. To ensure that you’re working out your entire body, a couple or a few leg days a week at home should do that trick. So, the question might still remain, how is kayaking better than working out at the gym?

While working out at the gym, you have designated days for designated body exercise. Leg days are specified. In the case of kayaking, with one activity, you’re straining every single upper body muscle. But at the gym, there’s a specific kind of device or workout for different muscles.

And the workouts are boring. On the other hand, Kayaking can give you new challenges in every turn. Taking up those challenges will provide you with the result of having a very fit body.

Does Kayaking Burn Calories?

The timing that I have mentioned earlier. One to four hours of kayaking can be a very good regime for your workout. For those who want to build a hardened body, 3 to 4 hours of kayaking can help them achieve what they want.

In the case of burning fat, it actually depends on the weight of the paddle and the force of the current. According to the calculated results,

• 125-pound paddle can burn around 280 calories/hr
• 150-pound paddle can burn about 330 calories/hr
• 175-pound paddle can burn up to 375 calories/hr
• 200-pound paddle can burn up to 440 calories/hr

Numbers are not accurate because the force of the water current can’t be predicted. Factoring that can fluctuate the numbers. So, kayaking is great for burning calories. If you are going for hardened exercise, with 4 hours of kayaking, you can burn up to 1800 calories per day.

Kayaking Helps to Lose Weight Without Diet

People opt for an extreme diet to lose weight. Dieting does work for some people. For most people, it doesn’t. The problem with dieting is that you will feel weak and sleepy until your body adjusts to eating habits. It takes quite some time.

But kayaking regularly has no effects like this whatsoever. You will have a sore body in the first week, it’s true, not just for kayaking. Any type of exercise can give your sore body in the first few days. With the strain on your body, you will be able to sleep well.

Adjusting with kayaking won’t take much time, and after that, you will have a better routine and life cycle. You wouldn’t have to get rid of the regular food that you eat. You can eat normally and lose weight at the same time.

Is Kayaking a Good Cardio?

Running and walking are considered to be very good cardio that can increase the strength of your lungs and increase your stamina. Just by running a few miles each day, you can build up great stamina and lung strength.

Just think about kayaking every day for one or two hours and how much breathing exercise it would be for you. Though the main strain would be to the upper part of your body, the movement is great cardio.

Is Kayaking Good for Building Biceps and Triceps?

Paddling is done by using both hands. And the paddling technique is to paddle one stroke on each side. So, the factor of the dominant hand being strained more is not applicable here. Both hands are strained equally.

The paddling technique is efficient for flexing hand muscles. This makes kayaking an exceptional exercise for building biceps and triceps.

Is Kayaking Good For Back Pain?

If you have mild to medium back pain, kayaking can be a very good exercise for that. In most cases, back pain patients are advised to take physiotherapy to ease the muscle strains causing back pain. Kayaking can be an alternative to that physiotherapy.

There’s a little catch, though. If you have severe back pain, you cannot kayak for too long from the very beginning. Small kayaking sessions of 20 to 30 minutes will help your body to adjust to the therapeutic factor of kayaking. Later on, you can increase the timing to reap all the benefits of this exercise.

Safety Concerns

Kayaking is a good exercise, yes. But not everyone can take the strain due to the muscle span or body structure. Also, if someone has acute back pain, they might not be able to adjust to it.

Sometimes, excessive kayaking can be the reason for your muscles to go into spasm. So, if you feel any pain at any part of your body while kayaking, the basic measure is to stop immediately and consult a professional about the pain. If you force yourself to carry on, severe injuries are waiting for you.

Final Words

Yes, kayaking is a good exercise. If it can be done as a proper regime and routine, it can be an extraordinary exercise and alternative to a gym workout.

Again, if you choose not to follow the safety concern while kayaking, it will definitely do more harm than good. You will end up injuring yourself, which is not acceptable in any way.