10 Health Benefits Of Kayaking & Canoeing – Is It A Good Exercise?

Anxiety, reduced strength, depression, mood fluctuations are somehow the factors more or less we all go through at some point. And that inevitably decreases aerobic fitness and your flexibility to cope with different aspects of life. Thereupon, it is much needed to recoup the health that you once used to have. Now the question that arises here is “HOW”.

Since it’s Covid time and surely none of us would want to take our health for granted by visiting chaotic places. In these circumstances, I have got you a thing that can happen to be safest in not only keeping you away from congested gyms but can also be the reason to drag away these ill factors from one’s existence.

We all know the fact how overcrowded our gyms have become and this ultimately makes people feel monotonous and less exciting. So why waste time waiting to get vacant space to work out when we have a chance to stay fit and explore secluded spots through an overlooked kind of exercise like kayaking. After being invented by the Inuit tribe decades before, these kayaks are much demanded up till now and still many fishermen prefer kayaks over other means to moving on water.

Ready to hit the waters, check out our guide to what size kayak do I need.

Health Benefits Of Kayaking & Canoeing

benefits of kayaking

How Kayaking And Canoeing Benefits One’s Body And Mind

No matter how you want to use the kayak, in every way it reminisces one’s soul, whether you want to do it unaccompanied or want to be a part of some race in social activity; you can have hours of enjoyment through this activity. Below are some of the best advantages of kayaking that can prove to be beneficial for both your mind and body.


You Get Exposure To Nature

Being a living member of this 21st century, we all have been kept bound by our busy schedules, and it is hard to even maintain equilibrium between relationships and jobs. However, it is more than important to give your pretty selves a luxuriant nature exposure and be away from the concrete jungle for a little too while. In this case, the kayaking act as a valve to help you release all the stress out of you and leaves your face with intense felicity. It provides you an opportunity to run into hidden areas, meanwhile aiding you to stay away from heart-wrenching news from social sites. Where it helps you to reshape your bulky posture, at the same time the number of happiness hormones redirects to your blood becomes twice the actual amount.


An Exercise And Contemplation At The Same Time

Yes, you heard it right. When you go on the water for kayaking, it ultimately leaves your mind with peacefulness, the moment you let yourself go with the flow, the sound your paddle makes when it strikes the water with to and fro motion is just enthralling. You exercise both from mind and body and it can be much more relaxing when the water is tranquil and more reflective.


Strengthens Up Your Muscles

Kayaking is the best way to shape up your upper body. As soon as you enter the arena you can actually sense the visible body firming. If you do it properly, the results can be seen very soon. Many people misunderstand the right way of paddling, they think using the biceps is the right way to paddle. However this is not the case, paddling can be done correctly if you use your upper body. Even so, this might be troublesome if you are using wide sit-on-top kayaks, but still, correct paddling is achievable. Do not worry if you are not doing it the way it should be done, still, you can strengthen up your arms muscles.


No More Obesity

Not everyone is born with a toned body. There are many people who are facing problems with obesity. If you are thinking to burn pounds off your body but not through hardcore exercise, then kayaking is the best activity that can help you achieve your dream body shape. Typically the number of calories burned in kayaking depends on the water condition. If you are paddling against high waves, you can burn more and more calories in less time. But if you are paddling in restful water you need to put more effort in order to bring more calories on burning.


Bring Good Heart Health

The benefits of kayaking just do not end here, there are numerous more advantages of kayaking, and bringing good health to your heart is one of those. Since kayaking is an aerobic exercise, it helps improve one’s cardiovascular system by pumping the right amount of blood required to your body and even to the farthest cell that resides in your body.


Release Good Hormones

As you start to paddle, the good hormones generally name as serotonin and endorphin releases in your bloodstreams that ultimately help the betterment of your overall mood, and it gets even more enhanced when you use the kayak as a source of exercise because you get to spend more time with nature than crowded gyms instead.


No Media Exposure Means No Stress

One major benefit of kayaking is that it inhibits the usage of phones because you can not use both at the same time. When you are kayaking, nature and its calming scenes are your only screen and nothing else and it sounds quite beneficial because nowadays media only focuses to show controversial news rather than giving helpful information, which only suppresses our endorphins and creates an anxious mental state. So next time whenever you get tired of this media world simply bring your kayak and jump into blue peaceful water.


Find Secluded Places

Does not it sound incredible that the thing which helps to shape up the posture can also be the way to explore hidden places of nature? Kayaking is the perfect way to explore nature. You can go anywhere you want, it just requires some extra strength. You may find a new spot for recreational use or may explore the hidden beach that no one has ever got to see. This kind of exploration will prove to be great both for your mental and physical health.


Let’s see what Belle, Adrian Freeman, and Furman have to say about the health benefits of kayaking


Helps Maintain Social Distancing:

The circumstances we are living in, social distancing is the utmost requirement for it. And kayaking might be the best possible way to practice it. It does not matter if you are unaccompanied or kayaking in a group, maintaining distance with other people is always feasible with kayaks.