Summer is on its way. And that means your workout just got a lot more interesting. Not only can you work out in the gym, but with the sun shining and the ocean calling, the world is your fitness oyster. For the more adventurous of you, there’s no beating the full-body workout of aquatic sports like surfing, diving, and paddling. Today we’re going to talk about the newest member of the water sports fitness family: stand up paddleboarding, or SUP.

What is SUP?

Stand up paddleboarding is in fact just like it sounds. You stand. On a board. And you paddle. It’s an ancient recreation and hunting technique that originated somewhere among Polynesia, Peru, and Venice and has been growing in mainstream popularity since the early 2000s. In the US alone, the number of people doing SUP has nearly tripled in recent years: 2.8 million people participated in SUP in 2014. And the number of new paddleboarders just keeps increasing. (more…)