How many calories does kayaking burn per mile

We have the answers! Note: The number of calories you burn during one hour of physical activity depends on your weight. Below, we will give you the average numbers for both a lbs 59 kg and a lbs 80 kg person. If you weigh more, you will burn more calories. If you weigh less, you will burn fewer calories. As demanding as it may look, wave surfing does not burn as many calories as one would expect.

However, a wave riding session will give you a full-body workout and work wonders on your physique. Paddling to catch a wave engages your shoulders and back muscles. Popping up on the surfboard and the actual riding will hit your core and leg muscles hamstrings, quads, glutes.

Find out what are the best surfing destinations for beginners. Depending on the wind and water conditions, kitesurfing can be a very intense workout. It tones the upper body, working the arms, core muscles, and lower back. It also strengthens the leg muscles quads, hamstrings, and calves. Find out what are the best kitesurfing destinations for beginners. Windsurfing engages the muscles of the upper legs and hips gluteals, hamstrings, quadriceps , as well as the muscles of the lower leg gastrocnemius, soleus, anterior tibialis.

Keeping your balance on the board means you are engaging your core rectus abdominus, obliques, spinae erector , particularly your deep postural muscles which give you waist definition for a perfect beach body. Even falling off the board burns enough calories — the effort you put into getting out of the water and back on the board engages enough muscles to keep shredding calories. Not sure where to go? Find out what are the best windsurfing destinations in the world.

At first glance, stand-up paddleboarding appears to be an upper-body workout. In addition to your arms, it targets the muscles of the back erector spinae , the abdominal muscles rectus abdominis and legs you are standing up, right?

Novice paddlers tend to burn fewer calories than more experienced ones, who move more vigorously. Waterskiing and wakeboarding target your back, core, abdominal and leg muscles.

The effort you will put into pulling with your upper body and pushing with your lower body makes for a whole-body workout. Your legs and core will be engaged throughout the ride. If you are the one controlling the boat, then you will torch calories and strengthen your muscles too! Sailing works your shoulders rhomboids, trapezius, rotator cuff and back muscles, arm muscles deltoids, biceps, triceps , your chest pectoralis and core, as well as your legs after all, you are walking around the deck.

White water rafting is a heart-pumping activity that engages your entire upper body. Paddling vigorously down the rapids strengthens your arm, shoulder and back muscles, as well as your core. As far as watersports are concerned, snorkeling seems to be on the low-intensity side.

Plenty of them! In addition to your glutes, your hamstrings and quads will be engaged too. Plus, the longer the distance you dive the more you will use your arms to propel yourself. This translates into an extra burn. Paddling down a river or around a lake is a great upper-body workout that works your shoulders deltoids , the muscles of your back trapezius, rhomboids, dorsi and core rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, obliques. It helps build muscle and lose fat quite fast:. Swimming is one of the best full-body workouts out there — it helps build muscle-mass, optimizes cholesterol levels and burns fat.

It engages your shoulders deltoids , the muscles of your back rhomboids, trapezius, latissimus dorsi , your core rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, obliques , glutes, and chest.

Furthermore, it has a low impact on the joints. In fact, canoeing burns calories even faster. The difference between kayaking and canoeing lies in the position of the paddler. In a kayak, the paddler sits on a low seat with their legs extended in front. In a canoe, the paddler either kneels on the bottom of the boat or sits on a raised seat.

Sign up for the BookSurfCamps newsletter and get the latest news about exciting destinations and inspirational stories into your mailbox! We respect your privacy. If you want to increase the intensity of the sport, take a touring kayak to a lake or another body of water without a moving water source, which will require more paddling and, therefore, may burn more calories.

Kayaking in the ocean also requires quite a bit of balance and core strength. According to Harvard Health Publications , kayaking burns calories at about the same rate as skateboarding, snorkeling, softball and walking at an average pace of 4. Trade in your traditional kayak for a surf ski and you'll increase your calorie burn - and that increase will be significant if you are paddling competitively. Stand-up paddleboarding SUP offers the same upper-body workout that kayaking does.

The main muscle groups that are activated are your mid-back muscles, shoulders, arms and abs. But it also works out your lower body because as you have to engage your quads, hamstrings and glutes to stay balanced.

Whether you are paddling or just balancing on your board, SUP is a combination of balance, strength and endurance. To increase your calorie burn, experiment with different categories of paddleboarding. For example, SUP surfing is a great cross-training workout, especially the bigger and rougher the waves.

Because paddling is a low-impact sport, it is ideal for many people. So, nutrition-wise, calories refer to the energy we get from food, the nutrients they provide, and, when it comes to burning them, the physical activity and the way our bodies use that energy on a day-to-day basis. And that is a lot trickier than it seems. Or, you have — but it mainly consisted of you sitting in the kayak and floating lazily down a river.

Kayaking, done right, can be felt in nearly every large muscle group, head to toe — not just your arms, as many wrongly assume. But beyond just being a fantastic low-impact workout, kayaking offers additional mind-and-body benefits that deserve mention, too.

Propelling a vessel through water is hard work — and paddling is, in fact, a repetitive motion that engages the entire body, not just the arms, as many wrongly assume. Your back, abs, legs and glutes, chest and shoulder muscles are all getting a workout — and a good one, for that matter. And no two sessions will ever be the same. The idea behind upping your exercise routine and going on a diet, preferably at the same time, is creating a calorie deficit.

And the bad news? Cutting calories from your diet is great, and all, but most people find it a bit hard to maintain that deficit for long. Every time you dip your paddle, you employ large groups of muscle throughout your body to complete that stroke and propel your kayak forward. Even the simple act of maintaining balance in a kayak will engage your muscles — let alone the act of paddling.

I mean, sure, I could give you some rough estimates, based on the previous research:. The American Council on Exercise conducted a study suggesting that an average pound paddler will burn approximately calories per hour spent kayaking. The formula that can give you an estimate of how many calories you burn kayaking per minute looks like this:.

And there you have it! The consensus is that, in ideal conditions, you need roughly 20 to 30 minutes to kayak a mile. Of course, things are rarely perfect. Many different factors will affect your speed on the water — including weather and water conditions, type of kayak, and your ability and expertise.