Many people imagine themselves spending hours and hours in the gym if they want to get fitter, lose some weight or get in shape. However, there are many more ways to achieve all this without ever having to lift a dumbbell or get on that treadmill. There are a ton of Benefits of Snowboarding for your fitness. In this list, you will find information on five of the main ones.
Ever thought about snowboarding?
This sport proves to be highly beneficial for your health in many ways.
In this article, let’s focus on the physical health benefits that snowboarding has to offer.
Benefits of Snowboarding
Increased flexibility
Snowboarding requires a lot of work from your core. Changing direction and increasing speed requires you to change the position of your body rapidly. Doing so, you’ll improve your body’s ability to get into different positions. Slowing down, speeding up, and turning also require different angles and shapes. This is very beneficial in daily life, especially when you have a desk job or naturally tight bones and joints.
Improved balance
Have you ever stood on a plank with a ball underneath it and tried to keep your balance? If you have, then you know it is hard. Now try this again, but imagine a little extra snow, ice and wind into the mix and try again. Snowboarding is highly beneficial for improving your, which is also advantageous in daily life.
The more speed you acquire with your snowboard, the harder it gets to stay balanced and complete your downhill track successfully. Standing on a snowboard, keeping track of other skiers and snowboarders around you, and keeping an eye on the obstacles on your way is highly beneficial for your balance and coordination.
Increase core strength
As mentioned before, snowboarding requires a lot of work from your core. Twisting and turning on a snowboard starts with core strength and flexibility. While this increases flexibility, it also increases the strength of your core. Your core also plays a vital role in your daily life. A strong core improves your posture, protects your major organs, and plays an important role in keeping your balance. No need to go into the gym and do crunches over and over again, just pick up a snowboard and let your core do the work.
Workout on the slopes
Improving your health is often a combination of some cardio, some weightlifting and a healthy diet. What if I tell you that this also can be achieved on the slopes. The main advantage of snowboarding is that it works your entire body, not just one or two muscle groups. Because it works your entire body, your body temperature rises and as a logical result, your heart rate will go up as well. This will definitely improve your stamina!
Also, because of the fact that snowboarding works all your muscles, it burns a lot of calories as well. Research shows that snowboarding for an hour can burn up to 600 calories. While this might not be a realistic guideline for everyone, researchers found out that the average amount of calories burned for every hour of snowboarding is 450. Although the food in the restaurants on the slopes is rather caloric dense, snowboarding equals this out quite easily. Because chances are high that a caloric deficit is maintained when snowboarding, it aids in losing weight.
Are you not a fan of training with weights but do you want to maintain strength, then snowboarding is a good workout, especially for your legs. Because you are using your legs so much, there is a big chance of soreness when you get out of bed the next morning. Don’t worry, you will get used to it, it is only temporary. The more you snowboard, the less soreness you will feel the next day. From personal experience, I can tell that I haven’t had muscle soreness in my legs for years. Not only will the strength in your legs increase, but you will also see more definition in your leg muscles. That is because your legs are constantly under tension when standing on your board and speeding down the slopes.
Good for your bones and joints
Like we said before, your muscles are constantly under tension when snowboarding. However, this is also true for your bones and joints. During snowboarding, there will be almost constant tension on your knees, ankles, and feet. This tension will help in preventing stiff bones and joints and can even help you later on in life. Research shows that the healthy tension on your bones and joints helps to prevent knee damage and osteoporosis later in life.
Well, if it’s up to us, snowboarding is life. Snowboarding is not only extremely fun to do, but also has many advantages that have an influence on your daily life. So, what’s holding you back? Pick up a snowboard and do your thing! No time to drive all the way to the mountains to take your board for a spin? No worries, there are plenty of indoor halls that give you the feeling of speeding down the hill!
This article was inspired by research compiled by FlyerDiaries.
