SUP Yoga: Complete guide to get started

SUP Yoga is one of the most interesting types of paddle surfing. This sport is practiced on a paddle board and is a real challenge for balance, body, and mind. Discover everything you need to know about SUP yoga in this complete guide to get started.

What is SUP Yoga and why practice it?

Paddle surfing encompasses various disciplines. You can enjoy a scenic route, ride waves, or spend a day fishing. However, one of the fastest-growing modalities in recent years is SUP Yoga. This discipline combines two sports into one, taking traditional yoga to a new level.

In essence, this sport is based on practicing yoga on a paddle surf board. The difference between practicing yoga in an indoor studio and doing it on a Stand-Up Paddle board is that it poses a new challenge for your balance, working your body's muscles as you adopt the different poses (asanas).

SUP Yoga is also known as paddle yoga, yoga SUP, paddle board yoga, or simply yoga on the water. Whatever its name, this modality allows you to take yoga outdoors, onto a new environment of fluidity like water. It is a perfect opportunity to learn yoga while working on balance, concentration, and proprioception.

To practice SUP Yoga, it is advisable to first acquire some experience with the board. Learn to paddle, stand up, and make turns. This makes it easier to have control and stability when you are going to do yoga on the paddle surf board, in addition to serving as a warm-up exercise.

If you want to know more about how to paddle surf, here you will find a complete guide with the first steps, tricks and useful tips.

Physical and mental benefits

Yoga has significant physical and mental benefits. Combined with paddle surfing, this sport improves balance, muscle tone and relaxation. Balance and stability are two aspects that you will optimize in SUP Yoga, since the postures require this ability, especially on a paddle board.

It also helps to tone and improve strength. SUP Yoga works almost all the muscles in the body, including legs and arms, the core, and the lower back. In addition, it improves proprioception, as well as coordination and concentration, by adopting the different yoga asanas.

Another benefit of SUP Yoga is that it helps with relaxation and reduces accumulated stress. This modality provides a calm environment that promotes the relief of tension and stress, encouraging relaxation. When practiced outdoors, yoga in the water generates a certain connection with nature, increasing the feeling of well-being.

SUP Yoga poses a challenge for the body and mind. Not only does it force you to adopt postures that are complex in some cases, but it also requires you to be muscularly prepared for the work and mentally prepared for concentration. The instability of a fluid environment such as water further increases the difficulty of the challenge.

Equipment needed for water yoga

SUP Yoga is generally practiced on the beach, either in the water or on the sand, although it is increasingly common to do this sport in other aquatic environments, such as lakes, reservoirs or rivers.

The best time to do yoga in the water is at sunrise and sunset, when there is less wind, as the water needs to be as calm as possible to make it easier to maintain balance.

To do this type of paddle surfing you need some accessories:

• Paddle surf board: SUP Yoga requires a wide board for greater stability. Includes fins and paddle, which will be useful for some postures or exercises.
• Anchoring system: It can be an anchor or a rope, but you should have a solution that keeps the board in the same place while you do yoga, preventing the current or wind from drifting you away.
• Clothing or swimsuit: Depending on the time of year, you should wear sportswear or a swimsuit. If it is summer, do not forget to use sunscreen and avoid the hottest hours.
• Life jacket/buoyancy aid: If you move further away from the marked area on beaches and coasts, or are going to do yoga on a paddle surf board in rivers, lakes, reservoirs or swamps; you must wear a life jacket or buoyancy aid compulsorily.
• Water: In SUP Yoga, it is important to stay hydrated at all times. You can carry water or an isotonic drink in the dry bag and secure it in the cargo area with the elastic bands.

Complete SUP Yoga guide: best poses to do on a paddle surf board

Almost all yoga postures can be done on a paddle surf board. Find an area with calm water and start with simpler postures. Once you have balance under control, move on to more technical postures.

Since it is important to warm up your muscles before doing yoga, paddling for a few minutes on your board can be a good exercise to prepare your body. Remember to look at a fixed point (the horizon, for example), this will help you maintain stability.

At this point, you can do some of the best SUP Yoga poses:

• Seated posture: this asana is the simplest. Simply sit on the board, interlock your legs and keep your back and neck straight, with your hands on your knees. It is ideal for meditating and staying calm.
• Thunderbolt Pose (Vajrasana): it is an alternative to the seated posture and will allow you to familiarize yourself with the aquatic environment in which you are practicing yoga. Place yourself in the center of the board and sit on your knees, on your feet. The back and neck always straight.
• Downward Facing Hero Pose (Adho Mukha Virasana): starting from the thunderbolt pose, flex your body forward, bringing your forehead towards the ground. Extend your arms forward, on the surface of the board.
• Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana): This is one of the classic asanas in yoga. Lie face down on the board, support yourself with your hands, and raise your torso, bending your lower back and bringing your head back.
• Table Top Pose (Bharmanasana): Place your knees on the board and lean your torso forward. At shoulder height, place your hands on the surface and keep your back straight, mimicking the shape of a table.
• Gate Pose (Parighasana): Stay on one of your knees and extend the other leg completely. Tilt your torso laterally towards the extended leg and place one of your hands on the leg and the other on your head, turning your neck and looking up.
• Crescent Moon Pose (Anjaneyasana): This pose is a variation of the gate asana. Bring one of your feet forward and, with your knee bent, take your other leg back, fully extended and resting your shin on the board. Now, tilt your body back, with your back arched, raise your arms above your head and look up.
• Downward-Facing Dog Pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana): Place your knees on the board and put your hands in front, away from your legs. Raise your hips until you lift your knees, resting on your feet and your hands. Keep your knees straight and your back straight, with your hips flexed.
• Garland Pose (Malasana): This pose is somewhat more complex and will require greater balance. Squat on the board and bring your hands together at the level of your abdomen, with your elbows on the inside of your knees.
• Bow Pose (Dhanurasana): Lie face down on the board, supporting your hips and abdomen on the surface of the SUP. Bring your arms towards your back and raise your feet until you can grab them. Once here, hold the pose with your back arched.
• Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana): In this asana, you should lie face up on the paddle surf board. Support your feet and lift your hips, resting your torso on your upper back and neck. You can grab your ankles or place your hands on the surface of the board.
• Savasana: This is the posture that is normally adopted to end your SUP Yoga session. Its objective is to relax the muscles of the body and allow the mind to rest. It is as simple as lying face up on the board, with your feet apart and your hands open.

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Life is a journey to be experienced!