Health benefits of ice skating
Whether you are a professional ice skater, a young child, a retiree, a student, or a housewife, you can get health benefits from ice skating.
Being in itself an aerobic exercise like walking, running and swimming, it offers positive effects for cardiovascular health. One advantage over running is that it’s not as hard on your joints, as it’s a low-impact exercise, unless you’re doing jumping jacks while ice skating. It makes the heart muscles healthy, providing significant protection against coronary artery disease and subsequent heart attacks. It also helps with weight loss, burning 250 to 810 calories per hour with recreational ice skating, according to the US Figure Skating Association website. Meanwhile, competitive skating consumes more calories , from 450 to 1080 per hour of skating. Just to illustrate, a 150-pound man skating continuously for an hour burns as many calories as running five miles in an hour.
As with other sports activities, ice skating also improves endurance. Endurance is developed when one maintains a steady, steady pace for a longer period of time. However, it is important that at first, it is fine to settle for short distances, but over time, these should be gradually increased so that the resistance also increases.
Ice skating also improves muscle tone. When ice skating, the quads and hamstrings are the leg muscles that work the most, but many other muscles in the body work in conjunction with these leg muscles. The abdominal and back muscles also need to contract and relax to maintain upright posture and balance.
Mental fitness is also enhanced by ice skating as it exercises mind control during the act. One needs to be very alert and aware while skating. It is a de-stressor and a form of relaxation for many people who use it as a means of de-stressing from life and work. The fresh air and sunshine at outdoor ice skating, as well as the company of family and friends, go a long way to unwind from a long week of work and hassle. Self-confidence definitely improves too. The challenge of establishing control and balance of the entire body breeds pride when one is able to overcome them.
It is very pleasing to see that adults are becoming more health conscious and that many have turned to ice skating to stay in good physical shape. Gone are the days when only children were interested in moving and sliding on the ice.