Why sailing is good for you?
Enjoying the tides of the sea and witnessing its beauty is what sailing offers to the adventure loving individuals. The freshness that the sea brings to sailors around the world is a big reason why more and more people are using sailing as a leisure activity. This fun filled adventure can be a source of numerous benefits as well. Which is why we are going to discuss the many reasons that make sailing good for you.
Elevated Mood
Man is a social animal and interaction with people not only helps to uplift the mood, but also reduces stress levels. Talking about your yacht can be a great ice breaker. Getting the opinions of other sailors not only helps you to hone your skills but makes you more confident about your abilities. And this is all when you haven’t even taken out your ride to the sea yet. Going out for few hours in the serenity of the sea offers you a great sense of peace and calmness that will help you rejuvenate after a tiring day.
The saltiness of the air around the sea mostly consists of charged ions, which help in the oxygen absorption capacity of the body. This, at the end, helps in elevating the serotonin levels of the body. Balanced levels of serotonin in the body are the key to happiness. Sailing is a great way to make sure your serotonin levels stay in the right range. The longer your levels are perfectly balanced the happier a person you would be.
Muscle Endurance and Strength
Sailing is not a kid’s job. It requires extensive muscle strength, good endurance, and adequate stamina to make sure that you sail smoothly. While you sail, you are working out major muscle groups of your body. This would help you in your day to day activities. Your back and shoulders would become stronger, and your arm and forearm muscles would gain strength too. Sailing smoothly is a great way to work up the muscles of your upper body and keep you in good shape for a long time.
As you become a trained sailor, you will notice a prominent improvement in your upper body strength. All the pulling and hoisting of sails will help you to gain a more athletic look while at the same time improving the tone of your muscles. This, coupled with the fact that you would be gaining strength while relaxing mentally, makes sailing a great sport to follow.
Increase Cardiovascular Fitness
The age of industrialization has brought everything we need to our doorsteps. This leaves no room for physical work that can help us maintain a healthy heart. The incidence of obesity, heart attacks, and other cardiac diseases is on the rise. Intensive workouts help you in reducing your cholesterol levels and ensuring that your heart remains healthy. Since most of us aren’t able to work out regularly, sailing can act as a great substitute.
Extensive physical work is required while sailing. While you are enjoying the whole process of sailing, your body adapts to the newly followed routines, and your cardiovascular fitness increases by manifold. It is a great way to make sure that both your cardiovascular and respiratory systems are fit. The fresh breath of air in the sea does more than just make you feel good.
When you inhale to your full capacity, the air sacs in your lungs expand and dilate fully. This helps in enhancing and maintaining your cardio-respiratory reserve. Sailing helps in keeping your physiological functions in the best possible shape. Breathing fresh air also helps your lungs on a long-term basis and is a great practice for those who live in overcrowded or pollution filled areas.
Enhance Agility
Speed and agility are the bread and butter of a sailor. You do not know what challenges await you at the sea. You always need to be “on your toes” for any mishaps that can occur. At the same time, you need to be ready to go along the right path and change direction every now and then. This requires agility. With constant practice and routine outings into the sea, you can develop agility and make sure that you are quick enough when the need arises.
As is the case with other benefits posed by sailing, being agile will help you in other aspects of your life as well. You can carry out routine tasks with more efficiency and zeal. You can also understand the value of having your eyes wide open and ears alert far better than any book can teach you. Sailing on the sea acts as a great teacher when it comes to lessons in agility, endurance, and the ability to think quickly and get on your feet.
Enhance Focus and Concentration
Every activity, every action that you do in life, can become more productive if you are fully focused. Focus can be improved with constant training and practice. Sailing as a sport is a great way to make sure that your focus is enhanced over a period of time. Focusing is vital while you sail on the sea because the weather can change in an instant. You may have clear skies one moment, and it may rain heavily the next. For this, you always need to keep your attention focused on your surroundings.
Concentrating on your movements while sailing can help you increase focus. A small change in direction depending up on an obstacle further ahead also requires utmost focus. When you venture into the sea to enjoy the breeze, you can rest assured that with the passing of time your focus will improve tremendously. All you need is to take your ride out into the sea and make sure that you do every action needed to sail smoothly in a focused manner.
Spatial Awareness
This is one of the most underrated benefits of sailing. When you go out for a quick sail you have to be fully aware of the surroundings of your boat. This would also mean that you need to know about the dimensions of the boat and the extra space that you would need to maneuver it in the water. Raised spatial awareness comes in quite handy when you are driving your car and many other such activities on the land. Knowing how much space something would need is always an added advantage on land.
Being Organized
Apart from the various intrinsic qualities and health benefits, another benefit of sailing is that it helps you in being organized. The different tools and equipment that you would need to keep on your boat are all a necessity and not at all a luxury. Keeping them neatly stacked on your boat so that you can find each and every item when its need arises requires you to be organized. Keeping all those tools up to date is another aspect of organization that sailing teaches you.
It can help you in each and every aspect of your life. Being organized is a trait that helps an individual in leading a quality life. It is a necessary quality that can make a great difference in your lifestyle. You can have a great time whatever you do if you are organized.
Using Science
Sailors need to have a good grasp on the angles they need to maintain the turns they would need to make and the force of the wind. These require the sailor to know a thing or two about math and science. Although it isn’t a necessity, knowing about this is a great way to make sure that you can sail smoothly and enjoy the sea whenever you reach the calmness of water. An idea about the scientific approach to sailing can no doubt help you become a good sailor.
These are some of the amazing benefits which can help you understand why sailing is good for you. Sailing is an amazing sport, and you can also get so many benefits when you go out into the sea. While you relax and rejuvenate, the sea will prove to be more beneficial to you than you can imagine!