If you have ever seen those groups of people rollerblading through the park, they aren’t just doing it for fun, which it is, but also because it is a great form of exercise that everyone should try at least once. No, you don’t have to put on those fancy rollerblading getups like you’re going to compete in some huge competition, but you can strap on those rollerblades and reap all of the rewards from it no doubt.
The benefits of rollerblading are quite vast and as we will discuss below, it is a fantastic way to keep healthy for a number of different reasons. You may have never tried rollerblading before, but we think once you give this a read through, you might change your mind once and for all!
Benefit #1: It Makes For Good Cross Training
As we have already mentioned or will still talk about in further sections in this article, rollerblading is a great form of cardiovascular exercise which also incorporates a certain amount of resistance training through the virtue of you having to push around your own body weight. What this means is that rollerblading ends up being a pretty decent form of cross training.
If you are not familiar with cross training, it refers to any type of exercise that is not your usual form of exercise. What is meant by this is that if you are a regular weight lifter, something like rollerblading offers you some variety and is a way for you to train your cardiovascular system while still engaging in some minimal strength training.
On the other hand, if you do pure cardio exercise all of the time, engaging in some rollerblading is a good way to build the muscles in your body while also still getting some of that cardio. In essence, cross training is a way to get a break from your usual routine to bring some variety to your exercising so you can maintain a well-rounded body.
In short, rollerblading incorporates both some strength training as well as cardiovascular training, thus contributing to a well-rounded fitness routine that will keep you in great shape.
Benefit #2: Rollerblading Contributes To A Happier You
Another benefit that comes along with some regular rollerblading is that it can help make you happier. First of all, it is shown that exercising outdoors makes people feel happier and it is thanks to getting some fresh air, seeing some greenery, and getting in touch with Mother Nature. Simply put, exercising outdoors is much nicer than exercising in a dark and confined space, something that will depress anybody.
There is also the fact that regular aerobic exercise such as rollerblading contributes to a happier you thanks to the effects that it has on your brain. Exercise such as this causes your brain to release certain neurochemicals such as serotonin as well as endocannabinoids. Serotonin is a type of neurochemical that makes you feel things like happiness, joy, and relaxation.
In other words, serotonin is a brain chemical that can go a long way in helping you to reduce the severity of anxiety and depression issues. Depression and anxiety can be caused by a lack of feel happy chemicals in the brain, something that can be solved through neurochemical inducing exercise such as rollerblading.
Another important note to take into consideration is that the production of endocannabinoids has the effect of making you feel more relaxed, thus contributing to stress relief, plus these chemicals also help to reduce the perception of pain, something that can definitely make you happier as well. Furthermore, since rollerblading makes you healthier and better looking through the virtue of weight loss, you will probably feel more confident in yourself, thus also making you feel much happier.
Benefit #3: It Works Your Whole Body
The next benefit of rollerblading on a regular basis that we would like to talk about is how it works to exercise virtually every muscle in your body. You may think that rollerblading is only good for the muscles in your legs, but that is not quite so. Of course when you rollerblade you need to use your legs to propel yourself forward, and that serves to strengthen your quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, and all of those other unnecessarily named leg muscles.
However when you rollerblade you are also forced to engage your arms by swinging them back and forth, you know, that regular arm motion that accompanies you as you walk. There is also the fact that rollerblading does make you engage your core and back muscles too. Rollerblading forces you to balance quite extensively, and that combined with the need to propel yourself forward make you use both your core and your lower back muscles, thus making them stronger over time.
If you are looking for a great way to tone all of the muscles in your body, rollerblading is definitely a great way to do that. Of course, it won’t build your muscles like lifting a few hundred pounds worth of iron, but on the other hand, it is obviously better than sitting around on the couch doing nothing at all.
Benefit #4: It Is A Low Impact Exercise
One of the best parts about rollerblading has to be that it is a low impact exercise. What this means is that when you rollerblade, your joints don’t take as much impact as they would with something like running. All of that impact that your ankles, knees, and hips take with every step that you run can be quite harmful and can cause things like runners knee and can worsen the severity of bone and joint issues too.
The high impact that your joints take with every step is even worse if you are getting up there in age or if you already suffer from joint problems. Well, rollerblading does not involve all of that impact, or at least not nearly as much as running does.
Rollerblading involves a fluent motion where your feet don’t slam into the ground all of the time, thus being a good way to get some cardiovascular or aerobic exercise while also making sure that you are not hurting your joints any more than is necessary. You can get just as many benefits from rollerblading as you can from jogging, just without all of the damage that high impact exercise comes with.
Benefit #5: It Makes Your Heart Stronger
The next benefit that is definitely worth mentioning when it comes to rollerblading is that it is an excellent form of cardiovascular exercise. It is shown that rollerblading at an intense pace can elevate your heart rate up to 180 beats per minute, which is of course great because it helps make your heart stronger.
Like we have said many times before, your heart can be trained to be stronger and more efficient just like other muscles in your body. Therefore, the more you rollerblade the stronger your heart will get. Cardiovascular exercise is important for a various number of reasons.
For instance, it can help lower your resting heart rate, it helps lower your blood pressure, it reduces the chances of suffering from heart attacks and strokes, it reduces the chances of developing heart and arterial disease, it can help manage cholesterol, and it can help improve physical performance as well. Cardiovascular exercise is perhaps one of the most important things that you can do for your health and rollerblading is an excellent form of cardio to engage in.
Benefit #6: It Will Help You Burn Calories
Yet another benefit that you can reap from rollerblading on a regular basis is that it will definitely help you keep in shape by burning away those calories that you consume every day. On average, a 190-pound man can burn up to 10 calories per minute just by engaging in some moderate intensity rollerblading.
What this means is that if you rollerblade for a full hour you can burn anywhere from 300 to 600 calories depending on how hard and fast you go. If you have already eaten quite a bit of food this will help you turn those calories into energy, thus stopping those calories from accumulating on your butt as body fat.
On the other hand, if you don’t have many calories in your system your body will turn to its fat reserves in order to produce the energy that you need to keep rollerblading, thus contributing to weight loss and the maintenance of a healthy body weight.
There is also the fact that regular aerobic exercise helps to boost your metabolic rate as well as your exercise post oxygen consumption. What this means is that your body will burn an increased amount of calories both during and after exercise, thus going even further in helping you lose those unsightly pounds and keep them off.
Benefit #7: Helps You Improve Balance And Coordination
The next big benefit that you can get from rollerblading is that it helps improve both your balance and coordination. First of all, you need to move your whole body in unison in order to rollerblade properly. You have to move your arms in conjunction with your legs while at the same time utilizing your core and back to maintain proper posture.
Over time, this need for you to coordinate your movements during rollerblading will help to improve that very same coordination. It’s all about practice makes perfect, or at least better. Second of all, rollerblading, as we mentioned before, involves the need for you to balance in order to stop yourself from falling on your butt.
Just like with your coordination, through constantly training your balance, it will get better over time. If you are interested this has to do with things in your body called proprioceptors. Your proprioceptors are the nerve endings in your body which dictate how you balance. They serve to make you correct the position of your body to account for position shifts, all in an effort to stay upright. Just like with most other things, the more action your proprioceptors see, the better they will get at their job.
Benefit #8: It Is A Good Way To Socialize
Nobody likes being alone, at least not all of the time, and that is a simple fact. Humans don’t do all that well when we are by ourselves, and it is always nice to have friends to confide in and people to help us out of a tough spot. Being alone all of the time can get, well, lonely, and being lonely is kind of depressing.
Rollerblading is a fantastic way to socialize because you can go out in rollerblading groups, or at least with a few friends. It is a great way to get outdoors and spend some quality time with your friends. Heck, there are even whole social groups that you can find online which are dedicated to things such as this.
Go find yourself a rollerblading group and make some new friends, friends that you can go out and have a drink with afterward! There are even competitive rollerblading leagues which you can join to up the amount of fitness gains that you get from it, plus it will give you the satisfaction of competition as well.
Or if you aren’t into competition all that much, and maybe you have a family and children, rollerblading is also a great way to spend some time with your family. After all, rollerblading at a decent pace is not all that difficult so it is something that you can teach your children to do at a fairly young age.
Benefit #9: It Helps To Increase Your Stamina
One of the final benefits that we would like to mention when it comes to rollerblading is that it helps to increase your overall endurance or stamina. As we mentioned before, rollerblading is a good form of cardiovascular exercise, which of course leads to healthier and more efficient heart and lungs.
More efficient lungs means that they can absorb, process, and deliver more oxygen to your muscles for them to use. At the same time, a healthier and stronger heart means that it can deliver more blood, and thus more oxygen, to your muscles, not to mention that it doesn’t have to work as hard to do its job.
What this means is that your muscles will be able to work at an increased level for a longer period of time thanks to having more nutrients delivered to them, plus you won’t get winded as fast either. There is also the fact that the stronger muscles which you get from rollerblading will also naturally be able to do more.
Seriously, if you have never tried rollerblading you really don’t know what you are missing. It is a great way to socialize with others, to get outside and see some nature, and of course to get into great shape and stay that way too. The benefits of rollerblading are numerous and each one of them is important in terms of contributing to a healthy you. Get yourself a pair of rollerblades today and try it out for yourself.