When I was young, I loved to run. It didn’t matter if it was raining or snowing, I would be running early in the morning. If I let a few days go by without running, I would start to feel sluggish. I enjoyed running not only for the exercise but also for the benefit of clearing my mind at the start of a new day. When I wasn’t running, I would wake up focusing on the problems I would have that day or the days to come. But running gave me a reprieve from the problems around me.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that my body can’t take the abuse of running. My bones and joints began to give me some problems. I’ve found that skating, whether inline or roller skating, can be a great replacement for running. I found that skating can give me the same benefits as running, but without further damage to my bones and joints.

When I ran, the souls of my feet would absorb the shock when my feet hit the ground. But when he was on wheels or skates, the skates absorbed much more, up to 50 percent of the impact with each landing. Because the frames and wheels take the brunt of the impact, I found that my knees and ankles weren’t affected much.

What this meant to me was that I could continue my exercise through skating without further damage to my joints, due to minimal impact. I also found that I could skate longer than I could run, which meant I could burn more calories.

So if you are considering taking up this sport or have been running and thinking about starting skating as a sport, let me share with you some of the benefits,

mental clarity: This is a great benefit that is often overlooked with vigorous exercise. Whether you’re skating hard or casually, your mind will benefit.

Strengthen the heart: This is pretty obvious. Just like running, skating gives your heart a great workout without damaging your joints! In fact, I think skating gives a better workout because you can do it for a longer period of time. If you do this for 30 minutes you can get your heart rate up to 148 pm

Weight control: Since skating is a fun sport, you’ll get exercise while having fun at the same time! If you spend 30 minutes on the skates, you will burn an average of 285 calories. If you go fast on the skates, the calories burned will be much higher.

Coordination: When a child is young, this is very important to learn. But as we get older, it’s great to play a sport that continues to improve coordination and balance. This all happens naturally while you skate.