If you know us at all you’ll know that we are passionate about being active outdoors and encouraging others to do the same.  Now that the shorter days and colder temperatures are here, many of us retreat indoors with less time spent in our beautiful parks and green places.  With lockdown looming, the urge to cocoon might feel even stronger but we’re going to work hard to encourage you to still get out and enjoy the beautiful outdoors these next four weeks.

Natural High

Dr Eva Selhub, co-author of the book Your Brain on Nature: the science of nature’s influence on your health and happiness explains some of the benefits of outdoor exercise, ‘Nature has all sorts of unseen elements that are affecting us… as we breathe in the negative ions at the seaside from the saltwater, they go directly to our brain and counteract the positive ions that come from computers and are causing fatigue.’

And you don’t have to be by the seaside to reap the benefits, just simply taking your exercise outdoors ups your happiness.  ‘Simply being outside in nature can help to de-stress us.  Research suggests that just five minutes in nature is all it takes for our brain to start thinking differently and for us to experience a more relaxed disposition,’ according to says Suzanne Bartlett Hackenmiller, M.D., an integrative medicine adviser.

Longer & Stronger

There’s also evidence that green exercise can, ‘reduce perceived effort and allows people to work at higher workloads, which may help increase the amount of physical activity undertaken and motivation to continue,’ according to a study, The great outdoors: how a green exercise environment can benefit all

Motivation Gone Missing?

So while November may not *seem* like the best time to start an outdoor challenge, we’re going to respectfully disagree.  Since there’s strength in numbers we’re challenging you to join our lockdown challenge to move 5k a day for 30 consecutive days.

The rules are simple – move continuously for 5k everyday outside.  It could be running, jogging, walking, cycling, paddling, whatever you fancy and any combination thereof.  It just has to be continuous and outside.

You can tag us on social media @paddleboardinglondon and use the hashtag #SUPstitute.*  The official start date is Thursday 5 November but you can start any time +/- 5 days from then.  If you feel 5k is too much/too little a challenge then feel free to adjust up or down as you like the key is consistency.

At the end of the 30 days we’ll pick a winner at random who will win fame, glory and a one year membership (worth £99) to SUP & Social (from whenever expires for current members).

We really want to help keep everyone active and outside so we look forward to seeing your photos.

* Current rules DO allow paddling on your own, with members of your household or bubble or one other person.  The #SUPstitute is for our paddleboarding club as we can’t run club sessions during lockdown.  Please be sure to follow your local guidance for the duration of the challenge.

Stay safe,

The Paddleboarding London Team x

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