Canoeing is an exercise from the Upper Body Series. Like much of the material in the Wingmaster course, when I developed this exercise I thought "How did no one think of doing this before me?" A big portion of the Wingmaster material is previously existing material re-imagined for the Wingmaster.
Doing exercises on your feet is essential training for basic life. Most activities of daily living involve being on your feet. What this exercise adds to the standing position is a hip hinge, which is one of the 7 primal movements. Primal movements are the building blocks of how we learn to move naturally as we develop when we're infants and toddlers.
I've made it a part of the way I train clients that they get on their feet for at least one exercise in every workout. The benefits of a complex exercise that includes squats, like this one, go beyond leg strength and even include benefits for your brain.
There are 6 ways you can move your spine. One of them, circumduction, is a circular movement of the spine, either internally or externally. The idea of this exercise is that its an internal circumduction if your spine was twice as long.