Kayaking - What's Good?

Photo source from Farm & Fleet

Aside from being popular for duty free shopping and relaxing by the beach, Langkawi is also popular for its abundance of watersport activities, and one of them is KAYAK! According to TheActiveTimes (2014), kayaking is a watersport that involves paddling using a double-bladed oar and a small boat known as a kayak. The boats come in a variety of sizes and types, depending on their intended use. Most kayaks feature an enclosed deck that covers the legs. The boat sits low in the water and usually only accommodate a single paddler. However, tandem kayaks hold two people and some boats hold three.


Photo source from Wedgewood

While kayak may not be in the main spotlight like jetski and banana boat, kayak is proven to have several benefits that can improve our physical and mental health. So let’s check them out below to see what we can gain from this sport.

1. Abs and stamina workout

Kayaking involves a super upper body workout. When fighting the current, the water resistance will need us to use our muscle strengths. This is great train our abs and main muscles like back, arms, shoulders and chest. Not only working the upper body out, but the act of steering and guiding the boat will also build solid core and tone our leg muscles. Talking about improving the overall strength.

 

2. Weight loss

Kayaking helps those who are on their mission to lose weight. As we glide over the water, it takes a lot of core strength for paddling and for us to move and control the boat. When we paddle on both sides of the boat, we will twist our body. This movement will target on muscles that normally be overlooked and indirectly helps to flatten and tone our tummy. Aren’t we aiming to lose weight in a healthy way?

3. Emotional benefits

Open water is proven to be meditative. It brings calm and clarity to one’s mind. With the boat floating on the water, our body and mind move also through the water, creating a sense of liberating. The moving water, fresh air and natural environment will help you to revive. This is great to improve our mental health and can become a stress reliever. A late fashion designer, Alexander McQueen once said that he was happiest he was doing scuba-diving, untroubled by the issues that bothered him on dry land.

4. Internal cardiovascular benefits

Not only kayaking trains our muscles to work, but it also improves our heart health and cardiovascular system. This happens through the aerobic exercise along the paddling. When we pick up the pace, that action will elevate our heart rate. According to some sources, an hour of kayaking will burn 400 to 500 of your calories. Plus, kayaking is great for those who are recovering from injury as the paddling is less demanding on joints and tissues.

5. Sense of exploration

Kayaking calls for adventure, and long journey of kayaking will bring you the ultimate sense of exploration. It is the kind of activity that puts you in the center of nature and let you navigate your way on your own. People often see it as a sightseeing opportunity and a relaxing vacation activity. However, if you are looking for an adventure and a thrilling experience, go for wild water kayaking over waterfalls. It will be intense enough to satisfy your stunt crave.

Readers, in short, there are five major benefits of kayaking. This watersport is good for abs and stamina workout, helps for weight loss, great for emotional benefit, improve internal cardiovascular health and work our sense of exploration. These are among the reasons of why we think everyone should try this watersport. We absolutely love kayak and we think you should try it too. What do you say?


Photo source from howstuffworks


Photo source from paddling.com