Login | July 04, 2025
Paddling for fitness
PETE GLADDEN
Pete’s World
Published: August 19, 2024
I have to say that I’m usually right up there with the lead pack when it comes to the many ways with which one can get aerobically fit, that is until I discovered kayaking.
Now I’m playing a severe game of catch-up.
You see it wasn’t until two summers ago that I caught the kayaking bug and that’s when I got schooled in using this activity as a new way to fire up my cardiorespiratory fitness.
Indeed, I’ve found that if your aerobic preferences typically entail the lower torso - hiking, biking, running - then kayaking is the perfect complementary activity.
That’s because it focuses on the upper torso, with a dose of core stabilization thrown into the mix.
Yup, paddling my 18-foot boat has taught me why kayaking is such a darned good fitness activity, and a popular activity at that.
Now despite it’s coverage in the Olympics, this sport really didn’t start gaining popularity as a truly viable fitness activity until the advent of multi-sport adventure racing events, where a kayaking/canoeing leg was usually a component of the race.
Thus, more and more people began training in kayaks and canoes and boom! Now, nearly a decade later, the sport’s on fire.
Okay, so there’s two huge things that have really tripped my trigger with kayaking.
The first hits especially close to home because it’s low impact.
After spending decades running, hiking, backpacking, rock climbing - and cycling - I’ve got to admit that my lower body is just a tad on the “ridden hard” side.
By taking up kayaking I’ve lowered the temperature a bit on all that higher impact stuff, thereby giving my hips, knees, ankles and pelvic musculature an occasional respite from the pounding.
With respect to the fitness side of paddling, well, kayaking involves an interesting blend of components and I’ve found that I need additional skill sets despite my good state of cardiorespiratory fitness.
You see paddling is highly dependent on a strong core, on balance, on stability and most of all on technique.
Most novices like me tend to think that muscling through the water can get it done.
Wrong.
A strong core and good technique are crucial to proper paddling motion.
Think about it: Each stroke requires upper torso twisting.
So when you develop your core specific to paddling you’re better able to engage all those other paddling muscles - lats, shoulders, arms, chest - which can really assist in wonderfully powerful strokes and increased efficiency.
Now with respect to the caloric burning side of kayaking, well I found out that a moderate paddling pace burns calories at about 400/hour.
And that’s not too bad, because my calorie burn/hour during moderate cycling is typically around 600-650.
So all-in-all I’m getting a pretty good burn for the buck in addition to working that upper torso musculature.
All right, now I’d said there’s two things I really like about kayaking.
And staying somewhat true to form, this second aspect doesn’t involve fitness at all.
It involves the amazing, near meditative solitude it can bring you.
There’s no cars, no pedestrian traffic, no hubbub of the world around you.
It’s just you immersed in a water world where you experience terra firma from a totally different perspective.
It’s actually quite mesmerizing.
That’s a unique perspective I hadn’t really reckoned with until my 2021 Isle Royal backpacking trip.
Because despite trekking through an amazing national park wilderness setting, we were still having far too many human-to-human contacts.
Whereas the kayakers paddling around the island, well, they were easily able to seek out and savor some of the most remote non-trailed areas of the park.
Being confined on the shores of Isle Royal and staring out at the ease with which those kayakers maneuvered in and around the island, that was my come to Jesus moment.
And that’s when I knew for sure that the kayak would be my next vehicle with which to explore this wonderful planet.
Now having taken the kayaking plunge, I know that kayak touring can be equally as exhilarating and meditative as was my decades of cycle adventuring.
So take it from one of the hardest of hardcore landlubbers - kayaking is not only an awesome fitness activity, it’s also a wonderful way to satiate one’s wanderlusting soul.