When I was young, I loved to run. It didn’t matter if it was raining or snowing, I would be running early in the morning. If I let a few days go by without running, I would start to feel lazy. I enjoyed running not only for the exercise but also for the benefit of clearing my mind as I start a new day. When I wasn’t running, I woke up focusing on the problems I would have that day or the days to come. But running gave me a respite from the problems around me.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that my body can’t take the abuse of running. My bones and joints started to give me some problems. I’ve found that skating, whether inline or roller skating, can be a great replacement for running. I discovered that skating can give me the same benefits as running, but without further damaging my bones and joints.
When I ran, the souls in my feet absorbed the shock when my feet hit the ground. But when on wheels or skates, the skates absorbed much more, up to 50 percent of the impact with each landing. Since the frames and wheels take the brunt of the impact, I found that my knees and ankles weren’t affected much.
What this meant to me was that I could continue my exercise through skating without further damaging my joints, due to minimal impact. I also found that I could skate longer than I could run, which meant I could burn more calories.
So if you are considering taking up this sport or have been running and thinking about starting to skate as a sport, let me share with you some of the benefits,
mental clarity: This is a great benefit that is often overlooked with vigorous exercise. Whether you’re skating hard or casually, your mind will benefit.
Strengthen the heart: This is pretty obvious. Just like running, skating gives your heart a great workout without hurting your joints! In fact, I think skating gives you a better workout because you can do it for a longer period of time. If you do this for 30 minutes you can increase your heart rate up to 148 pm
Weight control: Since skating is a fun sport, you will be exercising while having fun at the same time! If you spend 30 minutes on the skates, you will burn an average of 285 calories. If you go fast on the skates, the calories burned will be much higher.
Coordination: When a child is young, this is very important to learn. But as we get older, it’s great to play a sport that continues to improve coordination and balance. All of this happens naturally while skating.