Effects of roller blading for exercise...?

Question

I will be finished my exams soon and i want to start exercising and eating properly. Having tried going to the gym and running etc. in the past but getting bored easily, i thought about the possibility of buying some rollerblades. Has anybody used this form of exercise before? Could you please suggest how effective it is, as well as the amount of time needed to do it in order for results to show? I live next to a promenade and want to tone up my lower body, so any other forms of fun, effective exercise you could suggest doing would be a great help too. Thanks

Answer 1

I do not roller blade, I skateboard, but a friend of mine rollerblades and says it is really good exercise, especially for the legs.

Answer 2

Definitely a good choice of exercise. It will work your cardiovascular system very well and help burn excess body fat. You will need to do approx. 20 minutes 3 times a week at least to see results, which should happen after the first 6 to 8 weeks (you may see it quicker, everyone is different), building up to 40 min per session 3 times a week. It works the leg muscles quite well but works mainly on the hip and glute muscles, these are fairly small muscles when you compare them to the legs as a whole. You do use your thigh muscles and calf muscles but not through a full range of motion (I could be very boring and bang on about this all day, but I won't) The long and the short of it is that because your not using the biggest group of muscles through their full range of motion you are not getting the most benefits. I would reccomend your roller blading to be combined with gym work. Now I know you said you find the gym boring and you are not on your own there, but how about taking up some of the classes like circuit training, boxercise etc. much more fun than the gym and a great all over body work out.
Remember that even though you just want to tone your lower body you cannot spot train, which means that you can't pick an area to lose fat from (life is not fair) genetics takes care of that. So I would advize trying an all over body work out.

I hope this helps and I wish you luck on your fitness goals.

Answer 3

It will work for you if you work out 3 times a week. I suggest skating outside and find a nice path to take regularly. Then as you get better and stronger you can lengthen it and get more exercise. It is really hard on the legs, be prepared to be sore for a few weeks until you start building muscle. You also will get huge leg tone out of it, just don't neglect your upperbody or you will start looking like a figure skater with skinny arms and huge legs! I used to skate for fun and played street hockey on blades. Just do what you think is fun so it doesn't turn into work and you will be fine. Just don't spend too much on the skates until you know for sure that you will be skating allot. Have fun!

Answer 4

its another great cardio workout as long as you do it 4-6 times a week for 30-50min and sweat (rise your heart rate) you are gona lose fat and muscle so dont forget to do light weight training to tone up and not lose muscle (more muscle=faster metabolism)