I lost 10 kg last summer kiting almost every day but put half back on over winter, this season has been crap for wind, haven't lost any weight this time around.
probabaly better workout if you ride in the waves/ chop. Not so much if you spend 2 hours mowing the lawn on your TT
Wouldnt rate it myself. As surfy31 said riding in rough conditions will sort you out and get the heart rate up a bit. Riding flat water with good wind is pretty easy going though, you would need to be out for hours to burn much energy. If you want a good workout try a bit of mountain biking
try working your board and kite beating upwind against 6 knots of tide and that gets your heart beating.
crusing on a twin tip does nothing but try working hard throwing 3-4 tricks from shore to shore
20-30k downwinders in surf, and not only will you sleep well that night you may not be able to walk properly the next day. But like any exercise it depends how hard you go and how often.
we have consecutive posts of:
who's the heaviest kiter in Australia?
and
So what's kitesurfing like for fitness?
Kiting is more aneorobic (farq how do you spell it?), but if you are pushing the limits and not just mowing the lawn, yeh the heart rate can rise a bit. You do lose weight though if at it during summer nearly every day. Alas this year I reckon I put more on, not enough days in a row.
For aerobic exercise better to get on a bike.
HA ha biggest kite loser...
If you have consistent wind and get out for an hour and a half most evenings you will get fit. One of the things I have noticed is you don't usually notice how hard you have working until you get into bed and can feel the heat from all the worked muscles on your body. Of course you have to resist the temptation to eat a big meal just because you did 90 minutes of exercise too.
"Mowing the lawn" will give you that core strength, but not so much of an aerobic workout. If you start doing tricks and/or riding waves and chop plus pushing yourself the intensity increases. I found the most physically demanding period was when I was going upwind but coming off a bit and doing a fair bit of body dragging to get back to my board.
Personally I find kitesurfing to be a reason to keep fit, even if it doesn't make me fit. Having good base fitness and strength makes it easier to deal with the stresses and strains, and minimising the extra kilos helps you in marginal conditions. This also applies to other activities I like to do such as skiing, snowboarding and hiking.
Because the last couple of seasons have been crud I have found I have lost fitness over the summer. Mainly because if the forecast is for 20 knot SW seabreeze I pack the gear in anticipation of an after work sesh and drive to work instead of riding the bike the 46 km to and from work. If the forecast doesn't come through then I end up at home on the couch tending to my depression with a tub of Ben and Jerrys (or a pint of beer). In fact in January I was so down on the general conditions in Melbourne I started to ride to and from work regardless of the forecast. If the breeze came in well I just got a good tailwind home to get on the water sooner!
Hmmm i think you only would loose weight from kiting cause if your like me, when the season is cranking i tend to eat breakfast then dont bother with food all day as im chasing wind and trying to get as much in while the suns up by the time i get home im too buggered to bother cooking and one beer gets me wasted so i crash then wake up and do it all again, so really i only ever loose weight cause im not wasting kiting time, by eating!!
Well i came into kitesurfing with 16 years of hardcore mountain biking under my belt.
So I have legs of steal!!! and endurance. but the core strength of a muppet!.
As others have stated kiting is more aneorobic. but it does work you in a more subtle way than the aerobic type of exersize like mountain biking. Kiting has strengthened my core something feirce!.
You can "mow the lawn" and use very little energy. but if you going hardout either carzy jumps/loops/freestyle/waves then yourl use a decent amount of energy.
kiting in 30+ knots is always a good work out. Also flying a stupidly over powered kite really works the shiit out of you!..
So in conclusion yes you can get a good work out.
we have consecutive posts of:
I was out of the water for 6 months with a bit of pilates just to keep me in check. My first kite back (1hr) had me aching for a week, just core strength stuff, pilates is awesome but the kite puts it back in it's box
An MRI also found I had added 2.2kgs to my fun glands
Hi Guys,
I've been kiting now for more than 12 years and for a few of those years I kited full time. Kiting DOES NOT get you fit. It can help you lose weight and tone up a bit, but it does nothing for cardio fitness.
Stand Up paddle racing and cycling is the way to get fit. Fit meaning aerobic fitness or how efficiently your body utilizes oxygen to fuel work.
I've almost always been toned and I thought "fit" until I started paddling race boards. In 8 months of paddling 12 hours a week and for the first time in my life, I have managed to lower my resting heart rate from 80 bpm to 58bpm. I'm now as toned as I was when kiting full time, but I'm stronger and easily capable of a long run or cycle or race.
Kiting, as eppo suggests, is great for anaerobic toning, but will not get you fit.
DM
IMO light wind kiting is much more of a workout than kiting in good wind. You have to work so much more on getting upwind and you are working the kite alot more. Plus you generally have to pump up a much bigger kite. Having said that I think there are millions of more effective activities you could do to get fit.
Kiting for fitness? Nah...
Seriously, the biggest workout for many kiters is:
- pumping up
- body dragging
- walk of shame
Kiting does nothing for fitness, I kite 2-3 days a week and big sessions on weekends and i'm a fat loser.
Looks like we have a contestant AND an instructor.......sponsors?
it depends on what kind of fitness you are after..
If it is cardio, you probably better run up and down along the beach... and it is safer too....
For resistance you just get a little overpowered and put in a couple of high jumps with board above head with every ride in or out for a couple of hours, and you get the abs and the rest...
Wave riding will not give you any of these, especially if you ride a big surfboard with smaller kites... some of the better wave riders I see around are quite chubby...
I heard that kitesurfing burns more than 1000 kcal/h. Of course it depends on your riding style, but if you ride aggressive and with lots of power then I believe that 1000 kcal/h is fully possible.
You also have to think of the cooling factor, (depending on where you kite of course). But if you kiteboard in cold water then your body will drain lots of energy just by keeping you warm.
So if you really wanna burn calories, go kiteboarding in cold water and ride like a maniac! I think it's possible to burn 1500 kcal/h if the conditions are right :)
Interesting little link I read about this very topic just last week. Hopefully it hasn't been posted in this thread already
weightology.net/burning-calories-with-kiteboarding/
Thanks for that link nvs180!
It states that you burn "14 calories per minute" when riding aggressive if your weight is 80 kg. My weight is 85 kg, so which equals nearly 15 calories per minute according to the formula:
Calories Burned Per Minute = METs * 3.5 * (bodyweight in kilograms / 200)
15x60=900 calories/h, close to 1000 calories per hour which is the numbers I once heard.
