5 Health Reasons to Give Surfing a Try
By Chris Brown
The ocean, and surfing, was a huge part of my early development growing up in a California beach town. However, while I recognized the calm and connection with nature it induced, I did not completely understand the range of health benefits that it provided. Surfing can enhance your entire life with its benefits from physical strength to mental stability.
Surfing Strengthens Both Muscular and Cardiovascular Systems
Surfing uniquely builds muscles and improves cardiovascular strength at the same time. Paddling out to the waves alone utilizes your biceps, back, triceps, chest, and obliques, all while requiring significant cardiovascular strength to continue the board's forward momentum. Add the variable of whitewater crashing against you and both your fast-twitch strength and cardiovascular endurance will be put to the test. Once you catch a wave the workout isn't over. The pushing motion to launch you to on your feet and leg strength required while riding strengthen your arms, back, chest, and legs.
Surfing Makes You Happier
Vitamin D is the happiness hormone that is generated from exposure to natural sunlight. As an outdoor sport, where large areas of skin are exposed over a reasonably long time, your Vitamin D reserves can get filled after one session, leaving you smiling and happy. That is not to mention the stoke you receive from riding your first wave.
Surfing Boosts Immune Health
In addition to Vitamin D's immune system benefits, the cold therapy of the ocean has been shown to dramatically improve the immune system in multiple studies. The cold does this by ramping up the lymphatic system which, in turn, healthily triggers a body-cleaning immune response.
Surfing Balances Your Body and Mind
If you have never attempted it, standing on a board in the water may seem deceptively simple. In reality, it requires significant balance. Add the task of actually executing a "surfing move" and it will require even more. Like yoga, surfing is excellent for developing balance which also develops your body's relationship with your mind. A study published in 2017 in Scientific Reports found that balance training improved memory and spatial cognition in healthy participants. So, build your mind while you balance your body surfing.
Surfing Grants the Surfer Zen
There have been movies made about the mystic, sage-like lifelong surfer. While one surf session won't make you the next surfing Buddha, there is an oft-reported calming that occurs while out in the water and it has been used successfully to combat PTSD in military veterans. From personal experience, surfing played a huge role in maintaining my mental health in my youth. In fact, when surfing regularly, a few days without a session often left me anxious and irritable. Nowadays, with the temptation of constant electronic stimulation, it is even more important to take a few hours out of the day to decompress on a surfboard.
The great benefits of surfing may just inspire you to rent a board and catch some tasty waves for yourself.
To learn more about your health, wellness and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in North Myrtle Beach, S.C.