Jet ski is a great exercise; you burn a lot of calories, get some cardiovascular work, learn how to maintain proper balance, release a lot of stress, and you can even work many different muscle groups. The most important thing is that this activity is also fun, which has mental health benefits.
If you think jet skiing is as simple as getting on a motorized vehicle, giving it gas, and then just riding, it isn’t! So, why is jet skiing a good exercise?
Jet ski is a great exercise if you want to not only exercise your muscles and increase your endurance but also if you want to have fun while doing so. Below we will look at the benefits of riding the jet ski in detail and compare the health benefits of jet skiing to a couple of other activities.
This Is Why Jet Skiing Is Great Exercise
When jet skiing, there are several exercises that you engage in without even knowing, and these are the exercises that make jet skiing both fun as well as healthy.
Cardiovascular benefits of riding jet skis
If you decided to ride a jet ski for approximately 30 minutes every day, you have the chance of improving your cardiovascular system. You can improve the endurance of your cardiovascular system, which can result in more energy for longer periods of time. This means you will have more energy and endurance to engage in physical activities.
This holds for whether you are a pro jet skiing enthusiast or whether you just started. If you take up jet skiing, you will cause your cardiovascular system to increase the circulation of the blood in your body. This will result in more nutrients and oxygen being sent to your tissue.
Muscle building from jet ski riding
While riding a jet ski, the two muscle groups you will use the most are the muscles in your legs and in your arms. The reason your legs and arms work so hard while riding a jet ski is to keep the jet ski balanced and on the right course – your legs keeping the jet ski stable and your arms steering the jet ski.
Over time, your arms and legs will develop and will get stronger. If you jet ski often, your arms and legs will grow accustomed to the work of riding a jet ski and will build up endurance, which can help you in other activities that require your arms and legs.
Jet skiing also benefits the development of your abdominal muscles. Maintaining balance during cuts, turns and jumps works your core muscles fairly well.
Jet skis can improve physical balance
If you are out on the waves while riding a jet ski, you will encounter a couple of difficulties as you try to navigate your way around them. Some waves will be small, and others will be large, but it is your task to stay upright as you ride your jet ski.
To remain upright on a jet ski while riding on waves activates your core muscles to a large extent. You use your core muscles to balance yourself and keep yourself upright while navigating yourself through these waves. To balance yourself, you must use the muscles that start on both sides of your spine, going down all the way to the pelvic region. The abs are also recruited to assist.
Thus, if you ride jet skis on a frequent basis, you will start developing a sense to help you maintain your own body’s equilibrium while developing a six-pack at the same time.
Calorie burn from jet skiing
If you wish to get in a great amount of exercise, you are probably going to want to know what amount of calories you burn. Most people who engage in physical activities, specifically cardiovascular ones, do so to burn calories in order to lose weight.
The good thing about riding the jet ski is that it burns a very large amount of calories in a given period, especially if you consider how fun the activity is. Some have calculated that you burn approximately 238 calories per half-hour ride, meaning you burn 476 calories per hour.
If you burn 476 calories per hour, and you do this once every day for an entire week, you can lose 1lb in a week of simply riding a jet ski!
Pure Fun Factor
As far as entertaining and fun activities go, jet skis are said to rank very high on the list. The good thing about riding the jet ski is that it can be done in a social context, such as going to the beach (or river, lake, etc.) for a day of riding the jet ski.
The thrill of riding the jet ski itself is also enough to make sure that you never get bored while riding it.
Stress relief after riding
This goes hand-in-hand with the entertainment aspect of engaging in skiing activities. Because you are out on the water, soaking up the sun as you go, feeling the light breeze of wind as you ride through the waves, hearing the sound of water in your ears, it tends to calm a person down – a lot.
I find that any activity done on the water relaxing. Which is why I participate in all the activities covered on this site!
Riding a jet ski is said to be a great source of stress relief. Because you are, most likely, in an environment that does not resemble your working environment or any other environment that is a source of stress in your life, you tend to forget about all other problems in the world.
Operating a jet ski improves one’s focus
As fun as jet skiing is, it does require that you remain focused on where you are steering your jet ski. Thus, you learn, as with driving other vehicles, to always make sure that you are aware of your surroundings and where you are driving. It helps you develop concentration while navigating yourself on a vehicle.
How Does Riding The Jet Ski Compare To Other Activities?
Riding a jet ski does have a lot of health benefits and is a very great form of exercise, especially given how fun the activity is, as already mentioned. Most activities do not nearly offer this amount of fun, but do they provide more exercising benefits? Let us see how other activities compare against jet skiing when it comes to exercising.
Paddleboarding
Paddleboarding is great exercise that comes with many health benefits. It is low impact compared to running or walking. Many different muscle groups are recruited and worked. Cardiovascular health is improved, calorie burn is good, and balance improves. Core muscles come into play a lot, as well. And if you add in paddle board yoga, it’s a great form of exercise overall. In general, it will be a better form of exercise than jet skiing, but a completely different way to enjoy the water.
Scuba and snorkeling
Both of these are low impact forms of cardiovascular exercise with many of the same benefits as swimming and paddle boarding. Core muscles are worked, calories are burned and they are so enjoyable that you don’t really think of them as exercise. On a per hour basis, both are better ways to burn calories than jet skiing. Although again, they are completely different ways to enjoy the water. You can read more on exercise benefits of scuba here, and the 14 Health Benefits of Snorkeling covers the exercise component of snorkeling.
Swimming
Swimming burns a lot of calories, coming in at 900 calories per hour. That means you can swim for 4 hours a week, and you are almost guaranteed to burn 1lb of fat! Thus, swimming is almost twice as good as jet skiing when it comes to exercise, but is it twice as fun? Probably not. In that case, we will say that swimming and jet skiing have their advantages over one another when compared in terms of entertainment value and health benefits.
Golf
Golf, being a fun door activity, burns about 400 calories per hour. This is more comparable to riding a jet ski in terms of the fun factor. Golf is much more relaxing than swimming, but as we can see, it does not burn as many calories as jet skiing. Thus, we can say jet skiing beats golfing.
Canoeing
Canoeing is a bit more comparable to swimming; there is a lot of physical exertion, and it is not as relaxing as jet skiing. Canoeing burns almost 850 calories per hour. Thus, if you have to choose between canoeing and riding the ski, you basically choose between having fun and burning calories.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are many advantages to riding a jet ski. They range all the way from improving your cardiovascular system to improving the muscles on your arms and your legs, and it stretches out all the way to improving your mind’s concentration.
If you can afford it, jet skiing is recommended because it is a very well-rounded activity that is good for your physical, mental and emotional well-being and can be enjoyed with friends and family.
