What Muscles Does Rollerblading Work?

Rollerblading can be an amazing workout and a great way to get into shape, but do you know what muscles does rollerblading work?

Without a doubt, it would be a nice by-product to lose weight and build muscle, so knowing how well it works out your muscles is incredibly important.

Did you know that a person can burn a lot of calories from rollerblading? And that when you activate your lower body’s largest muscles, you will get the most improvement overall.

Since this is such a nice workout for people of all shapes and sizes, you should not be surprised to find that your efforts result in bigger muscles.

We are here to help you out, breaking down which muscles get the best workout from a rollerblading working, and answering the important questions like whether rollerblading can help you on your weight loss journey or whether rollerblading can give you good abs.

Can You Build Muscle Rollerblading?

Naturally, before we can address which muscles rollerblading works on, you may wonder whether rollerblading can build muscle.

Actually, rollerblading is a guaranteed way to build up muscle. This is because it can be an intense cardio workout that really focuses on muscle endurance.

While you are out on the wheels gliding and pushing, you will find that the fat in your legs will begin to melt away and transform itself into lean muscle.

How Can Rollerblading Help You Lose Weight?

So if rollerblading builds muscle, it is natural that it can help you lose weight. Remember that weight loss does not happen because of just one thing.

Instead weight loss happens through a balanced, healthy diet, and regular exercise, as well as your own health and genetic makeup.

Rollerblading is a nice way to lose weight, because it is a low-impact aerobic exercise.

Aerobic exercise helps your heart, blood sugar, and even your cholesterol, so it can really help improve your health, which will always help with weight loss.

Rollerblading also works so many muscles throughout your body, from your hands down to your feet.

As you engage all of the muscles in your body while allowing you to take in more and perspire out. This process itself coverts calories into glucose for energy.

Can Rollerblading Build Your Abs?

Since you know that rollerblading can help you lose weight, can it go even further and help you build up and tone your abs?

As you will see below, when we breakdown all of the different muscles that are impacted by rollerblading, the core muscles are used during rollerblading.

You need your core muscles, which includes your abs, to help with your balance and control.

If you rollerblade regularly, the fats that are naturally stored around your abs will reduce on their own, helping you to emphasize your abs.

Remember that everyone’s body is different, however, and what you will wind up seeing depends entirely on the amount of fat stores that you have.

So, the abs may be hidden under your skin, but they will be there, getting stronger, regardless of how well you can see them.

What Muscles Does Rollerblading Work?

There are a lot of muscles that are worked when you are rollerblading, including your quads, hamstrings, glutes, hip flexors, adductors, abductors, and your core.

Here is what you need to know about each muscle or muscle group.

Quadriceps

Your quads are the muscles that you see on the front of your thighs. They are called the quadriceps, because there are four muscles involved: the vastus lateralis, the vastus intermedius, the rectus femoris, and the vastus medialis.

This muscle is worked every time you move your knee and hip. Since you are moving your hips and knees when you rollerblade, the quads are activated and get a workout.

Hamstrings

Next up, we have your hamstrings. These muscles are on the back of your thighs below your glutes.

The hamstring muscles are made up of muscles called the biceps femoris, the semitendinosus, and the semimembranosus.

Your hamstrings get their workout when you flex your knees and extend your hips. The flexion happens in the knee when you lift your foot off of the ground and pull your heel backward.

Glutes

The glutes are, put simply, your butt muscles. These including the gluteus maximus, the gluteus medius, and the gluteus minimus.

These are some of the biggest muscles in your entire body and they help you with stability among other things.

When you are rollerblading, the glutes will help with your hip flexibility and strength.

It happens when you extend your hip and move your thigh backward in order to get yourself moving forward. They are activated when you bend your knees in a sort of squat position.

Hip Flexors

You hip flexors take a lot of wear and tear when you are rollerblading. The muscles are called the iliopsoas, which start at your lower spine, move through your pelvis, ending at your thighs.

The two muscles are called the psoas major and the iliacus. They are the heavy lifters when it comes to getting your thigh up, so they can be overworked if you put too much work on them.

They contract every time you lift and release your thighs while rollerblading.

Adductors And Abductors

Other muscles that you should look at are the adductors and the abductors. The adductors begin at your inner thigh, and they help moving your leg back together.

The abductors meanwhile are the small muscles that run down your outer thighs. They work with the glutes to move your thigh outward.

The adductors and abductors really work together to move your thighs around, like a pushing and pulling situation.

Core Muscles

Finally, when asking what muscles does rollerblading work, we are left with your core muscles. This includes your abdominal muscles, which are the obliques and the rectus abdominis.

The obliques run down the sides of your ribs, working at a diagonal angle. The rectus abdominals is a large muscle that starts at your lower chest and goes all of the way down to the pelvis.

When you skate at a high speed, your core becomes more and more involved, but your core will help with your balance, even when skating a slow speed.

The core can produce force and stabilize your spine. They really get a work out when you are breathing heavy, so the harder you skate, the heavier you breathe, the more work your abs will experience.

Other Things To Keep in Mind

One of the most important things that you should remember when it comes to using rollerblading as a workout is that you can easily pull any of these muscles that you are activating and working out.

To prevent these kinds of injuries, you really cannot skip a warm-up and a cool down.

Warm-ups and cool downs are often skipped in any kind of workout, but when you work out a muscle that isn’t ready for it, then your muscle will be less pliable and warm, making it easy to tear the muscle without much effort at all.

You really should gently stretch before and after a workout to allow your muscles a chance to increase their blood flow and get more oxygen.

They will also let you become more efficient in your workout and generally have a much better time. 

How Many Calories Does Roller Skating Burn?

So, we have established that rollerblading can build muscle and help with your weight loss journey, but exactly how many calories can you burn?

The question doesn’t have a quick answer. There are so many different factors involved. Part of this has to do with your genetic predisposition and the other part is your workout routine and diet.

There is a formula that you try to strictly as a guideline to give yourself an idea. You just need to remember to not use this as a rule as it will depend.

To get an idea of how many calories that you burn while rollerblading, you can expect to burn about 250 calories if you are skating for 30 minutes.

To be more accurate, moderate skating for a 140-pound person can burn as much as 330 calories an hour, but it will change depending on your size and your metabolism.

Even better is if you are a faster skater and aim for speed, you could burn as much as 600 calories an hour.

This is because when you go faster, your heart rate goes up, which ultimately burns off calories.

Final Words

When it comes down to the question as to what muscles does rollerblading work, the short answer is that there are a lot of muscles involved.

Anytime you really get your body moving, you will be activating several different muscle groups at the same time.

Rollerblading is a lower body sport, so there is a lot of emphasis placed there, but as is the case with all exercise, taking care of your body as a whole rather than parts is the reality that will make you the most successful out there.