Is Kayaking Good Exercise? Kayaking for Fitness

First things first, paddling is for fun, and it always should be. But what may come as a surprise to many is that kayaking is good exercise! It can be a great way to improve your fitness, look after your mental health, and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Image by POV Media Works

Anyone who has tried to use the gym to get in shape for big paddling seasons knows that where you may gain strength or even stamina, nothing is the same as being paddle fit. That special kind of fitness that only comes from time on the water. It allows you to paddle harder, for longer, and better. So how can you plan your paddling to improve this?

In short….. Just paddle. Time on the water will improve your paddle fitness. However, there are three types of paddling sessions that can help boost your fitness in the run up to a big season on the water. So, drawing on over 20 years of paddling, time on the GB slalom team, GB freestyle team, learnings from university studies, and 3 (soon to be 4) 24 hour paddling challenges, here are my top sessions for paddle fitness.

1 - Distance Kayaking

This is what it says on the tin, paddling a long way. Make the most of your local water and find a fun route that gets you out, forward paddling, for a few hours at a time. For me, I set out on the Trent Loop, a 15km loop around kayaking around Nottingham. Some people might think it sounds a little boring, but if you get a small group of paddlers, or a good podcast on the go, then the time soon flies by. It is also a great way to take a tour of new areas and see them from a new perspective.

This continuous paddling will help to increase your aerobic capacity and build your endurance strength. This will help with making those fun paddling sessions even longer. You won’t be as tired at the end of a day running rivers. And your recovery from those days on the water will be quicker too, making you ready for the next. This type of kayaking is quality exercise to improve your overall health and fitness!

2 - Kayaking for fitness - Sprints

Ramping up the speed and feeling the burn. You can do this on the river or the flat, it’s all about the amount of effort you put into each stint. Chunk it into blocks of 6-8 sprints, lasting 15-30 seconds each time, with similar rest in between. Look to do about 6 blocks, giving yourself a bit of a rest between each one. Your arms, shoulders, and back will start to burn. But by the end of the session you’ll feel great….. Honest.

So what is this going to do for your paddling? It will make putting some power down on the river easier, and make you able to do it for longer. The burn you feel during and after a sprint is lactic acid, and by regularly exposing your muscles to it in these sprint sessions you build up a higher tolerance. So in freestyle, your 45 second rides become easier. In slalom, you can go full power for longer. River running, you can push the hard on the right lines easier. There are benefits of this across every type of paddling you can do.

Image: Jack Ledwith Photography - IG: @j_ledphoto

3 - Kayaking for Fun

Kayaking for fitness is also fun! Just get out there and enjoy the water. And enjoy it in as many different ways as possible. Having a wide range of paddling in your life keeps the fun in it. And as I started this article off with, paddling is most importantly, for fun. Don’t get stuck on one type of session, on one stretch of water, in one boat. Switch things up on a regular basis.

You will also pick up bits of technique and fitness that benefits across disciplines of paddling. One of my best examples is that of simple forward paddling. My time in slalom gave me great forward paddling technique. This has helped me immensely in every other type of paddling I've done. So get out there and paddle in every way you possibly can.

You can set yourself strict training programs, or just throw in the sessions where they fit. Kayaking for exercise is great, whether its a steady potter around the lake, or epic 24 hour slog. Being that little bit fitter for it can make it that little bit better, so use that as an excuse to get out even more!