Not that it is thé most important reason for me training my Inline Skating skills. But with being past the age of 40, weight ís a thingy. It certainly is going easily on than of, for sure that I can say. So, yes, calorie burning counts, for me anyway. And for this week I’m researching if this workout is also helping me out.
First: what does internet say?
Google is your best friend, they say. So Mr. Google is my primary partner for this investigation 🧐
First let my say, there is a big difference in inline skating and “skeeleren” as we call it in Dutch. And because I can not find the English word for skeeleren, I’m obliged to make it clear with the nice image below:
The first hit I received with googling was that with inline skating you’re burning between 550 and 700 calories per hour. And I’m not saying google is lying, but I am this time. Because with doing my best effort, I have never burned this amount of calories with inline skating (believing my smartwatch for this time). I guess this amount of energy expenditure will be achieved with skeeleren: long distance, constant medium to high speed training. Not that I’m saying you’re slow. But if you’re online fitness skates and doing your practices in combination with some distances, you’re not going 15 mph on average.
This page of the brand Rollerblade, even talks of going 20 mph. That is – for us Europeans – going about 32 km/ hour. With this speed your burning 6 calories per minute, what is about 350 calories per hour. But tell me, who is going 20 mph? That’s a speed of a scooter 🛵.
What makes the difference in calorie burning?
A few things are making you burning more or less energy, these are:
YOur weight
Painfull as it is, but if applicable also a piece of good luck: if you’re on the heavy side, you are burning more calories than our stick like colleagues (not saying I’m jealous at all……🤐). Simple: the more weight there has to be moved from A to B, you need more energy. So if your not at your goal weight at this moment, take it on the bright side. You are a really calorieburning master 💪
Gender
Sorry, my fellow women. The guys burn more energy. It isn’t honest, but we have to deal with it. Men have more muscle mass (on average), therefore their energy expenditure even in rest is higher (cringe). And they weigh more (see above). But hell, can’t change this one. So up to the next!
(PS: Don’t tell anyone, but the advantage we have over men is that we look obviously more glamorous on skates, of course! ✨)
Speed
Yes, we need to practise certain skills (breaking, turning, jumping, etc, etc.). But if it is possible in a safe way; make more speed. I have this crazy sleek bicycle path to my work. And if I go out there and skate, I’m definitely seeing more calories burned in my tiny mitochondria. But yes: take care. Make only that speed you can safely handle. I’m not wanting you to end up in bushes!
But, what are you burning with inline skating?
The only way to test is, to measure it myself. With this, first of all, I want to say: the data below applies to me (age, gender, “muscle mass” 🤣🤣🤣 en “speed”).
During my training I’m wearing a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4. I don’t want to advertise, but I am satisfied with this watch (except for the battery life…) and it is now quite affordable, I see.
My top speed is around 16 km/ hour. But I’m not trying to go as fast as I can. Me wanting to keep grip on my skates and wanting to feel safe.
Within this hour I’m burning almost 400 calories, and my training is primarily aerobic. What means that it’s a fairly low intense (why does it feel otherwise?) and my body can keep this up quite long, because there is going enough oxygen to my muscles. And that’s true. Even after an hour, I’m still not tired. In contrary of running: after an hour (even if I could endure this) I will be totally exhausted.
My opinion is that my inline skating is a really nice way to improve my stamina ánd having fun in combination with challenging myself (being on wheels doesn’t still feel all naturel yet).
And those 400 calories? That is a quite nice addition for my, wanting to work on my weight. Additionally, weight loss and control have more to do with what you eat than your training. Those 400 calories are easily compensated with bad food choices.
How to increase calories burn
Perhaps my advices below are more then obvious for some. But anyhow to make a the subject of this week’s page complete I’ll give some tips on how to get the calorieburning on a highter level ⬇️
- Swing those arms! Yes, inline skaten can be a real relaxing workout for your upper body, letting those legs doing all the work. But with pumping your arms as you stride you can increase your calorieburning up to 15% 🔥
- Create intervals: get out of your yoga-mood-kinda-rolling and alternate this with intensive parts. When you use intervals, your heart rate goes up and this surges your calorie burn. The duration of this interval should be between 20 seconds and 2 minutes according this and this website
- Rest less 😴: I agree it is very important to check your e-mail and youtube notifications during inlineskating (busted!). But leave the phone in your pocket and keep going! PS: you are allowed to get your phone to make some gorgeous selfies for your Insta of course 🤩
at home workouts
And I can not leave this one out and I know I’ve mentioned her before. But you can use your skates also for indoor workouts! So that on rainy days you can put those wheels on and create a combination of improving balance and muscle mass.
But @Tatinline is sharing some nice indoor / at home workouts. They maybe look easy to you, but believe me (or not) and try them.
I’ve watched the video above over and over again. How does she stays in the same place without moving backwards/ forwards/ anywhere but in the same place, I thought trying the first few times. And because these workouts are intense (at least they are for me) so they increase your heartrate. Plus these exercises contribute to increasing your muscle mass, including your abdomen and arms. And more muscle = more calories burned and eventually if we are lucky (+ training often enough) even some muscle toning 💪
With all this being said…..I just have to get my skates on! Let see each other next week.