Is go Karting good exercise?

It’s no secret that go-karting is superb physical exercise, as well as great stimulation for the mind and reflexes. Hitting the home straight at full pelt, before firmly applying pressure on the brakes and steering round corners will certainly work out your calves, biceps, triceps, neck, lats and shoulder muscles, as you deal with the natural resistance of the kart against the tarmac.

Formula One drivers are known to use go-karting to keep fit, especially during the off-season. Lando Norris recently visited Daytona Sandown Park with Oscar Piastri and their McLaren team.

How many calories do you burn go-karting?

Cameron Das, USA-born Euroformula Open Championship competitor, go-karting expert, multiple-race winner and content creator recently visited Daytona Sandown Park with an ECG-based heart rate monitor fitted.

Inspired by research that Formula One drivers can lose between 2-3 kilograms per race, Cameron wanted to see how that translated into go-karting.

He raced a DMAX, which are the UK’s fastest publically available karts, in a D40 event, which includes 10 minutes of qualifying and a 40 minute race, to gain a clearer picture.

“This Guy is Quick!”

As chance would have it, Cameron actually found himself competing against multiple-Daytona championship winning racer Bobby Trundley, who now competes for TeamBrit in the British GT.

An epic race took place between the two karting experts, which certainly contributed to an increase in heart rate on Cameron’s monitor.

At the end of the video, Cameron concludes that he burnt a whopping 1,438 calories – the equivalent of two and a half McDonald’s Big Mac sandwiches.

Cameron notes that heart-rate isn’t the most accurate way of measuring calories burned, but it demonstrated an increase in heart rate during high-intesnsity moments of his race.

Watch the full video below: