Any diehard surfer can confirm that surfing is crazy addictive in all the best ways.
Luckily for you, your surfing addiction allows you to maximize the many benefits of surfing. Looking to get into the sport, or looking to justify your beach bum life to your non-surfer friends? Keep reading for a few key benefits of surfing that will have you ready to hit the waves.
1. FIGHTS DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY
Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 40 million adults. They’re also highly treatable, though only 36.9% of those suffering from anxiety receive treatment.
Depression is anxiety’s close cousin, affecting 16.2 million adults in the United States. Worse, nearly 50% of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.
Exercise is vital for maintaining mental fitness, acting as a natural stress reliever and mood booster. Surfing forces you to get out of the house and get active, making it easier to fight off depression and anxiety.
Plus, you get a strong dose of vitamin D while surfing, which has a number of health benefits including boosting your mood.
We’re not saying surfing can cure depression and anxiety, but it can certainly make them easier to manage. Surf’s up!
2. IMPROVED CORE AND BACK STRENGTH
Of course, surfing isn’t just good for your mental fitness. It’s also great for your physical fitness.
Surfing involves a ton of balancing, especially as you learn to paddle and navigate your board through the waves. That requires a great deal of core strength, and a healthy core is essential to any kind of healthy movement, whether you’re bending over or doing household chores.
Surfing is also great for your back, as it forces you to use your back muscles in order to paddle, jump on the board, and balance.
And these days, when we spend so much time hunched in front of our phones or computers, our backs need all the help they can get.
The benefits are even greater if you mix-and-match surfing exercises with other workouts, like Crossfit.
3. BETTER SLEEP
Finally, between the exercise and time in the great open sea, surfing has great benefits for your sleep.
Catching some z’s is about more than a rest between one day and the next. Sleep plays a critical role in our health–it’s when our bodies do deep cell repair, our heart rate and blood pressure go down, and our brain recharges to store memories.
Numerous studies have shown that regular exercise makes it easier to fall asleep–and improves the quality of the sleep you experience.
And let’s face it–it’s much easier to get out of bed and catch some waves at sunrise if you feel rested and refreshed.
READY TO MAXIMIZE THE BENEFITS OF SURFING?
Now that you know the benefits of surfing, the real question is: why aren’t you surfing yet?
If you’re new to surfing, make sure to check out our surf lessons. We have a ton of options to suit your needs, from group lessons to competitive training to private surf lessons and more.