SUP fitness training

Wellness reinterpreted: The SUP industry is now trying to show the sluggish citizens of an information and pleasure generation, characterised by a lack of time, career stress, computers, television and fast food, the way out of the vicious circle: Stand-up paddling in inland waters is not only supposed to be fun, it is supposed to be a superlative full-body workout. As in the USA, the holistic aspect of a surfing sport is now coming to the lowlands. Surfing has cult status there, and if you can stand on a "surfboard" in Central Park or in a water canal in the centre of any city and style your flabby banker, civil servant or office worker body, then it promises to hit a broad mass of people in need of exercise right in the heart.

One indication of this is Naish's sales figures: in the USA, they already sell more SUP boards than kitesurfing and windsurfing boards combined. Starboard expects to sell 3000 SUP boards in 2011. That is remarkable. The easy access and versatile use, in this case as training equipment, also promise to find favour in Germany. As already reported, coaches such as national football coach Jogi Löw are considering SUP for coordination training. The reason: there is no risk of injury (low impact sport) - it's like Nordic walking on the water. Svein Rasmussen from Starboard has even equipped the Norwegian national ski team with SUP boards for summer training. And the Swiss Naish importer Karl Müller reports that talks have been held with the coach of the national ski team to equip the alpinists with SUP boards for training and coordination purposes. In the USA, SUP is even being prescribed by physiotherapists for therapeutic purposes (back problems).

The message is clear: SUP is easy to learn and gets you fit. It is also obvious to everyone that kayaking and canoeing as paddle sports also make you fit, but have a much more one-sided effect on the entire muscular system compared to SUP. But what is the real truth behind all these hypothetical statements? We let a stand-up specialist, sports scientist and SUP instructor speak clearly.

More information on why SUP makes you fit can be found below as a PDF download.

Muscular and aerobic training "After a SUP training session, you have trained your body in a way that is impossible with a kayak. That's why kayakers have to do other exercises to strengthen their backs. Also, with SUP you don't sit in that hunched over position that many kayakers struggle with." (Corran Addison, owner and shaper of Imagine Surf, ex-Olympic sprint kayaker)