Owning a stand up paddle board is a new trend among outdoor enthusiasts since paddle boarding is now a fast-growing water sport. One important factor that helps in its growth in popularity is that paddlers can use it as a way to burn calories. Different SUP activities can actually burn different amounts of calories and the number could be very different. We will delve into that and also see the differences in caloric expenditure amongst different SUP activities.
Calculating caloric burn
Quickly before delving into how many calories you can burn in SUP activities, let’s have a look at exactly what it is you’ll be burning. Calories are not packets of food burned within the body, rather, they are the body’s unit of energy expended to power muscles to do activities. Much like you fuel your vehicle with diesel or petrol, you fuel your body with food to help it do its day to day activities. This is your body’s basal metabolic rate. As you exert more effort in exercise, your body amps up the caloric burn to keep your muscles replenished with fuel.
People of different height, weight, age, genetic make-up, etc will get different results when using SUP activities as a way to burn calories. The caloric counts in the below activities are averages from data gathered from people with the weight between 165 and 200 lbs (75-90 kg) doing those activities. So, normally, that’s how many calories you are likely to burn by participating in SUP activities.
Casual SUP paddling
Casual paddleboarding is what most paddlers do. In an hour of easy-breezy paddling on a paddleboard on calm waters with little to no wind, you can burn about 305 to 403 calories. At such speed, you can easily converse with your SUP partner or bring your child or even your dog on board for a fun adventure. Walking slowly for one hour (a pace of about 2.5 miles per hour) is able to burn about 225 calories, and it’s easy to see the advantage of SUP as a recreational activity.
SUP yoga
SUP yoga is a relatively new form of yoga. Depending on what type of yoga you want to do, you will burn different amounts of calories. More high impact and dynamic yoga such as Ashtanga likely fall on the higher end of the range here than more composed and slow yoga sequences. One hour of SUP yoga session can burn about 416 to 540 calories and is basically enough for a decent workout.
SUP touring
SUP touring is akin to long-distance running. It’s moderate-paced paddleboarding over long distances of water. This is a fantastic challenge for SUPers who want to test their endurance and it’s also great for burning calories. Touring on your SUP for one hour, you can burn between 615 and 708 calories, which surpasses the calories you can burn via running or biking for one hour. Sup touring manages to burn more than running because it engages the body more holistically. The legs are engaged, so is the core and arms are working extra hard to keep you going.
SUP surfing
Many surfers love SUP surfing on their rest days. They consider SUP surfing a great cross-training activity. Likewise, SUP fans who want to take on new challenges enjoy trying this variation out. When surfing on a SUP,the waves are what determines the number of calories you can burn. Wave height, in particular, determines the amount of effort needed from your muscles to navigate. SUP surfing for one hour and you can burn about 623 to 735 calories. On a really good day with the sun just warm enough and waves of the right height, some SUP surfers would stay in for more than an hour and rack up the caloric burn count!
SUP racing
SUP racing is the most rigorous type of SUP as it stands. Although SUP races vary widely on the distance and water conditions, there’s an underlying factor that makes this activity heavy on energy expenditure–you have to be fast!. Increased speed requires all the muscles to be engaged more intensely than SUP touring. It gets even more challenging when you have to sustain speed for longer SUP races. With those variations in mind, SUPers typically expend between 713 and 1121 calories per hour in SUP racing games . Compared to swimming for the same amount of time that burns 840 calories, SUP racing is just as good a workout as swimming.
Generally, paddle boarding can be considered an effective, easy and enjoyable way to burn calories. The longer you stay on your SUP board, the more calories you can burn. If you want to burn calories in a pleasant way, paddle boarding would be your best bet.
Pankaj Singh
Pankaj Singh is a senior digital marketing executive having 2 years of experience in SEO, SMM, SMO, blogging, etc with a wide range of content marketing skills. He is well-qualified literate in this field.