Is Stand Up Paddle Boarding a Good Workout?

Tired of your usual workout routine? Here’s why SUPing should be your summer workout of choice!

You may be wondering why you wake up sore after a nice day of stand up paddle boarding (SUPing). Well, that’s because SUPing works out your entire body — from your shoulders down to your feet!

Paddle boarding is an amazing workout that requires almost every element of your body to cooperate. Another great thing about SUPing is it’s not only a cardio exercise that can help you build endurance, but it’s also a strength workout for your upper body, core and legs. It’s phenomenal for improving your balance as well!

On top of this, paddle boarding is also a fairly low-intensity workout, which means you can do it at a comfortable pace but still burn around 330 to 460 calories per hour. That’s twice the calories you’d burn while walking in your neighbourhood!

Now that we’ve settled why SUP is a great workout, let’s talk about the parts of the body that work when you stand up paddle boarding.

What parts of the body does paddle boarding work?

Arms and shoulders

You’ll need your arms and your shoulders to paddle on your SUP, so it’s a guarantee that you’ll be working them out the entire time.

You get to work out your shoulder every time you pull, dip and lift your paddle when paddle boarding. While your shoulders don’t drive the force of your strokes, they do allow the upper half of your body to move and turn as needed.

As for the muscles in your arms, they're by far the most important muscles you need so you can paddle. (Without those muscles, you can’t even hold a paddle!) But while SUPing may be an excellent arm workout, we don’t recommend solely relying on your arm muscles for the entire SUP session. This makes you tire faster and may lead to injuries.

But if you’re not just relying on your arms, what other muscles does paddling work?

Core

Stand up paddle boarding helps strengthen your core muscles, which is the key to overall strength, agility and physical fitness. This means you can’t achieve maximum physical condition if you have weak core muscles. If you stand up paddle board on a regular basis, you’ll learn how to use these muscles correctly to gain control over your board.

This also means that working on your core will help you improve your balance. It can be challenging but it’s well worth the effort. If you can balance on a stand up paddle board, you can do almost any other kind of balancing activity.

Back

If you’re stand up paddle boarding correctly, you’ll work a wide range of muscles to pull your board across the water. Rather than just relying on your arms and shoulders to pull the paddle to your body, you will use your latissimus dorsi (lats) — which is the largest muscle in your back that gives the torso a wider, flared shape.

Your back lets you stay upright and straight. This is very important to maintain your balance while standing on your paddle board. While paddling, your trapezoid muscles (traps) — another muscle in your back that helps you stabilise and even strengthen your shoulders. Another benefit of strengthening your back muscles is it can help improve your posture in the long term as well.

Legs and feet

If you want to maintain correct posture and balance while paddling, you’ll have to let a range of your leg muscles do a bit of work. Keeping your feet planted on the board is necessary to balance on a paddle board even before you start paddling. Your legs play a huge role in making that happen.

Both your hamstrings and your quadriceps work together to allow for greater knee flexibility so you can do so much more than just stand or kneel. So when you’re, let’s say, paddling with knees slightly bent, both your hamstrings and your quads are engaged to hold that position. Constantly using these large muscles to work makes stand up paddle boarding such a fantastic exercise.

You use your feet muscles as well when you stand up paddle board, most especially when you are paddle boarding on rougher water conditions. You use your feet’s tiny muscles for stability by letting your feet grip your SUP pad more tightly during strong currents.

Get paddling today!

So yes, stand up paddle boarding is fun and is also an excellent form of workout that you can do every day if you’re tired of the usual exercise out there. It’s not only fun, but short regular sessions will quickly result in toning, fat loss and muscle improvement as well.

However, don’t forget to listen to your body when you are stand up paddle boarding (or doing any other activity for that matter). If you feel sudden pain or discomfort, it’s a good idea to take a break and assess if you should keep going or not.

What else are you waiting for? Get your own inflatable stand up paddle board from Kahuna and start reaping the fitness benefits of SUPing. Our sleek and versatile all-round SUPs are a must and will make your workout sessions even more rewarding. Start your fitness journey with our SUPs today!