Is Kayaking Good Exercise? You Bet. Here’s Why.

People in my corner of the country love to kayak, thanks to the many rivers and creeks that weave around us.

Kayaking isn’t my outdoor sport, though; rock climbing is. Some of the crags I frequent loom over the rushing water that paddlers embrace. More than once, I’ve envied how kayakers move with nature, gliding along the current for their sport, while I fight the natural order of things, pulling against gravity for mine.

But kayaking scares me a bit — at least the kind that whizzes you up and down frothy crests and can slam you into rocks (as opposed to, ahem, at least trying to climb them). Kayaking isn’t monolithic, though. You can paddle on flatwater, which is calm, or on whitewater, the type that makes me quiver and that adventurous kayakers love.

“The river is such a dynamic environment,” says Crisler Torrence, 40, of Chattanooga, a former kayaking and raft guide, who still offers concierge instruction from time to time. He got his first kayak in 4^th grade and has been paddling ever since. “But there can be predictability. You can find your way to navigate your path through the chaos.”

Is kayaking good exercise?

Kayaking is a sport, and all sports are inherently athletic.

“Kayaking is decent exercise,” Torrence says. Read on to find out why — and what exactly that means.

Kayaking is (mostly) low impact

You’re seated, so you’re not pounding on your joints the way you would running, among other high-impact sports. Kayaking flatwater is particularly low impact. Jamming down Class IV rapids, for example, is more intense though.

Kayaking especially works upper body and core muscles

“I feel like I’m doing a sit-up all the time; I’m crunching forward and back,” Torrence says. “You’re rotating your torso, so you engage everything from the hips up.”

Kayaking strengthens your biceps, triceps, pecs, lats, deltoids and glutes, along with muscles in your back and core, including your psoas and abdominals.

Kayaking is a whole-body workout

Kayak hard, and your quadriceps, hamstrings and calves enter the mix.

Yes, you’re seated and the main working muscles are in your torso. But “the best paddlers use their legs — you use your knees to lean to one side or the other,” Torrence says. “Paddling is a whole-body endeavor, but you’re mostly going to feel sore in your back, your abs and shoulders.”

Kayaking offers good resistance training

You’re not going to hit elevated cardio zones, but kayaking is great for strength training.

“My heart rate never gets into the yellow, orange or red zones, into the high aerobics threshold like it does when I’m trail running,” Torrence says. “It’s not the greatest cardio. It’s resistance training, like you’d get from rowing.”

Avid kayakers complement their sport with other exercise types in order to get a cardiovascular workout.

Additional benefits of kayaking

Kayaking keeps you in the moment

If you’re flatwater kayaking, the repetitive simple and slow paddle strokes, along with a broad inhale of your surroundings, clear your mind.

If you’re whitewater kayaking, circumstances demand you stay present. “Paddling gives me this focused meditative sense that I have to pay attention to the river or she will remind me that I have to pay attention and respect her,” Torrence says. “That’s why I like whitewater more than flatwater; it gives me a feedback response to what I’m doing.”

Kayaking helps you make friends

You don’t necessarily kayak in a loop, and most certainly not if you’re whitewater kayaking. That means you need buddies in order to have put-in transportation and take-out transportation, “two vehicles to start and end the show,” Torrence says.

How to start kayaking

1. Find your kayaking type

Are you a lazy-river type or rumble-down-river type? Try both to figure it out:

Go flatwater kayaking

You can rent a kayak with little hassle in many places that have calm stretches of water. I flatwater kayaked in Pittsburgh, the Florida Keys and Tampa long before I moved to Chattanooga. It was easy to find and accomplish, and it probably will be for you too.

Go guided group whitewater rafting

“See if you enjoy the thrill and the splash in a choreographed manner, where somebody else is your intermediary with the river,” Torrence says. “If you enjoy that and want to have a more intimate relationship with the river, then pursue kayaking.”

2. Embark on your kayaking type

If flatwater hits your spot, keep doing it.

If whitewater is your game, lessons make sense. “There’s a lot of private instruction that will give you a great set of skills,” Torrence notes. Lessons are easy to come by in communities that attract kayakers. For example, REI and Outdoor Chattanooga, the city’s outdoor recreation arm, offer accessible lessons near me. See what’s near you.

Basic, but essential, kayaking dos and don’ts

Protect your skin

Even if you’re paddling in the shade, a hat, sunshirt and sunscreen help. They’re absolute musts if you’re under searing rays.

Protect your life

Drowning is the leading cause of death for paddling, and it’s often due to not wearing a life jacket, according to American Whitewater, a leading national paddler’s organization.

Wear a snug life vest. “That’s the simplest thing you can do to be able to (kayak) the next time,” Torrence says.

You’re courting trouble if your kayak flips over, regardless of how strong a swimmer you are. That’s true whether you’re flatwater or whitewater kayaking, and whether or not you use a spray skirt, which can more easily trap you in a capsized kayak. Draining a kayak that’s been submerged and then climbing back in is no easy feat. “You’re swimming that thing to shore,” Torrence says.

If you’re on whitewater, a helmet is essential too.

End prepared

Make sure you’ve got a change of clothes and shoes at your take-out spot. No one likes soggy passengers, and you’ll be more comfortable in dry clothes and shoes.

Journalist Mitra Malek tried a guided group rafting adventure in her 20s and apparently repressed memory of the experience until interviewing Crisler Torrence for this piece. Now it’s clear why she rock climbs instead of whitewater kayaking.