Among the many ways to maintain one’s good health or improve it, ice skating is a great choice. To make sure you get the many health benefits of this great activity, your skates must fit properly. You should also wear basic protective equipment.
Regular ice skating will improve your cardiovascular condition. Twenty to thirty minutes of brisk skating several days a week will benefit your heart and lungs greatly. Your resting heart rate will be lowered, which will save your heart from unnecessary wear and tear. You will also improve the circulation throughout nearly your entire body. Those who cannot skate briskly can still get many of these benefits by exercising for longer times.
By going skating regularly, you will also greatly benefit the muscles in your lower body. All your leg and hip muscles will get needed use and grow stronger, especially your quadriceps, gluteal muscles, groin muscles, and some lower leg muscles that not many other activities will benefit. Your muscular endurance in these muscle groups will also increase greatly through such regularly activity.
Skating both forwards and backwards and turning in both directions will provide balanced development of opposing muscle groups. A good program of such activity is a great choice for cross training to reduce overuse injuries from activities such as running and jogging.
Ice skating is great for developing and maintaining good balance. Because not many activities provide this benefit, you will be healthier overall by including skating in your routine.
Ice skaters, like all other people who perform large muscle activities regularly, eliminate bodily wastes better than sedentary people do. The rhythmic contraction of the lower leg muscles improves lymph circulation throughout the lower body. Elevated breathing rates allow more waste products to be exhaled. Your digestive system will also better process foods and eliminate waste.
Like other good aerobic activities, regular ice skating can lower your chances of developing many serious health problems, including excess body weight, cancer, diabetes, stroke, and high blood pressure. Your nervous system and your immune system will benefit from a well-designed exercise program that includes this excellent activity. Skating will improve your coordination, and it can be a great way to manage stress. You will also likely postpone age-related declines in many bodily capacities through such a program.
To get the many health benefits of ice skating, be sure to warm up before and cool down properly after your workout. Learn good technique and learn how to fall properly. Be sure also that you regularly stretch your entire body properly, especially your lower back, hips, and legs.
