Burn Approximately 600 Calories per Hour, Get a Great Core Workout, and Stay Physically Fit with Watersports!
I understand the importance of staying in shape but I just can’t handle the monotony of jogging laps (or even worse, using a stationary bike or treadmill). Jogging is less exciting than Nascar races during a caution and I just can’t bring myself to do it regularly; I don’t foresee that being a problem when it comes to kiteboarding. Gliding through the air cutting through the water, wow!
Hi all, the name’s Adam, I’m going to be writing here from time to time. As you probably could guess, I’m here because I want to learn how to kiteboard. I already snowboard and waterski, but this just seems like the best of both worlds.
After a sedentary winter, I weigh the most I have ever weighed and as noted above I’m not very inclined to maintain a routine that I don’t enjoy. The fitness and health aspects of kiteboarding and other watersports got me to thinking, and then researching and now writing. With a little luck this will be the first in a series of posts about the health benefits of kiteboarding, kayaking, stand up paddleboarding (SUP), surfing, wakeboarding, and other beach and water specific activities.
To start with though, here’s what I found about calories spent kiteboarding. The article that I found most credible was one in which the author cites a study published in 2009 in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. He calculates–using their data and his (personal) variables–that he burns close to 600 calories an hour when kitesurfing (in Europe they commonly use the work kitesurfing instead of kiteboarding). On some of the forums I found anecdotal reports in the 800-900 calories per hour range and while certainly plausible, I’d be hard pressed to maintain high-intensity aerobic activity for an hour straight.
Kiteboarding looks like it would be heavily upper body: chest; arms; shoulders; back. While those muscle groups are relevant it is actually more of a core and leg workout, with a healthy dash of abs if you jump and perfrom tricks. As noted, I want to learn how to fly so I guess I can plan on a nice workout for my abs when the time comes. Kiteboarding for weight loss, fitness and strength sounds like a fun, healthy exercise plan I can stick with.
I can’t wait!
