Boating can be an exciting hobby that allows you to spend quality time with your loved ones or on your own. As well as reconnecting with nature, you can explore new places to paddle, sail, or speed towards using the boat’s motor.
Because there are so many shapes and sizes that boats come in, the price can fluctuate significantly. This can make it difficult to figure out the kind of boat that would be right for you, and how much you need to set aside. Check out this guide to how much a speedboat costs for more information.
These are some of the benefits that boating can provide to your health and wellbeing, and why it could be worth heading out onto the water soon.
Swap The Gym With Boating
If you get bored easily when you are trying to work out, then boating could be a great alternative to your regular work sessions. Boating is varied as well as physically demanding, which means that you won’t even feel like you’re working out.
From standing upright on a moving boat to getting the sail set up, most activities required with boating will improve your core muscles as well as your cardiovascular fitness. Consider integrating boating into your routine as a way of keeping your workouts varied and your body moving.
Of course, you could push yourself even further by wakeboarding or diving, but any time you head out onto the water, you are working out! On a hot day, or when the water looks especially clear, it can be tempting to jump straight in.
As long as you are in an area where it is safe to do so, there is no reason why you shouldn’t. The whole point of boating is to have fun and work on a new skill.
Vitamin D
Another great benefit of boating and spending more time outdoors in general is the increased vitamin D exposure. So many of us aren’t getting enough vitamin D from the sunlight because we are spending too much time indoors.
This is essential for boosting your mood, outlook on life, and for maintaining healthy bones. Consider heading out onto the water to get more direct sunlight without any obstructions. Of course, it is essential to prepare accordingly. Make sure you are wearing protective sunscreen and bring plenty with you on the boat.
It is also highly recommended that you head onto the water early in the morning, when the UV rays are less intense. You should also wear sunglasses and a cap to prevent your eyes from straining, and to avoid excessive burning from harmful UV rays.
With that said, it is highly recommended that you try to get some healthy exposure to natural light each day. This can boost your body’s vitamin D, and your mood as well.
Improve Spatial Awareness
Additionally, boating can be a great way to increase your spatial awareness. This is because you need to be able to move through the water while thinking about how much space the boat will take up. When it comes to moving through narrow caves or passages, spatial awareness will be essential.
Boating can be an excellent way to improve your visual acuity and ability to consider other obstacles in the water. It also helps train your eyes to look ahead of the boat and anticipate potential hazards ahead of time.
Looking for other boats, large rocks, or anything that can cause damage further distances away allows you to think about every possible eventuality. In turn, this can be used for berthing your boat, and when it comes to driving on roads.
Even if you don’t drive, boating can allow you to anticipate approaching vehicles and avoid potential hazards when it comes to crossing the street or riding your bike. Creating this muscle memory is a great way of improving your natural skills as well as gradually getting more comfortable controlling and maneuvering the boat.
Concentration
Because boating allows you to train your eyes to see things further away that have potential to be dangerous, it can improve your ability to concentrate. This is because you will need to be focused and alert at all times when you are on the water in order to stay safe.
There are a huge number of things that need to be monitored when you are sailing on the open water. In order to keep your boat floating and moving smoothly in the right direction, you will need to multitask at all times.
This means monitoring factors outside your control including wind patterns, looking for signs of rainfall, or temperature drops, while you are keeping a close eye on factors within your control. These include steering the boat, and checking that everything is functioning correctly.
As a result of this, boating can be an excellent way of improving your concentration. Not only that, but it can show you how to multitask successfully, if that is something that you have struggled with in the past. Being able to do multiple things at once is a great skill to have in multiple areas of your life, such as in the workplace and at home.
Benefits For Your Mental Health
Another way in which boating can benefit your health overall is by improving your mental health. Being able to connect with nature is a highly powerful resource that should be utilized. This is because it can allow you to gain a little perspective, and forget about your problems for a while.
In turn, boating can be ideal for those that want to spend more quality time with their family or friends. You can turn them into an ideal boating crew and assign tasks to each person. This can be great for strengthening the bonds between your loved ones and yourself.
It is also ideal for people that want to work on their team leading skills while spending time with the people closest to them. Encourage deep conversations that wouldn’t have happened on land. The modern world is full of distractions, that it can be relieving to reconnect with those that mean the most to you when you are boating.
There is also a great deal of evidence to suggest that being close to the ocean and surrounded by water is beneficial for your mental health and physical health on the whole. Being able to fully disconnect from the modern world has huge benefits on occasion, and it is certainly worth a try.
Summary
Boating can be a perfect way of working on your physical fitness as well as improving your cognitive abilities. This is due to the increased spatial awareness, core muscle strength, and multitasking skills which are needed in order to successfully navigate the boat through any body of water.
Additionally, boating can provide an excellent source of vitamin D from the natural sunlight. Make sure you are providing your mind and body with the many benefits of boating by planning your next trip. Take a look at the link above if you want to purchase your own boat for the summer.
Your concentration, visual acuity, awareness, multitasking ability, and mental outlook in general are likely to flourish once you decide to spend more time boating on any open body of water.
Of course, your physical fitness will improve, too. This is because of the balance that is needed to stand upright on a moving boat. Sailboats can also be physically demanding to maintain correctly on the water.
