The good effects of stand up paddle boarding
Stand up paddle boarding (SUP) originated in Hawaii in the 50's and is a mixture of both surfing and paddling. It is an emerging recreational activity which has attracted attention for its proposed fitness, strength and balance benefits. Anecdotally, SUP is thought to be a beneficial clinical training tool as it possesses many facets of an ideal rehabilitative exercise. However our recent review of the literature has identified minimal scientific evidence to substantiate the proposed benefits. Stand Up Paddleboarding is the world’s fastest-growing water sport, and has gained immense popularity in the past 2 years. Why? Paddle boarding is a fun way to be close to nature with the added benefits of a full-body workout, meditation and also socialization. SUP is a low-impact sport and with wide board versatility, makes it a good sport for everyone to enjoy, no matter your skill level, where you are or what type of paddleboarding you’d like to do. Stand up paddle boarding (SUP) is a rapidly growing sport and recreational activity where anecdotal evidence exists for its proposed health, fitness and injury rehabilitation benefits. While limited scientific evidence exists to substantiate these claims, previous studies have shown that high levels of fitness, strength and balance exists amongst participants of this sport. One of the major attractions of SUP is that it is thought to a good fitness training tool. Physical activity is well understood to increase cardiovascular fitness which is associated with cardiovascular mortality. Physical inactivity is a major modifiable risk factor of a range of non‐communicable diseases such as diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis and some forms of cancer. Physical activity significantly improves overall health, lowers the risk of heart disease by 40 %, stroke by 27 % and lowers the incidence of hypertension by almost 50 % . Physical activity has also been associated with improved mental health and well‐being, minimizing the risk of developing Alzheimer’s and depression.
Our prior research has demonstrated that high levels of aerobic and anaerobic fitness, core strength and balance are possessed by those classed as elite amongst this sport. Given the issue of sedentary behaviour and limited scientific research on SUP regarding the anecdotal claims of benefit of this activity, our intention was to assess the benefit of SUP on a group of sedentary, untrained individuals with respect to fitness, strength, balance and self-rated quality of life.
How do Raft Foundations work?
Raft, simplest type of watercraft, made up of logs or planks fastened together to form a floating platform. The earliest were sometimes made of bundles of reeds. Most rafts have been designed simply to float with the current, but they can be equipped with oars or sails or both and can be navigated in the ocean over long distances, as was dramatically demonstrated by Norwegian scientist Thor Heyerdahl in 1947; to test his theory that the Pacific islands might have been settled by people from South America, he sailed a large balsa raft, the Kon-Tiki, from Peru to islands near Tahiti in a voyage of three and a half months. The double-hulled catamarans of India are also seaworthy rafts. A raft foundation spreads the weight of the building over the whole ground floor area of that building. The raft is laid on a hardcore, or scalping bed and usually thickened at the edges, especially in very poor ground. Rafts are most suitable when the ground is of good load bearing capacity and little work is required to get a solid foundation.
Raft Foundations are built is this following steps:
The soil removed down to correct depth
The foundation bed is then compacted by ramming
Lay reinforcement on spacers over the foundation bed
Pour the concrete over the reinforcement
Other reasons that make raft foundations preferable to footings are due to their engineering benefits. They are ideal for poor ground condition where normal footings would not cope well as they cannot spread the load as effectively. Related to this is that raft foundations can reduce differential settlement, where settlement occurs at different rates across the ground surface of the building, which reduces cracking and other more serious problems. The main disadvantage is that they can prone to edge erosion if they are not treated properly. They are not effective is the load of the building is going to be focused on a single point, although this is rare in domestic construction, so this isn’t generally of concern.
