Is Ice Skating Like Roller Skating? | {the Ultimate Comparison}

Is ice skating like roller skating? If you’re wondering whether there’s a similarity between the two skating disciplines, I got your back. After tons of research, I’ve put together a comprehensive response to answer the question.

Ice skating is like roller skating because they share similarities in working all body muscles, skating position, posture, and stopping techniques. In addition, like roller skating, ice skating burns calories, requires protective gear, has cardiovascular and aerobic benefits, is safe on joints, and can be done both indoors and outdoors.

Ice Skating vs. Roller Skating | Is Ice Skating like Roller Skating?

This is only the sneak peek comparison of ice skating vs. roller skating. In the rest of this post, I’ll go deeper into how ice skating is like roller skating. So, if you’re wondering: Is ice skating like roller skating? Read on to find out!

Similarities between Ice Skating and Roller Skating

Below are the similarities between ice skating and roller skating. Let’s get going!

1. Work all Body Muscles

Roller skating works all body muscles, especially the lower body. The main muscle groups found in this area include Gluteus, Core, Quadriceps, Hamstrings, and Adductors Muscles. In addition, roller skating involves the push and glide movements that engage the legs, hips, butt, and lower stomach.

Like roller skating, ice skating works all body muscles like the glutes, core, quadriceps, hamstrings, and adductors. In addition, ice skating uses glide and push movements which work the lower body muscles.

2. Skating Position, Posture, and Techniques like Stopping

When roller skating, one should stay low with bent knees, above the toes, and shoulders over the hips. This skating position and posture helps to transfer weight to the toe balls to prevent forward or backward fall, which hurts. In addition, roller skating uses a few stopping techniques like snowplow that can also be used in ice skating.

Similarly, ice skating uses the recommended skating position and posture. So, it’s advisable to stay low with bent knees above your toes and shoulders over the hips when ice skating. Finding balance on ice skates can be a hassle, so this position helps to maintain stability.

3. Help to Burn Calories

Roller skating burns calories during aerobic respiration to produce energy for the body. On average, one burns between 330 and 590 calories when roller skating depending on body weight, terrain, and duration of skating.

Like roller skating, ice skating burns calories to produce energy for skating. The average calories burned when ice skating varies between 640 calories and 840 calories per hour, depending on other factors like body weight and terrain.

More reading: How Many Calories Do I burn Ice Skating? {640-850}

Overall, ice skating and roller skating burn a decent amount of calories in the body. Therefore, they can help skaters lose excess weight while toning the muscles involved.

More reading: Do You Burn More Calories Running or Rollerblading? Revealed!

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4. Protective Gear and Equipment

Roller skating uses protective gear like a helmet, wrist pads, elbow pads, and knee pads to prevent injuries if one falls while roller skating. Falling is inevitable when roller skating indoors or outdoors. So, it makes sense to protect yourself from injuries.

Ice skating can also be a dangerous sport, depending on skating technique, inline skates, and skating venue. Therefore, since you can’t keep off from ice skating because of the dangers associated with it, it’s best to wear protective gear to minimize injuries.

More Reading: What to Wear Ice Skating Indoors {10 Essential Wears}

Like roller skating, ice skating uses helmets, elbow pads, wrist guards, and knee pads. These protective gears protect you from injuries in case you fall on the hard cold icy surface.

5. Cardiovascular Benefits

Roller skating has tons of cardiovascular benefits depending on the intensity and terrain of skating. For example, you’ll burn more calories when skating longer or when skating uphill. This activity requires a lot of energy, so the heart pumps blood quickly to cells to produce the energy in aerobic respiration.

In the process, the heart is kept engaged and healthy. Consequently, this maintains heart health while improving lung function. The same is true for ice skating. Some ice skating disciplines like speed skating, hockey skating, and figure skating require energy for effective performance at the rinks.

This keeps the heart engaged in pumping blood to all body parts, especially the muscle groups involved in ice skating. The result is a more healthy and functional heart.

More Reading: Can Rollerblading Help My Figure Skating? (5 Effective Ways)

6. Aerobic Benefits

Aerobic respiration is the process by which the body produces energy by converting glucose to energy in the presence of oxygen. The process takes place in the cells and depends on the oxygenated blood pumped from the heart.

Both roller skating and ice skating are vigorous sports, and the intensity depends on the discipline, like speed skating or roller hockey skating. Therefore, they need enough energy for effective performance.

The body enjoys aerobic benefits like burning excess calories, improved lung function, reduced cholesterol levels, and improved heart health through aerobic respiration.

More reading: Is Ice Skating a Sport? Your Burning Questions Answered!

7. Safety on Joints

Skating disciplines like roller skating and ice skating are considered low-impact aerobic exercises. This means they’re gentle on joints like the knees and rough on calories. Because of this, they’re recommended for people looking for friendly forms of aerobic exercise.

Therefore, if you have bad knees, recreational forms roller skating or ice skating can come in handy as reliable means of aerobic exercising.

More reading: Is Rollerblading Bad for Knees? Best Aerobic Exercise Revealed!

8. Skating Venues

Ice skating and roller skating can be done indoors and outdoors at organized skating rinks or other places like roads, skate parks, recreational parks, frozen water bodies, bike paths, and parking lots.

Therefore, depending on personal preference, one can always opt for indoor or outdoor skating. The goal is always to go for what fulfills you because nothing is stopping you.

Differences between Ice Skating and Roller Skating

Now that we’ve seen the similarities between ice skating and roller skating let’s look at the differences.

1. Skating Surface

Roller skating is mostly done on hard, dry surfaces like asphalt, concrete, and plastic. On the other hand, ice skating is done on ice cold and wet surfaces. This makes icy surfaces more sleek and susceptible to causing instability to ice skaters.

2. Skate Structure and Design

Ice skates differ from roller skates in many ways. First, ice skates have a thin metal blade that cuts through the ice and snow when skating. On the other hand, roller skates are fitted with two axles and four wheels for cruising the skating surfaces.

Because of the nature of ice skates, it can be hard to maintain balance on them. On the other hand, roller skates are more stable. This makes roller skating a little easy to learn than ice skating. So, if you were wondering if ice skating is hard to learn, this would be the reason.

More reading: Is Ice Skating Like Rollerblading? | {the Ultimate Comparison}

Is Ice Skating like Roller Skating? Wrapping Up

Is ice skating like roller skating? There are more similarities between ice skating and roller skating than there are differences. The similarities lie in working body muscles, skating position, posture, techniques, burning calories, using similar protective gear, and having cardio and aerobic benefits.

The main differences lie in the type of skating surface and the structure and design of ice skates and roller skates. There you have it! So, if you were wondering: is ice skating like roller skating? Now you have the answer. I hope you found this helpful!