8 Reasons to Try Stand Up Paddleboard Yoga This Summer

You might be wondering if you read the title of this article wrong. Stand up paddleboard yoga? What on earth is that?

While you may think that we’ve just taken two random activities and smushed them together, we can promise you that stand up paddleboard yoga is a thing. These are two physical activities centered around balance, so it makes sense to combine them and make them twice as challenging.

Paddleboard yoga is becoming increasingly popular across the US as more and more coastal areas pick up this unique and challenging sport. We’re going to take you through eight reasons why you should give stand up paddleboard yoga a try this summer so you don’t have to wonder if you’re missing out.

What is Stand Up Paddleboard Yoga?

While you’ve likely pieced this together yourself, SUP yoga is the practice of doing yoga while balancing on a stand up paddleboard in the water. Stand up paddleboarding is best practiced on calm bodies of water like lakes where the relaxing benefits of yoga can be enjoyed without having to worry about constantly falling off your paddleboard. Stand up paddleboard yoga has become an increasingly popular sport for yogis who already know how to paddleboard and are interested in taking their experience to the next level.

If you’re looking for a complete and quality Yoga SUP package, we’ve got you covered. Check out our THURSO SURF Tranquility Yoga SUP. This package provides you with everything you need to get going, including an inflatable paddleboard with an EVA deck pad. It grips like a yoga mat and prevents you from sliding off of your SUP when in downward facing dog.

8 Reasons to Try Stand Up Paddleboard Yoga This Summer

Looking for more reasons to give this unique activity a try beyond improving your balance, strength, and stability? Read on for our top eight reasons why you should try stand up paddleboarding this summer.

1. You don’t have to be a yogi master to give it a try

As long as you can balance on a paddleboard, you can give SUP yoga a try. You’re generally not performing any complex yoga asanas on a standup paddleboard. While you may get to that point once you’ve truly started to master your SUP yoga craft, simple, meaningful postures and positions are all you need to practice this fun activity. It’s much more important to focus on your balance and mindfulness than worrying about falling off of your board any second.

2. Your state of awareness is heightened with paddleboard yoga

In yoga, developing your sense of mindfulness and awareness is essential. Yoga concentrates on developing the mind as well as the body so that the two work in harmony. SUP yoga allows you to focus on the present moment and be aware of every breath, thought, and movement.

3. You’ll be challenged in a new way every time you try it

While some may not see this is a great advantage, others will if they tend to easily tire of the same routine. Due to changing weather conditions, a day of SUP yoga is different every time. Wind, water, and weather conditions are always changing and will make you switch up your workout routine in unexpected ways every time.

4. The benefits of being outdoors will only enhance your workout

We all know that working out increases the natural levels of serotonin in your body, lifting your mood, and making you feel great. But did you know that being out in the sunshine does the same thing? By receiving vitamin D directly from the sun, neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin are released, instantly regulating and often improving your mood. Doing a workout like SUP yoga outdoors is one of the best things you can do for your mind and body!

5. You’ll increase your strength and muscle tone

While yoga is truly one of the best workouts for your overall body, SUP yoga can only help enhance your muscle tone. While you use the same muscles for stand-up paddleboard yoga that you do for traditional yoga, you’re using them differently. By putting more pressure on your muscles, you challenge your shoulders, arms, quads, and knees, as well as depending more on your core. This in turn helps you to develop strength in these parts of your body faster and provide overall better muscle tone.

6. SUP yoga is both fun and challenging

Ideally, workouts should be both fun and physically challenging or else what’s the point? Exercise should always be about benefitting the mind as well as the body, in more ways than one. Keeping your workout fun is a great way to make sure that exercise is a regular part of your routine. No one wants to wake up dreading a workout because it’s boring and dull.

7. It increases your focus

Think about how focused you need to be when you’re balancing on a paddleboard while attempting an extended hand-to-big-toe pose. (We’re kidding! Unless you’re an advanced yogi and completely unstoppable). But in all seriousness, when practicing SUP yoga, you need to slow down and give complete focus to both the quality of your breath and your movements. Falling off your paddleboard isn’t a relaxing and enlightening yoga experience.

8. It provides a new challenge for advanced yogis

As mentioned, you do not need to be an advanced yogi to practice SUP yoga but if you already are, you can bring a whole new challenge to your practice by throwing a stand-up paddleboard underneath you and doing your session in the middle of a lake.

There are so many more reasons why you should try combining stand up paddle boarding and yoga. All in all, you’ll be reaping the same benefits that you get from yoga alone (focus, balance, improved breathing skills, and the development of mindfulness) but by combining yoga with your stand up paddleboard, each is enhanced. Why not give it a try? Worst case scenario, you fall off a paddleboard and have a great day out in the sun.