Mental and Physical Benefits of Surfing

Since 2016, Chris Manfuso has been managing Physician Ancillary Management, a company he has grown by more than 300 percent. He is also the national sales director for two other companies, Nubratori RX and Enovachem Pharmaceuticals. When not busy with these pursuits, Chris Manfuso enjoys traveling to different countries in South America, southern Africa, and Europe, and activities such as surfing.

Surfing is an exciting sport that originated in Hawaii but is now enjoyed by enthusiasts around the world. There are several mental and physical benefits to surfing.

Mentally, surfing requires deep concentration, focus, and awareness of the things around the body and the body itself, making it a great practice to develop mindfulness, which consequently provides stress relief and mental health improvement. Learning how to surf is tricky for most people, demanding time and commitment. However, when mastered, it can also provide physical benefits such as a boost in heart health.

As a cardiovascular exercise that requires standing on the board and paddling, surfing asks a lot of the core muscles, which also tones the body. Standing on the board also calls for both coordination and balance.

A study by Australia’s Southern Cross University compared older surfers to people of similar age who did not surf. It found that long-term recreational surfing maintains or improves control, balance, and coordination, all essential skills for older people to keep them from accidental falls.