Inline skating is a sport that is truly versatile and offers a variety of different benefits from both a personal health standpoint and an enjoyment aspect. If you’re interested in picking up the sport of inline skating, or you are seeking to get your family involved in inline skating, the following are some great reasons to do so.

- Fun and Family -

The best selling point for inline skating, especially to your family, is that inline skating is just pure fun. Unlike a lot of other activities, one of the great things about inline skating is that it can be enjoyed by the entire family. With the fast moving world of today, the time you have to spend with your family seems like it is too little. Inline skating is the perfect way to get your family together to spend some quality time.

Learning to skate is very easy and you can skate almost anywhere. It is a low impact activity (discussed in more detail below) and it increases flexibility, reduces stress on joints, allows you to keep active, and sharpens the mind as well.

It can also be more than just skating around a neighborhood or down a skate trail. Inline skating provides the added benefit of creativity. You can take most any game you play in shoes and translate it over to a game on skates. Tag, hide-and-seek, and basketball are just some of the games you can play. Or you can make up your own and really get creative.

The amount of fun that you have is really up to you, but the fun is what will make you want to do it more and more!

- Social Activity -

Inline skating is also a great way to meet new people who share the same interest as you. Whether it is through an established skating group, at a scheduled skating event that takes place in your area, or by just merely going to the same skating trail as other people, the popularity of inline skating is immense. Skating alone isn’t a bad thing, but fun is added to the activity when you can do it with other people. Not only will it add some conversation to your skating, but you can learn from other people as well. You can get tips on how to improve your skating technique, maintain your skates so they perform better, or just simply have a group of people you can call up for casual skate at any time.

- Low Cost -

Once you make the initial investment to purchase your skates, the cost of inline skating is practically nothing. You can skate your neighborhood or the sidewalks of your city streets for free (as long as there isn’t an ordinance prohibiting it) and the cost to maintain your skates is very low. If you plan to skate a trail at a local state park you may have to pay a small fee, but you don’t have to go there to skate unless you really want to. If they offer a season pass, spend the little bit of extra money and then you can go whenever you desire without having to pay each time.

You can also use your inline skates as an inexpensive mode of transportation. Instead of spending the money to fill up your car gas tank, you can skate to work if it is close enough. This not only puts more money into your pocket, but it helps the environment too. If your skates “break down” the cost to fix them will be substantially less than your car, and you won’t have to call a tow truck either!

- Stay Cool, Go Fast! -

The warmer temperatures of spring and summer are great, that is until you want to go for a run or casual walk outside and the sweat and heat are just too unbearable to deal with. Inline skating helps to solve this problem because it is an activity that allows you to get the workout or casual stroll you desire in the fresh air while remaining cool. When you’re skating, the wind is always in your face to help you remain cool. Running and walking can’t offer this same advantage, which is another reason why inline skating is the perfect sports activity.

- Low Impact Activity -

Unlike other sports and activities that you can take part in, inline skating provides a healthy, low-impact activity on your body. If you have ever been jogging, you know that running produces a jarring impact on your knees, back, and ankles. The repetitive nature of impact is not good for your joints and it takes the life out of them with each and every stride. Inline skating is a great alternative to other high-impact sports activities and is an excellent way to alleviate your body from damage to bones and joints while still getting in shape. As a final note, inline skating has been proven to show slightly less the half of the shock of running, while providing all of the same health benefits.

- Great Workout -

In addition to being low impact activity that is healthier for your bones and joints, inline skating can also be a great addition to your workout routine. Whether you desire to burn calories and lose some weight, improve balance and coordination, build muscle, or even improve your mental fitness, the versatility of inline skating will allow you to do so. Don’t have a current workout/exercise routine that you can add inline skating to? Well, what better way to start a routine than with inline skating.

Burning Calories/Cardiovascular

When it comes to getting healthy, or staying healthy, many people consider themselves to be calorie counters. They keep track of the calories on the foods they purchase and consume, and they also try burn calories through various exercises. Inline skating is great fitness activity for helping to burn calories because it takes very little time to become effective.

During a 30-minute skating period in which you are skating at a steady, comfortable rate, an average inline skater will burn 285 calories at a heart rate of 148 beats per minute. The same 30-minute period at the same heart rate while running will allow you to burn 360 calories, but the strain and impact it puts on your joints and bones is far greater. Is that strain worth the extra 75 calories? Or wouldn’t you just prefer to inline skate a bit longer? For the sake of your bones and joints, we hope you would choose the latter, but we’re not going to tell you what to do.

From a cardiovascular standpoint, inline skating is a great alternative to your running routine. Now you might be saying, “I’ll be able to coast on skates, how is that going to be as good as my running workout where I can’t?” Truth-be-told, yes, you can coast on skates. The simple remedy is to skate in an area with a slight incline so you can’t coast and lessen the effect of your cardio workout. If you do this, you’ve now made inline skating as effective as a running workout and you’ve reduced that jarring impact on your joints and bones.

Balance and Coordination

If you’ve inline skated before you probably already know that inline skating requires a fair amount of balance and coordination. If you haven’t inline skated before, it might be because you know that it requires balance and coordination, which is something you just don’t seem to think you have. Well, regardless of how great (or poor) your balance and coordination is, inline skating is great for improving it. It isn’t a surprise that many athletes, both amateur and professional, will utilize inline skating as a training tool to improve balance and coordination. You don’t even have to go over the top for your balance and coordination to improve. Simply skating normal is enough to make improvements, but there are other ways to do so as well.

One such way is by balancing on one skate for a few seconds at a time. When you have your skates on your feet, pick up one skate for 2 to 4 seconds, then put it down and do the same with the other skate. Your balance and coordination will improve quickly.

For those of you who might be saying, “I’ll never be able to do that, I can barely stand up on skates as it is,” don’t worry. As we said, your balance and coordination will improve as you skate. No one expects you to go out and skate marathons on 1 foot. We’re just saying that inline skating can be a great asset to improving balance and coordination.

Building Muscle

The fact that inline skating is a great aerobic and cardiovascular exercise is not a surprise to most. The fact that it can be used to build muscle as well is sometimes a surprise. In general, an individual who is working out is seeking to burn fat, not muscle. From a muscle building standpoint, inline skating has been found to be more beneficial than both running and cycling. This is due in large part to motions of inline skating. The movements are easier and more natural for building hip and thigh muscles. Unlike cycling, inline skating develops the hamstring muscles. Inline skating also helps preserve your knees and joints, unlike running. Many studies have also been completed on the effectiveness of inline skating for building muscles; with each study showing that inline skating develops muscles in the entire upper leg, rear-end, and lower back. Additionally, your upper arms and shoulders are affected when arms are swung vigorously in intense skating periods.

Mental Fitness

Among the benefits that are routinely overlooked when it comes to inline skating is the activity’s effect on the mind. Inline skating can be a casual stroll around the block, or an intense, fast-paced adrenaline rush. Regardless of which style of skating you participate in, the mental health benefits that you gain from inline skating should not be taken lightly. Leisurely skating helps reduce stress levels and has also been shown to lower the likelihood of depression. Intense skating also has its benefits by increasing mental acuteness and reaction time as well.

For parents, inline skating is great for your children because it stimulates the brain and focuses the mind on the activity. The balance and coordination benefit discussed above and sharpening of the mind will both be affected through inline skating.

- Cross Training -

As mentioned above, inline skating is often used as a cross-training tool for other sports. Two popular sports in which athletes use inline skating for cross-training are ice hockey and skiing. Rollerblade, Inc. was founded by two hockey players who were looking for a way to train for ice hockey in the off season. The design of the inline skate was born out of necessity for those two gentlemen and now most hockey players utilize inline skating for the same purpose. Additionally, Alpine and Nordic skiers will develop leg muscles, improve cardiovascular fitness, and improve agility via inline skating.

The use of inline skating as a cross-training tool is really up to you. Whatever the sport it is that you play, there is certainly a way that inline skating can benefit you.