8 Fitness Goals to Achieve with Learn to Skate USA

Three-time U.S. figure skating champion Ashley Wagner

1. Improve Endurance/Cardiovascular Health
Instead of going for a jog or a run, give skating laps a try — every 11 laps is a mile! You’ll get your heart rate up while your muscles burn. You can even throw in a few sprints down the long sides of the ice. Because it requires good posture and body control, ice skating can even contribute to better breathing and improved circulation.

Bonus Challenge: See if you can skate a marathon! Download our lap-counting mileage tracker here.

2. Build Muscle
While skating laps improves cardiovascular health, learning new skating skills improves muscular strength and endurance. Try your hand at swizzles to engage inner and outer thighs, or turn dips into on-ice squats. (You’ll learn both in the Basic Skills 1 and Adult 1 curriculums.) Being on ice gives these movements an added challenge that engages your core through each session.

3. Improve Balance/Coordination
Unlike yoga or tai chi, skating challenges you to balance your weight on a slippery surface over a blade about 2 mm thick — that’s about as wide as a toothpick. By mastering your balance on blades, you’re training total body awareness. In other words, the more you skate, the better your balance, coordination, posture, and core strength.

4. Weight Management
Remember those laps you skated for cardio? By increasing your heart rate, working up a sweat and engaging your muscles, you boosted your metabolism. In fact, ice skating can burn around 460 calories per hour (SHAPE Magazine). And by choosing an activity as fun as ice skating, it’s easier to motivate yourself to stay fit.

5. Improve Mental Health
Take a break from your routine and enjoy a little “me-time” out on the ice. Learning to ice skate provides opportunities to meet new friends with a common interest, and have fun as you develop greater confidence and self-esteem each time you master a new skill.

6. Improve Flexibility and Mobility
Improving flexibility can increase range of motion and reduce muscle tension, and learning to skate is the perfect way to do it. The extensions and body-lengthening movements involved in skating increase flexibility and mobility through your entire body, which can also help to prevent injury. Plus, you’ll be having so much fun, you won’t even realize you’re stretching.

7. Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
Learning a new sport is a great way to keep yourself motivated. Ice skating can challenge your muscles in a way they’ve never moved before. You’ll be learning a new activity with the bonus of staying active in the process.

8. Train for an Event
Just like running to do a 5K or getting in shape to be competitive in a league, skating allows you to train for an event, set goals and achieve them. Test your skills with Compete USA or simply work toward skill evaluations at the end of each class session. Master one level, then move on to the next. We’ll even give you a record book to chart your progress.

Challenge yourself to stay healthy. Get started at LearnToSkateUSA.com.

U.S. figure skating champion Adam Rippon

Learn To Skate USA

Lessons in skating. Lessons in life. Visit www.LearnToSkateUSA.com to get started.

Learn to Skate USA Blog

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Lessons in skating, lessons in life, powered by Toyota. Visit LearnToSkateUSA.com to get started.

Learn To Skate USA

Lessons in skating. Lessons in life. Visit www.LearnToSkateUSA.com to get started.

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