If you’re a skateboarder, you already know that our craft is something special. Skateboarding is a sport, an art form, a lifestyle, and a culture. The good that we get out of skateboarding is endless. Today, we’re just going to touch on some of the health benefits that skating has to offer.
Overall Fitness
Skateboarding is great for burning calories and staying in great physical shape. Calculating exact calories burned during skating isn’t easy since some days you might skate harder than others. Another reason that makes it difficult to estimate is that skateboarding to get somewhere is different from skating at a skatepark or spot. But with all this being said, skateboarding uses up far more calories than most other physical activities. Depending on your size, you might shred between 150 and 500 calories per hour.
Physical Endurance
Skate all day. Skate all night. You’ve probably heard that motto before. Skateboarding wears us out, beats us up, but we still do it as long as we can. And the more we do it, the more we’re able to do it. So why does this happen in skateboarding far more than in other sports? Why do we skate more in one day than people do other sports in a whole week? That one’s easy. It’s just more fun.
Flexibility
There aren’t many other activities out there that involve as much of your body as skateboarding. When we skate, we’re moving every part of our body, and we’re moving them in all sorts of different directions. Just think about everything that goes into a simple frontside boardslide. You’re moving your feet and your legs You’re using your arms to help balance. You’re twisting your body. Now think about all the tricks you might do throughout a day of skating. Also, picture all the combination of tricks that you might do. There probably isn’t any other sport that offers such a variety of movement.
Precision
You try a trick, you don’t land it, so you try again. But this time, you make adjustments. You place your feet differently on the board. You change your timing. You change your speed. You change the way you land. You adjust until you stick it and roll away. Skateboarding involves a lot of coordination between your eyes, legs, feet and arms. The more you skate, the better you’ll get at this. Precision and coordination are used throughout your life, whether you skateboard or not. When you improve these traits, you better your ability to do all sorts of different things from driving to climbing to multi-tasking.
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Pain Tolerance
Bruises and bumps. Scrapes and scars. Aches and pains. They’re all a part of skateboarding. And since we love skateboarding so much, we’re willing to take the abuse. The fun and excitement of skating is far greater than the pain involved. Most small injuries go away. You forget about them. But you’ll never forget your first kickflip, your first drop-in, or your first handrail. So we roll with the punches. And those punches become easier to deal with each and every time. We fall. We get up. We try it again with even more determination.
Falling
Prevention of future injuries is one of the most beneficial things that skateboarding has to offer in terms of health. When you skate, you learn how to avoid falling (if possible), and you also learn how to fall correctly. Skateboarders naturally get better at knowing where to place their feet and their hands as they progress with their skating. The more you skate, the better you get at catching yourself from taking a spill. If falling is unavoidable, a seasoned skater will know how to do it in a way that minimizes injury. This is an excellent tool to have in your life. You’ll reduce the chance of freak accidents. You’ll naturally be more able to recover from slips, trips, and stumbles and avoid falling on your face.
Stress Relief
Any physical activity is considered to be good for relieving stress, but we think skateboarding is especially powerful in this way. Skateboarding can help you take your mind off things. Alternatively, it can also help you think clearly about things. Skateboarding seems to bring things into perspective and allows you to feel as though you’re more in control of other aspects of your life. In addition, skating helps you feel more relaxed in general. When you’ve conquered things like hand rails, concrete bowls, and stair sets, a lot of problems you might encounter in life are greatly reduced or disappear altogether. Landing tricks also brings a sense of accomplishment and confidence. Most importantly, skateboarding is fun and brings about happiness.
Skateboarding is one of the most beneficial things you can do for your body, mind, and soul. If you were thinking about starting, we highly recommend it and we hope that this article helped to convince you. And if you’re still not sure, just try it. You won’t regret it.
2020-2022 Update: COVID-19
We wrote this article many years back and never thought we would be updating it during a global pandemic. However, we feel that all of the above skateboarding health benefits are now more true than ever. Skateboarding is a great stress reliever, will keep you in shape, and exposes you to fresh air and sunlight. The creative outlet that skateboarding offers feels more important than ever.
Additionally, what makes skateboarding a great activity when there is fear of coronavirus or another contagious disease is that it’s an individual sport. You do not need to share equipment or pass a ball back and forth. You aren’t required to interact physically with anyone else or engage in body-on-body contact. You can venture out on your own or skate with a friend while maintaining a distance. Stay safe and have fun!
