Kayaking is a sport that offers you with a lifetime of various benefits. Kayaking for many is a fun hobby, which provides one with some excitement and adrenaline rush, as well as some needed exercise for the body and mind. Kayaking allows you to challenge your limits and also allows you to learn new skills in the process.
Most sports these days come with some health benefits and so does kayaking. Below we will discuss 7 health benefits that come from kayaking. They will clearly show you how kayaking can bring variation to your boring workout routine. Some of the health benefits of kayaking are as follows:
Top 7 Health & Fitness Benefits of Regular Kayaking
Help reduce stress
Kayaking can be an awesome way to reduce stress on the mind. When you are having a great time under the sky, watching your self-effort of moving your kayak through blue water, your mind automatically enters a stress-free environment. Just spend a couple of hours every day, and you will drastically see and feel changes in your mental health.
Helps with weight loss
Moving a kayak requires a lot of strength. Kayaking helps you to stretch those muscles a little bit more than you usually do. It also helps in burning fat from the body, which eventually results in healthy weight loss. If you want to move a kayak at the speed of 5 miles per hour, you must at least apply 0.1 hp of effort. This helps burn around 400 calories per hour. So that means, if you are kayaking for more than 4 hours, you will burn around 1600 calories, which is a healthy rate for weight loss.
Improves mental health
Kayaking helps with the release of brain chemicals which rapidly improve your mental health or mood. If you want to be relaxed right after a hectic day of work, kayaking can be the perfect solution. Kayaking also helps your brain to relax and forget all your problems in the process.
Strength enhancement
Kayaking helps improve your cardiovascular health according to many studies. Your major muscle groups throughout your body gain strength after a few hours of kayaking on a daily basis. Kayaking also provides your upper-body with a challenging workout, resulting in a perfect toned body. Muscle strength of your back, arms, chest, and shoulder increases due to paddling the kayak. Paddling is a low impact activity, so there is no risk of tearing a muscle or tissue in the body. Leg and torso muscles also improve drastically, as they are the main parts of the body used to power a kayak or canoe.
Vitamin D intake
When kayaking, you spend a huge amount of time outdoors. As a bonus you intake a lot of vitamin D. When you are kayaking you are directly exposed to the sun for hours. The sun is one of the main sources of pure vitamin D. The sun provides you around 80% of pure vitamin D, which is absent in food.
Helps you change your self-image
Kayaking helps boost your confidence. When you start noticing the drastic improvements in your body from kayaking, you will instantly gain more confidence in yourself. A boost in confidence results in better work and love life. A few hours of kayaking through challenging whitewater rapids and overcoming them brings you self-satisfaction. A boost in confidence also results in better social skills.
Helps you become a part of an ever-growing community
Like any other sport out there, kayaking also has a huge community of like-minded individuals who love the sport. Kayaking helps improve fitness, mental health and provides you the opportunity of meeting awesome people. No other sport out there incorporates physical benefits with the most scenic sites nature has to offer.
Final words
There are not many sports out there that provide you with so many health benefits, like kayaking. The huge improvements you will see your body after a kayaking session are something you should not miss out on. So have no worries, and head out into the open waters with your kayak as soon as possible.
