20 Amazing and Evidence-Supported Benefits of Kayaking You May Not Have Known

Kayaking is a magical outdoor sport. When you master kayaking, you will deeply love this sport, because kayaking includes exercise, leisure and entertainment, river scenery, whitewater adventure, and river travel.

More and more people like kayaking, but they are not aware of the benefits that kayaking brings to them. Here I summarize the 20 most comprehensive, detailed, and evidence-supported benefits of kayaking. This time is worth investing. While enjoying outdoor sports, you can also reap benefits both physically and mentally.

PHYSICAL BENEFITS

• Benefit 1: Improved Cardiac Health Benefit
• Benefit 2: Better Endurance
• Benefit 3: Weight Management
• Benefit 4: More Core Strength
• Benefit 5: Increased Upper-Body Strength
• Benefit 6: Toned Legs
• Benefit 7: Low-Impact Movement is good for the Joints
• Benefit 8: Activate Vitamin D in your body

MENTAL BENEFITS

• Benefit 9: Mood Boost
• Benefit 10: Improved Focus
• Benefit 11: A Good Night's Sleep
• Benefit 12: Better Memory
• Benefit 13: Provides time for bonding and socializing
• Benefit 14: Allow time for reflection
• Benefit 15: Provides an opportunity for self-improvement
• Benefit 16: Increased happiness
• Benefit 17: Improve learning
• Benefit 18: Master the camping experience
• Benefit 19: Improve your tan
• Benefit 20: Improve your self-image

Benefit 1: Improved Cardiac Health Benefit

With the rapid development of the social economy and the improvement of living standards, the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases is rising. Hypertension is the most important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 25 percent of adults worldwide suffer from hypertension.

Lower blood pressure
When kayaking, the upper body moves frequently. With the increase in physical activity, the heart will expel more blood every time it beats, which reduces the pressure on the heart and surrounding arteries and effectively lowers blood pressure.
A large study in 2013 further explored the dose-response relationship between physical activity and hypertension. In the Australian study, Pavi and his colleagues showed that hypertension decreased with the increase in total physical activity.
For further explanation, many randomized controlled trials (RCT) were conducted to study the antihypertensive effect of exercise. The analysis concluded that in adults with hypertension, aerobic exercise training can reduce blood pressure (BP) by 5-7 mmHg, while dynamic resistance training can reduce BP by 2-3 mmHg. These BP reductions were 20-30% lower in cardiovascular disease risk compared to patients using first-line antihypertensive drugs.

Improve blood flow
Over time, fatty deposits can cause blockages in blood vessels. kayaking allows the heart to get better blood flow in the small blood vessels around it. Better blood circulation in these areas can prevent heart attacks.
According to the British Heart Foundation, our heart beats about 100000 times a day and uses our circulatory system (i) to pump about 5 liters of blood around our bodies. This system (also known as the vascular system) consists of a complex network of blood vessels, such as arteries and capillaries through which blood reaches every part of the body and veins.

Lower cholesterol
Exercise is related to the health improvement of cholesterol, such as increasing the content of healthy high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and possibly reducing bad low-density lipoprotein cholesterol by as much as 10%. According to the AHA, 150 minutes of aerobic exercise every week can reduce LDL cholesterol.

Benefit 2: Better Endurance

The process of long-distance kayaking is an aerobic exercise. The body produces red blood cells and mitochondria during kayaking. Mitochondria use the oxygen provided to generate muscle energy. The more energy you can synthesize with oxygen, the longer it takes for your muscles to fatigue. At the same time, increasing the volume of the heart and lungs will also increase.
The research shows that more red blood cells and more mitochondria are produced in this process, and the gas and nutrient exchange is improved. You can exercise more vigorously, more effectively, and for longer periods.

Benefit 3: Weight Management

Kayaking is a sport that can reduce weight. The calorie consumption during rowing is a continuous process because you will spend an afternoon, or even a day.
The number of calories burned in canoes is related to weight, distance, speed, and difficulty of water flow. In May 2015, a study conducted by the School of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University showed that the average person in a canoe burns 375 – 475 calories per hour.

Type of kayaking	MET	Calories
Recreational kayaking	5	358
Whitewater kayaking	7	585
Competitive kayaking	12.5	895

"MET" is a measure of the energy cost of physical activity over some time.
For example, MET is 1, which refers to the energy consumed by a person sitting quietly at room temperature without digesting food.
Calories burned per minute =(MET x body weight (Kg) x 3.5) ÷ 200

Benefit 4: More Core Strength

Core strength is the ability of a group of muscles to stabilize and control the pelvis and spine, so it also affects the legs and upper body. Core strength is not about strength, but about being able to keep the body in the ideal position. Having a strong or stable core strength can usually prevent overuse injuries, and can help improve resilience and ease the recovery of acute injuries.
when you control the direction and various rotations of the kayak, you can exercise the abdominal muscles, oblique abdominal muscles, and back muscles. When you stretch your hand forward to the paddle, your abdominal muscles will contract. When you pull back, your back muscles will contract. When you do any twists, your oblique muscles will be exercised. The process of rowing is repeated, and the core strength muscles are repeatedly contracted and expanded. The core strength has also increased accordingly.

Benefit 5: Increased Upper-Body Strength

When rowing, you need to hold the oar and lift it forward and use the correct action to row forward. At the same time, the weight is shifted from the hips to the shoulders. In the process of fast rowing, you can exercise the biceps, triceps, and shoulder muscles. The faster you row, the greater the degree of muscle exercise in these three parts. It will also improve your grip strength and increase upper-body strength. If you want to be a successful kayaker, it is important to focus on strengthening these muscles.

Benefit 6: Toned Legs

The legs are also moving when rowing. The role of your legs is to better maintain your upper body sitting and balance. Throughout the rowing process, quadriceps femoris, and calf muscles are used to push the canoe forward. Kicking the boat with your toes can exercise your quadriceps. The interaction between the hip and boat during oaring exercises hip muscles.

Benefit 7: Low-Impact Movement is good for Joints

During rowing, 80% of your muscles will be exercised. Muscle exercise is beneficial to the improvement of core strength, as well as the protection and exercise of joints. For example, the training of the hip muscles (gluteus) and the muscles in the front of the thigh (quadriceps femoris) is conducive to improving the support strength of the knee.

The research shows that rowing has the following four advantages for joints:
1. Increase the lubrication of joints during sliding. The joints of our bodies are surrounded by soft tissue, which is called synovium. The synovium can produce fluid. When rowing, the fluid produced by the synovium will increase. The bones at the joints slide smoothly against each other.
2. Blood flow increased. When rowing, your heart speeds up. The blood circulation of the human body increases. The oxygen and nutrition of each joint will be improved accordingly, which is conducive to joint protection.
3. The amount of muscle around the joint increases. The muscles around the joint support the joint. The powerful muscle group provides good support for joints. The joint can bear more pressure to avoid joint injury.
3. The amount of muscle around the joint increases. The muscles around the joint support the joint. The powerful muscle group provides good support for joints. The joint can bear more pressure to avoid joint injury.

Benefit 8: Activate Vitamin D in your body

Kayaking belongs to outdoor sports, and it is exposed to sunlight for a long time. Vitamin D is synthesized in the skin after ultraviolet radiation. Vitamin D is an essential nutrient for the human body. Vitamin D is conducive to calcium absorption. Calcium plays an important role in bone growth, bone healing, and immune system function.

Under different rowing conditions, the amount of vitamin D obtained is different:
1. The time of day for rowing. If you are rowing at noon, you will produce the most vitamins when the sun is most abundant. When rowing in the hot sun, you need to apply sunscreen and keep moisture to avoid injury.
2. The amount of skin exposure. If you are rowing, the more skin you expose, the more vitamin D you produce.
3. The color of the skin. Light skin produces vitamin D faster than dark skin.

Benefit 9: Mood Boost

When you have a kayak, your mood will become very happy. Because during rowing, the body produces serotonin, dopamine, and endorphin, which are neurotransmitter chemicals that can make you feel better.

1.Serotonin. Serotonin can affect your mood and motor skills. It helps regulate anxiety, food digestion, absorption, and wound healing.
2.Dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter produced in the brain. It acts as a chemical messenger between neurons. Dopamine is involved in neural and physiological functions. It can make you feel happier. 3.Endorphins. When rowing, the body also releases a hormone called endorphins. This hormone makes you keep a short and extremely happy state after strenuous exercise.

Benefit 10: Improved Focus

When whitewater kayaking, if you don't pay attention, you will hit a stone or capsize the boat. Experts in sports psychology define attention as "a process in which all thoughts and senses are completely focused on the selected object or activity and everything else is excluded". kayaking is a good attention training process:

1. Identify your key needs. For example, how many kilometers do you row on this fast river? What's the difficulty of rowing this time?
2. Set focused goals. When rowing, determine the critical moment when your attention tends to weaken, consider possible reasons, and set goals to prevent it from happening.
3. Develop effective methods. When your attention is affected, develop a response to this influencing factor.
4. Use positive psychological cues. When encountering an unconquerable river or mastering a movement, you should have positive psychological hints. No matter what difficulties, imagine that you can overcome them. This method can make you relax to a certain extent.

Benefit 11: A Good Night's Sleep

If you experience a day of kayaking during the day, you must be very tired. You can have a good sleep at night. Charlene Gamaldo, medical director of Johns Hopkins Sleep Center at Howard County General Hospital and medical doctor, said that according to existing research, "we have solid evidence that exercise can help you fall asleep faster and improve the quality of sleep."
After a night's rest, you can devote yourself to your life energetically the next day.

Benefit 12: Better Memory

Kayaking helps improve your memory. Many research institutions have proven this conclusion. Dr. Scott McGinnis, lecturer in neurology at Harvard Medical School, said exercise can, directly and indirectly, improve your memory and thinking ability. It directly acts on the body by stimulating physiological changes (such as reducing insulin resistance and inflammation), while promoting the production of growth factors - these chemicals will affect the growth of new blood vessels in the brain, and even affect the abundance, survival rate, and overall health of new brain cells.

Benefit 13: Provide time for socializing

If you take part in a river activity organized by a canoe club, it will be of great benefit to your social communication ability. Opportunities to meet different people. Kayaking is a sport with a wide age range. The age range is mainly from 20 to 60 years old. When you participate in kayaking river activities, you will discuss plans and goals with people of different ages. In this process, you can not only improve your communication skills but also meet people of different races, ages, and backgrounds. kayaking is an inclusive sport that encourages everyone to participate in river activities.

Benefit 14: Allow time for reflection

Start a river trip, take your kayak and camping equipment, and you can even live on the river for a few days. But when you stop, you will have enough time to get along with yourself and reflect. Self-reflection is defined as a psychological process that you can use to deepen your understanding of who you are, what your values are, and why you think, feel, and act in your way. When you reflect on yourself and become more aware of the factors that drive you, you can make changes more easily, helping you develop yourself or improve your life more easily.

Benefit 15: Provide an opportunity for self-improvement

Kayaking gives you a chance to improve yourself. If you insist on rowing twice a week, your physical strength, bones, blood vessels, and joints can be exercised. To provide you with a healthy physique and improve self-confidence. At the same time, if you are a novice in kayaking, you record your goals each time. After two months, your skills will be greatly improved.

Benefit 16: Increase happiness

Kayaking is an aerobic sport. During exercise, your body will produce dopamine and endorphins, and your mood will become happy.

Dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter produced in the brain. It acts as a chemical messenger between neurons. Dopamine is involved in neural and physiological functions. It can make you feel happier.
Endorphins. When rowing, the body also releases a hormone called endorphins. This hormone makes you keep a short and extremely happy state after strenuous exercise.

If you persist in rowing for a long time, your happiness will continue to accumulate. Your body gets stronger after rowing. Your sleep is getting better. Your social sphere has broadened. The river distance of your rowing boat becomes longer. These are the benefits of rowing, which will increase your happiness.

Benefit 17: Improve learning skill

Learning kayaking or participating in kayaking activities is an opportunity to learn skills and thinking. This way of thinking can be applied to life, allowing you to effectively acquire new skills and knowledge. The right way of thinking is very important.

1. Know your environment. If you are a novice, you need to take some rowing courses to increase your basic knowledge. If you participate in the river activities organized by the club, you need to check whether your equipment is complete and working properly.
2. Set goals. What did I gain from this kayaking activity? Correctly identify your goals and analyze the current situation. For example, exercise muscles, row distance, increase social interaction, increase happiness, and learn new technologies. These can be goals.
3. Set discipline. In the process of achieving the goal, difficulties, setbacks, and temptations will be encountered. After setting discipline, you can better accomplish your goals.
4. Self-motivation. In the process of achieving the goal, difficulties, setbacks, and temptations will be encountered. Self-encouragement can help a lot.
5. Time management. Rowing is a learning process, and good time management can improve learning efficiency.

Benefit 18: The master camping experience

If you participate in a river kayak activity, the time is less than 3 days. You can learn a lot about camping. Before departure, you will discuss the activity plan with your partner and study the camping site. The kayak camping activities full of challenges and excitement will greatly improve your experience. If you want to survive outdoors, you need to consider what you need to bring. They should be easy to carry and enough for you to use.
Tents, sleeping bags, clothes, camping cooking, and food lists are all things you need to prepare.

Benefit 19: Improve your tan

Stick to kayaking to keep tan skin. You can make your clothes less, and your skin can get the sun's radiation. You can do it quietly on the kayak, and enjoy the calm of the river when the skin gradually becomes tan color. In addition, you can also do some rowing while basking in the sun. After a few hours, the effect of tan is no worse than that of sunbathing on the beach. In addition, you need to ensure that your skin is protected from excessive exposure to the sun while rowing. You can prevent skin injury by using sunscreen and breathable clothes with long sleeves. I wish you a healthy complexion.

Benefit 20: Improve your self-confidence

Kayaking can improve your confidence. When you finish the goals you set, again and again, you are in a very happy mood, your skills have been improved, and you have improved your sense of superiority in the group.
Albert Bandura's self-efficacy theory describes the theoretical method of sports confidence.

1.Performance accomplishments. When you complete the Class III whitewater kayaking goal, you will have confidence and a higher level of challenge, such as Class IV. You will confidently organize and plan the next kayaking activity. You will actively learn more skills. Personal success will produce self-confidence, but conversely, personal failure will also weaken self-confidence.

2.Being involved with the success of others. If you are a beginner at kayaking, you can participate in kayaking river activities and stay with an excellent kayaker. As teammates, their qualities or abilities match yours. You will be happy to think: 'They can do it, so can I.'.

3.Verbal persuasion. This is a psychological suggestion. kayaking meets many difficulties. Through Verbal persuasion, you can increase self-confidence, overcome fear and keep your mind clear.

4.Imagery experience. The kayak rower imagines the successful performance of the multisensor image in his mind. By establishing such psychological representation, more confidence will be built.

5.Physiological states. Physical states can reduce self-confidence through muscle tension, palpitations, and stomach discomfort. If you participate in kayaking competitions, your physical state will have a great impact on you. Physical states can be exercised through appropriate stress management interventions, such as "five breaths" and "thinking stops". Long-term kayaking exercise will also improve the control ability of physical states.

6.Emotional states. Emotional states are the ultimate source of confidence. If you are in the crowd of kayaking activities, you can well control the clarity related to competition and failure, tour kayaking performance. kayaking can improve the control ability of our emotional states.

Conlcusion

Kayaking is a sport that has an element of surprise and unsurprisingly it is a sport that can help mentally and physically in life. With the vast amount of experience in just doing it for the first time it can be benefical to an amazing extent. However, it is a sport that does have some risks depending on how you approach it. Having respect for nature and other kayakers and boaters is a part of that.