What Muscles Does Kayaking Work? Why Kayaking Is A Terrific Full ...

Going out in the water in a kayak is fun, but kayaking is actually one terrific full-body workout. It’s not just for your back and your arms. In fact, you’ll find only a handful of sports and recreational activities that focus on more muscles than kayaking.

Of course, it depends greatly on how much effort you expend. If you’re going on a relaxed pace, then you’re not exactly exercising all that much. It’s like taking a leisurely stroll around the park, compared to going on a full sprint for 100 meters.

But if you do take kayaking seriously, you’ll get a workout that’s a lot more beneficial than you might have suspected.

What Muscles Does Kayaking Work?

Here are some of the muscles that will benefit:

Heart

Let’s start with the most important muscle of them all. Kayaking is actually a good cardio workout. That’s to say, it can really get your heart rate pumping. A regular kayaking workout schedule can help you maintain the health of your heart.

And because it’s a cardio workout, it can help you lose weight. You may be able to burn off anywhere from 400 to 500 calories if you kayak for an hour. This is a great alternative to running and biking if you have injuries to your lower body.

Shoulder Muscles

Now let’s focus at the very top, at the shoulder muscles. With all that paddling, it’s obvious that you use your shoulder muscles extensively. Not many people focus too much on their shoulder muscles, but these muscles are crucial for kayaking. In fact, kayakers tend to overuse them so much that the shoulder joint suffers the most injuries among kayaking enthusiasts.

When you do your forward stroke, you pull the paddle towards you. This focuses more attention to the back of your shoulders, compared to the front part. This can lead to muscular imbalance and injuries, since there’s too much concentration on the rear deltoids.

To avoid this imbalance, you may want to do supplemental exercises that also focus on the forward deltoids as well. It’s like exercising your left arm if you’re a right-handed tennis player—you don’t want your right arm to be much bigger than your left. It’s the same principle with your front and rear deltoids.

Then you have the rotator cuff, with 4 muscles working together to stabilize and rotate your shoulders and arms. If you kayak too hard, you’re more likely to strain these muscles. You may want to use just a very light dumbbell to help keep your rotator cuff strong.

Back Muscles

You may have guessed that the muscles in your shoulders are heavily involved when you’re kayaking, and you’d be right. Every stroke you make involves your back muscles a lot.

The largest of your back muscles are the latissimus dorsi, or the “lats”. With every forward stroke, these muscles contract. They use the power generated by your lower body and they pull your arms towards your body with each stroke. It’s like you’re doing pull-ups and chin-ups, which you can also do as supplemental exercises to boost the strength of your lats. You can do rows and lats pulldowns as well.

Next you have the rhomboid muscles, which you’ll find in the upper part of your back. These small muscles work by pulling your shoulder blades back at the end of every kayak stroke. You should stretch these muscles regularly, and they’re crucial for your posture.

Finally, you have the trapezius muscles, or the “traps”. They’re divided into the upper, middle, and lower traps, and together they keep your shoulder blades moving up and down. When kayaking, you may end up over focusing on your upper traps, so you should also do some exercises for your middle and lower traps, too.

If you want to keep your back healthy (and of course you do), then you’d want to maintain proper posture. It really helps if you get a good kayak seat with back support to help you with this. A good kayak seat can reduce the pain and let you work out longer.

Chest Muscles

The chest muscles are involved when you’re pushing the paddle forward and pulling the paddle inward with each stroke. In addition, the chest muscles also work as your stabilizers, just like when you’re doing cable rows.

Core Muscles

The core is your anchor, connecting your upper body to the kayak. When you’re paddling, you also make use of your core muscles in different ways.

When you’re paddling, the actual force generators aren’t really your arms at all. The force comes from the core and legs, which generate the rotational force for the paddling motion. You work your abdominal and your obliques when you rotate your trunk from side to side during this process.

You also work out your abs and lower back when you use them to maintain balance (to prevent the kayak from tipping over) and to help you maintain your posture.

Biceps and Triceps

These are the muscles on your upper arm known as the “guns”, and kayaking develops these muscles extensively. The biceps refer to the front muscle in your upper arm, while the triceps refer to the back muscle in the upper arm.

At least with these muscles, you don’t have to worry about muscular imbalance. When one muscle contracts, the other one relaxes. When you do a forward stroke, the biceps pull the paddle in one of your arms while the triceps push in the other arm.

Forearms and Grips

You do need a strong grip on your paddle, and kayaking can really help to develop the strength of your grip. After all, you’re constantly gripping the paddle and using your forearms to transfer the power generated by your back and core muscles.

You just need to be careful that you don’t overextend yourself, as your wrist may suffer injuries as a result. Every now and then, you should give your wrist a rest.

Legs

It may surprise you to learn that even your leg muscles get a workout when you’re kayaking. It’s not really obvious, since it seems like all the legs do is just sit there. But actually, you’re making use of them by making them work as your stabilizers for your body.

In fact, you should make sure you secure your feet on the foot braces of the kayak when you’re paddling. The force transfer for the kayak strokes starts with that contact point between the kayak and your feet.

You will also realize, the more you engage in kayaking, that your legs actually do a lot more stuff. You use the leg muscles when you’re rolling, turning, and bracing. They don’t just “sit there” doing nothing.

Hips

With the hips, they’re the point of contact between your kayak and your core muscles. You use your hip muscles a lot when you’re doing a hip snap during a brace or roll maneuver.

Maximizing the Kayak Workout

In many ways, kayaking is a lot like running. You can’t just go full-blast right away if you’re a newbie. You have to ease into it gently and gradually, while you increase the intensity. You can start slow at first, and then increase the tempo over an extended period of time.

It does help with your workout when you use different strokes, so that you switch from the forward stroke to the back stroke to the draw stroke. That way, you can work out different muscle groups and prevent muscular imbalance.

You may want to try different styles of kayaking, starting with the easier ones. You may want to start with a large lake at first, which is safe and lets you familiarize yourself with the paddling if you’re a newbie. You can extend the time you use for your workouts as you get more experienced.

Then you may want to go at sea, and maybe try out how it feels when you have waves to deal with. Some intermediate kayakers have lots of fun with surf kayaking, which is like you’re surfing with your kayak.

You will have to be a true expert if you dare to try whitewater kayaking, as even experienced kayakers find that a true challenge. You will have to deal with the swift current while maneuvering among rocks in the water. That’s just dangerous for absolute beginners.

Conclusion

If you’re considering kayaking, you should perhaps try a real kayak and go outdoors. It’s a lot more fun, and having fun actually matters. The Frontiers in Psychology publication published a study in August 2016 about emotional factors in exercise.

Their research came out with a rather obvious observation that if you liked doing something, then you’re less likely to quit that activity. Kayaking is a lot of fun, and therefore you’re more likely to keep at it. That means you can keep developing your muscles, and your health on the whole.