Calories Burned Ice Skating
Ice skating is a thrilling and economical activity that can be an excellent source of exercise and amusement for the entire family. Ice skating is suitable for both the young and the elderly and helps in burning calories through simple workouts of different parts of the body. Like any other form of workout routine, burning calories with ice skating will work only if you do it regularly. The best choice for burning calories while skating is through figure skating, which uses up a lot of your muscle power. Invest in getting your own ice skating equipment, like your own ice skating boots that will provide your ankles with better support and some comfortable clothing that will not restrict your skating movements.
How Many Calories Burnt Ice Skating Per Hour
According to the United States Figure Skating Association, you can burn between 250 to 810 calories an hour with recreational skating.
Competitive skating makes use of anything between 450 to 1080 calories per hour. You can calculate the calories you burned per hour of ice skating through a combination of your weight and your category of skating. For example, if you weigh around 60 kilograms and skate lightly for an hour, you will lose 352 calories. If you skate moderately for an hour, you will lose about 440 calories and about 570 calories if you skate heavily. If a man weighing 65 kilogram, skates non-s top for about an hour, he will burn calories equivalent to running five miles an hour.
Health Benefits of Ice Skating
Ice skating is an aerobics workout and has several health benefits. It makes the heart muscles healthy by improving the cardiovascular condition and providing considerable protection from coronary artery diseases (like arteriosclerosis) that leads to heart attacks. About half an hour of brisk skating will hugely benefit your lungs and heart. - Ice skating also lowers chances of developing major health problems, like cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke and obesity.
- Regular skating will also benefit the muscles in the lower part of the body, leg and hip muscles will grow stronger.
- The muscular endurance in the gluteal, quadriceps, groin and some lower leg muscles will improve.
- Skating movements like forward-backward, turning and jumping will develop good balance muscles that will reduce injuries from cross training activities like running and jogging. Also see calories burned running
Weight Loss:
- Skate regularly; keep aside some time every week to go skating if you want to lose weight.
- Sign up for ice skating classes when you start out. These will help you to learn proper techniques of skating and minimize risks of injury and help lose weight effectively. If you want to learn on your own, the trick is to keep moving. Start by taking laps around the rings before practicing various moves and styles that will get your blood pumping. This will keep body warm and burn the calories.
- Do warm up exercises before you begin and cool down exercises along with your ice skating routines. This will improve blood circulation in the body and gear your body better for the workout.
Fitness:
- Ice skating improves the overall fitness levels in your body.
- Ice skating will facilitate replacing your fat with muscles.
- Skating is a low impact exercise that also improves cardiovascular health, improves mental endurance and reduces stress levels.
- Skating improves your digestive, nervous and immune system since it is considered a well-designed exercise program involving effective body activities.
Precautions:
- Check for thickness and other qualities of ice before skating on natural ice. Four inches of new, clear ice is safe, but old ice has several layers and you cannot depend on its overall stability. Rivers and streams are moving bodies, and almost never safe to skate on.
- Natural ice skating areas are rough and bumpy and you can trip and fall often. Wear knee and elbow pads, wrist guards and a helmet, to protect the body parts most likely to be injured during a fall. Wear a personal floating device if you skate in areas you are not sure of. Always keep safety equipment on shore when you skate on natural ice, to be prepared for the worst accidents. Keep a long rope around because if the ice breaks, rescuers should not run towards the hole because it is too thin. Ensure there are people around when you skate.
- Eat a heavy meal an hour before skating-it should have plenty of protein, carbohydrates and fat. Fat boosts your endurance by providing stored reserve of energy. After skating you should restock the exhausted stores of glycogen to start muscles recovery. You can drink a protein shake and eat quick and slower digesting carbohydrates.
Risks On Health: There are no risks on health, but external risks of ice skating include injuries from fall and during formations, especially if you are figure skating or skating on natural, un-groomed ice. The risk of falls are the highest in ice skating.
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