HEALTH
You may be thinking, "I could never paddle board!" Well, that may be true, however, almost every single person, whether a 16 year old gymnast or an 80 year old retiree, can benefit from improving their balance and core strength. In the case of a younger active individual, improved balance may elevate their level of athletic performance and reduce the chance of injury. For an older individual, the stakes are even higher. Poor balance leads to falls, which leads to a lower quality of life at best and injuries or hospitalization at worst.
Two common issues that we treat in physical therapy are low back pain and ankle sprains. These issues often occur due to instability in the affected area. The treatment generally consists of having the patient perform incrementally more challenging balance and stabilization activities.
I often tell my patients that the exercises I give them should be difficult but not impossible. The fun of being a physical therapist is figuring out where that happy medium lies, and gradually pushing the difficulty to continue challenging the patient. Eventually, the patient may be performing activities they never thought they would be able to do.
For balance, we may start as simple as standing on a stable surface with the feet together. This could progress to balancing on one leg and then eventually to something as difficult as performing squats on a balance board or single leg dead lifts while standing on foam. For core strengthening, I will often start with basic motor control activities, such as diaphragmatic breathing and posterior pelvic tilts. Then I will progress patients to exercises like dead bugs and the paloff press. For both, the idea is to challenge the patient to progressively more demanding activities until they reach the level of function that they desire.
This is where paddle boarding comes in. On flat water, the board will tend to roll when weight is not centered over the middle of the board. Add in waves from passing boats and the board will pitch up and down. We now have a surface which is unstable in two directions. If that's not enough for you, let's introduce the paddle, the action of which causes a rotational force at the paddler's core requiring activation of the abdominal muscles to counteract. All of this together results in an activity requiring a high level of balance and core strength. So if you have progressed through the difficult balance and core exercises in the clinic and still want more, maybe it is time to combine the two and head out on the water! Plus, it's not a bad way to social distance.
