Does your fitness regimen make use of a rowing machine? Does your weight room routine include a significant number of rows, or any of that tried-and-true exercise's many alternatives? Are you just really tired of the mundanities of exercising on dry land? If you answered yes to any of those questions, the advent of summer means that it's time to ask yourself a difficult but important question: What the hell are you still doing in the gym, like a chump? You should be working out on a boat.

Although most warm-weather watercraft can and should be used primarily for leisure, piloting many of these contraptions also necessarily entails engaging in reasonably strenuous physical activity. (This is why every lakeside rental shop in the country expressly forbids you from bringing beer out on the water, even though you always do it anyway.) Researchers have found that kayaking helps develop shoulder strength, endurance, and anaerobic capacity, and that kayakers tend to have lower body fat percentages and larger biceps and forearms. All of these are good things, even if it does sound a little bit like seafaring workouts are eventually going to turn you into Popeye.

Canoeing and kayaking are respectable forms of cardio, too. Gliding through the water doesn't involve a whole lot of impact, so there is much less wear and tear on your joints. The Mayo Clinic estimates that a 200-pound person burns a bit over 300 calories per hour canoeing, and the American Council on Exercise pins that number closer to 450 for kayakers. Both figures are definitely less than you'd burn while running, but running requires you to sweat profusely and pound your feet on hot, dusty asphalt for an hour, while their water-based counterparts allow you to get your exercise in for the day while wearing your swimsuit and enjoying a refreshing nautical breeze.

You have the entire winter to spend working out in a dimly-lit gym located on safe, boring, uninspiring terra firma. It's nice outside! Go enjoy yourself a little. You can even stash a beer in your dry bag as a treat for the end. You'll have earned it.

Watch Now:Milo Ventimiglia Sports the Summer's Best Suits (Land Version)Jay Willis is a staff writer at GQ covering news, law, and politics. Previously, he was an associate at law firms in Washington, D.C. and Seattle, where his practice focused on consumer financial services and environmental cleanup litigation. He studied social welfare at Berkeley and graduated from Harvard Law School... Read more