Why I SUP

by Mitch Hauschildt, MA, ATC, CSCS

I love the summer.  It is easily my favorite time of the year.  My schedule is flexible, my kids are out of school, the summer sun feels great and I spend as much time at the lake as I can.  I love to boat, swim, fish and pull my kids around the lake on whatever trips their trigger that day.  One activity that have increasingly enjoyed in recent years is Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP).

If you aren’t familiar with SUP, it involves a large board that is similar to a surf board and a long paddle.  You stand on the board and move yourself on top of the water with the paddle.  I first tried it 4 or 5 years ago and the sport has seen a steady increase in popularity in recent years.  It is common to see boards stored in garages and docks all around the lake.

A few weeks ago, I put some thought into why I enjoy the activity and all that it has to offer and I can tell you that I SUP for a lot more reasons than just because it is fun.  Here is a list of some of the reasons that I do enjoy getting out on my paddleboard:

• Variety:  SUP offers me a great alternative exercise that I don’t get at colder times of year.  The body loves variety to reduce the risk of plateaus in your training.  Without variety, the body accommodates and doesn’t improve.  Changing things up is a great way make strides with your training.  Variety also helps to improve injury risk.
• Recovery:  SUP is well suited for a recovery session during my summer training.  I spend a lot of time riding my bike and running over the weekend, so it is imperative that my recovery sessions unload my legs and get them feeling good.  SUP has no impact while stressing the cardiovascular system and upper body, so it allows me to train while making sure I don’t load my lower body.
• Neurological Training:  All of us need to stimulate the nervous system, but with my history of Multiple Sclerosis, stimulating my nervous system is imperative.  SUP requires a lot of balance and nervous system involvement to stay vertical on an unstable board, especially if there is a little bit of chop on the water.  What I find at the end of a good SUP workout is that I feel a lot of neurological fatigue and some cardiovascular fatigue, but otherwise my body feels great.  This is a HUGE win for me.
• Scale-able:  You can scale your SUP sessions to fit your needs and how you are feeling.  If your nervous system is burnt out and you aren’t able to easily stand on the board, you can simply move to your knees to make it tolerable, but achievable.  This gives you the ability to work up to your neural edge.  You can also choose to vary your speed and intensity based on what your goals are for the day.
• Summer Sun:  I love to gather lots of vitamin D over the summer by being out in the sun.  It is common place now that physicians are prescribing vitamin D supplements to aid in things like fatigue or other common issues.  We get our vitamin D from the sun, so I prefer to get mine that way whenever possible.

And, of course SUP is fun.  It takes some time to get good at it, so if you have never done it, don’t be intimidated if you struggle the first time or two.  Once you train your nervous system to maintain balance in the unstable environment, it gets fun very quickly.

The combination of training, rehabilitation, injury prevention and fun makes SUP with great activity for me, and I’m sure many of you as well.  Take advantage of the last few weeks of summer and get out on a board for a ton of reasons and get health and feel great.  And, if SUP isn’t for you, look for activities that check a lot of boxes for you and your goals.