It’s long been established that skating is a great form of cardio. High speeds and constant motion are great ways to improve your physical shape, which is why skating is such a popular exercise method.
Besides the normal skating movements and techniques, there are other exercises for skating that can be used to improve your overall health and skills. What could be better than performing both at the same time?
To become a better skater, strength, stamina, and endurance are all equally important. It takes discipline and dedication to contribute to all of these areas of your skating arsenal.
The best part about these exercises is that they contribute to strengthening important muscles throughout your body and allow you to improve motor function. All different talent levels can perform these exercises. They’re not limited to just talented skaters.
Regardless of whether you skate like there is no tomorrow, skate for pleasure, or skate to lose weight, there’s an exercise for you here. Continue reading for our guide to skating exercises.
Exercises for Skating Without Skates
The following list is for exercises for skating without skates. Regardless of using skates or not, they are still just as beneficial.
1. The Glute Bridge
The Glute Bridge is an exercise that strengthens your glutes or butt muscles. Many skaters don’t use these muscles as often as they should because they’re too busy focusing their efforts on other muscles of the body.
Paying attention to developing underused muscles is a great way to avoid straining other areas you might use more than you should. Overusing muscular groups like your abs and other parts of your legs can lead to soreness, and this exercise can be a great way to relieve those ailments.
The Glute Bridge is also very beneficial to your skating technique. It can add to your overall leg push and improve your skating stride.
To perform this exercise, lie on your back, with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground. You should look like you’re about to do sit-ups.
Keep your palms flat on the ground with your arms at the sides of your body. Slowly begin to lift your hips off the ground until you form a straight line with your knees and shoulders.
At this point, you should be in a variation of the bridge exercise. Squeezing your glutes helps to support your back, which is what allows you to hold this position. Hold this form for as long as you can, then slowly come back down. Repeat in sets of five.
2. The Deadlift
Deadlifting is an amazing exercise that supports your overall strength and endurance. This regimen improves what is known as your posterior chain, which are the muscles that run down the back of your body.
Your overall body power is improved because this doesn’t focus on one specific area of the body. However, you should be very careful when performing deadlifts, as it’s easy to injure your back if you don’t lift properly.
You will need a weight bar to perform this exercise. The amount of weight is up to you. Start small and work your way up.
Begin in a standing position. To perform a proper deadlift, begin with your knees slightly bent while keeping your back as straight as possible. You want to be facing forward, keeping your neck and back aligned and your body as straight as possible. You will be in a half-squat position.
Keep your feet about shoulder-length apart. After you squat down, reach with your palms inward and grab the bar.
Begin springing up from your legs while lifting the bar. Continue upward until you are in a standing position. The idea here is to lift with your legs and not your back. Engaging in the latter is how you suffer injuries.
3. Leg Swings (Single Leg Balance)
Skating is all about balancing skills. It makes sense to perform an exercise that adds to your balance, right?
Normally when people quit skating, they quit because of a lack of balance. Falling and the inability to maintain balance is what makes people discouraged and also leads to injury when you skate.
Leg swings are a great way to improve your balance and strengthen your core at the same time. Repeating this exercise can give you six-pack abs also.
Your starting position should be standing with your feet shoulder-width apart. Slowly lift your left leg off the ground, but not too much. Hold the foot up and maintain your balance with the standing leg. Keep your spine straight and both of your feet facing forward. Remembering to keep your feet shoulder-width apart is key for performing this routine.
After holding the position for a few seconds, quickly switch to the opposite leg. Do this in rotations of five or ten.
4. Lunging
Lunges are probably an exercise that most of you are familiar with. This is one of the most basic exercises known to man, but there may not be a routine as important as this one.
There’s not a single muscle that is spared on the lower body when you perform lunges. Hamstrings, quads, glutes, and calves are well worked out at a very high level if done correctly.
Stand straight and take a step forward with your left leg. Lower your body until your knees become bent at a 90-degree angle. Stay in this position for five seconds and then return to your initial starting position. Repeat this same motion with your other leg, and continue to do these in sets of five.
If you can manage, we’ve found the best practice is to continue to do these exercises until body failure. This sounds scarier than what it really is. However, it’s not that frightening.
Body failure is when you perform an exercise until your body can no longer complete it during that rep. For example, if you were doing pushups, it would mean continuing to do them repetitively until you can no longer bring your body to finish that set, then start over.
5. Bike Sit-ups
The bicycle setup is much friendlier than a regular crunch. This exercise strengthens your oblique muscles, while the pedaling serves to assist in hip mobility and health. These core exercises will also develop a great amount of strength, much like regular sit-ups.
Lie on a mat with your body flat to the ground. Position your hands behind your head. Clasp your fingers together to add extra support to the neck area.
Lift your knees upwards at a 90-degree angle. After your knees become bent, lift your feet and extend your legs. Bring your right knee up to your chest and contact it with your left elbow. Do this in repeated reps of five or ten.
The following exercises you can use with your skates on.
Exercises and Drills With Skates On
- Interval training uses a very intense skating routine with a medium pace. Skate at a slow speed for about three to five minutes to warm up. After maintaining your pace for five minutes, quickly shift into an extremely high gear, skating as fast as possible. Continue this high-speed pace for 30 to 45 seconds. Slowly begin to slow down and return to the medium pace for another five minutes. Rotate this in sets of twenty.
- Cone skating is fun because you can skate and work out while incorporating obstacles into your routine. Set up a line of cones for a fifty-foot distance. They should be about five feet apart. As you shift between the cones, you use almost every muscle that exists in your lower body. This exercise requires quick reflexes and a great deal of balance. Besides toning your body, this workout also helps your coordination.
- Long-distance skating is a great way to improve your endurance and stamina. It’s also extremely beneficial to your respiratory and cardiovascular health. It can be a great way to lose weight as well. Initially, try skating for thirty minutes without stopping at a low to medium pace. After getting used to this pace, move to a faster mode of skating. You can eventually increase your distance as well.
Use all of these exercises to help you during your workout routine. It doesn’t matter whether you use the exercises without skates or take advantage of the skating methods; they’re all just as beneficial.
Conclusion
So, there we have it. That brings us to the conclusion of this article. If you haven’t started skating and you’re into physical fitness or have been attempting to lose weight, you’ve been missing out. Skating can provide a very rewarding, entertaining, and exciting way to stay healthy and lose weight.
Not only are you achieving your goals by staying fit, but you’re also mastering an extremely fun sport. It can also be done in groups for social benefits.
Next time you decide to work out or plan an exercise routine, try adding skating to the list and see how it works for you. You might find a new favorite workout regimen!