Roller skating is an exciting recreational hobby with tons of health and social benefits. Recent studies show that there are over 10 million skaters worldwide. One cool thing about skating is that the benefits are twofold. While roller skating, you also improve your overall health.
What does roller skating do for your body? You’ve come to the right place if you’re here wondering what roller skating can do for your body. Below is a quick rundown of what roller skating can do for your body!
- Improves Heart Health
- Strengthens, Builds, and Tones Body Muscles
- Burns Excess Calories
- Helps Manage Stress and Maintains Stable Mental Health
- Proper Body Balance and Coordination
- Manages Diabetes
- Strengths and Keeps the Joints Healthy
- Boosts the Production of the Feel-Good Hormone for Mood Management
But this is only the tip of the iceberg. I cover the details in the rest of this guide, and you sure don’t want to miss out. So, keep reading to discover how roller skating can impact your health.
Health Benefits of Roller Skating
People get into roller skating for many reasons—the obvious one is to have fun. The best part is roller skating offers a lot more than just fun.
The hobby also guarantees tons of health benefits, as you discover below. So, let’s get to it!
1. Improves Heart Health
A CDC.org study reveals that approximately 659,000 people in the United States die from heart disease every year. Treating heart diseases is expensive and costs the Government approximately $363 billion annually.
While these are shocking statistics, one sure way to avoid heart complications or manage the situation is by improving your heart health. The good news is that roller skating can help you with this.
According to the American Heart Association, roller skating is an effective aerobic exercise that improves heart health.
A Universität Konstantx study also reveals that moderate roller skating increases the heart rate between 140 and 160 beats per minute.
The same study also shows that roller skating at high speeds can increase heart rate by approximately 180 beats per minute.
A healthy heart beats normally and pumps oxygenated blood to all body parts for the smooth running of body functions.
According to a Cleveland Clinic study, the normal heartbeat rate is 70 – 100 beats per minute for children and 60 – 100 beats per minute for adults.
You only need to roller skate at moderate speed when you go skating to improve your heart health. It’ll go a long way if you only skate once or twice a week for an hour or two.
2. Strengthens, Builds, and Tones Body Muscles
Roller skating is an intensive exercise, and it works all body muscles, including the core, glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, and adductors muscles.
The body requires energy for roller skating, and it gets some of t from the muscles through anaerobic respiration. This process burns muscle fat, helping tone the muscles.
But it doesn’t stop at that! The more you go roller skating; your muscles strengthen to support your roller skating. This mostly happens to the legs, thighs, butt, back, and belly muscles.
3. Burns Excess Calories
Roller skating is a low-intensity aerobic exercise, meaning it’s rough on calories but gentle on calories. While your body needs calories for different processes, too much of it is converted into fats.
When the fat accumulates, it can lead to serious health complications like obesity. One sure way to avoid this is by exercising to burn the excess calories.
A 180-pound person burns approximately 497 calories per hour of roller skating. On the other hand, a person weighing 100 lbs. burns approximately 276 calories per hour, while a person weighing 140 lbs. burns about 387 calories per hour when roller skating.
More Reading>> How Many Calories Does Roller Skating Burn?
How many calories you burn roller skating depends on your weight, the terrain, speed, and how long you roller skate. You can always use a calorie calculator to know how many calories you’ll burn roller skating.
Roller skating is a good fit if you’re looking to lose the easy way. This is an opportunity to burn calories, fats, and tone muscles while having fun. It never gets better than this!
4. Proper Body Balance and Coordination
You need proper coordination of your motor system for the efficient running of body processes. The motor system is a complex system that controls body movement.
It helps with productivity at work, school, or when doing domestic chores. One way to boost your motor system and get proper balance and coordination is through roller skating.
As a beginner, the first skill you learn involves balancing on roller skates, which is often daunting. You also need to learn how to coordinate your hands, legs, and overall body when pushing and gliding.
Mastering these basic techniques also improves your motor system and proper body balance and coordination.
5. Manages Diabetes
According to a Diabetes Research Institute study, approximately 34.2 million people in the US have diabetes.
Diabetes is a lifestyle disease caused by eating unhealthy diets, sedentary lifestyles, excess weight, and lack of physical exercise.
Experts from the American Diabetes Association recommend aerobic exercises as one of the ways to manage diabetes. This is where roller skating comes to the rescue because it’s considered a low-impact aerobic exercise.
How does this work, you ask? The role of insulin in the body is to regulate blood sugar levels. Diabetes, especially type 2, affects how your body processes blood sugar.
One way to treat the condition is by exercising a lot. Roller skating is one of the best exercises to manage diabetes because it burns calories and converts them to energy.
6. Strengths and Keeps the Joints Healthy
Roller skating is considered a low-impact aerobic exercise. It’s gentle on the joints but rough on calories and fats.
Roller skating will be your best shot if you’re looking for an easy workout on your knees and other joints. The best part is that it strengthens the joints, especially the knees.
7. Boosts the Production of the Feel-Good Hormone for Mood Management
Roller skating is fun and exciting, whether skating as a kid, teenager, or adult. Roller skating boosts the production of the feel-good hormone, also known as dopamine.
This helps clear your mind and relieves you of stress. For a moment, you’ll forget everything troubling you and soak yourself into having fun.
Roller skating regularly will help you fight depression. If you can do it every day for an hour, the better. But life gets in the way, and that may not be feasible. Roller skating 2-4 times a week can move the needle for you!
Disadvantages of Roller Skating
Though roller skating is a fun and exciting hobby, it’s also associated with some risks. Accidents are often inevitable in nearly all types of sports, and roller skating isn’t exempted. Below are the disadvantages of roller skating you should look out for!
- Injury Risk—you can sprain or fracture your wrist and ankle. Other body parts you can hurt from roller skating injuries are elbows, knees, shoulders, hands, and arms.
- Bruises and Blisters—these two problems are primarily linked to overskating or using ill-fitting roller skates.
- Death—this is highly unlikely but can occur when you involve yourself in a deadly accident. This could be a collision with other skaters while at high speed or being run over by a car. This is the reason it’s recommended to skate where it’s safe. You’ll want to avoid busy roads and streets for your safety.
What Does Roller Skating Do for Your Body? FAQs
1. What parts of the body does roller skating work?
Roller skating is a full-body workout exercise, working all body muscles such as the core, glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, and adductors muscles.
2. What part of the body does roller skating tone?
Roller skating tones all body muscles, especially your butt and leg muscles, because they’re more involved in the push and glide motions of skating. Roller skating also tones the belly and belly muscles.
3. How is roller skating beneficial to your health?
Roller skating is beneficial to your health as it can improve your heart health, strengthen your muscles, burn excess calories, manage stress and diabetes, and keep your joints strong and healthy.
4. How is roller skating an exercise?
Roller skating counts as exercise because it improves cardiovascular health, strengthens, builds, and tones muscles, burn excess calories, manages diabetes, and strengthens your joints.
5. Does roller skating help with belly fat?
Roller skating is an intensive exercise targeting all body muscles, including the abdominal/belly muscles. The belly muscles participate in anaerobic respiration to produce energy for the body during roller skating. This burns the belly fat and converts it to energy.
What Does Roller Skating Do for Your Body? Wrapping Up
What does roller skating do for your body? Roller skating is a fun and exciting hobby. It’s an awesome way to have fun and keep fit simultaneously.
From experience and research, roller skating can do the following for your body: improve heart health, strengthen, build, and tone body muscles, burn excess calories, help manage stress and maintain stable mental health, maintain proper body balance and coordination, manages diabetes, strengths and keeps the joints healthy, and boost the production of the feel-good hormone for mood management.
That’s it for today. I hope you found this guide helpful! Happy Roller skating.
