Skateboarding has evolved from a sport of rebels to a fun and thrilling hobby. And, a person who has never been on a board before would think it is dangerous and injurious. However, there are multiple benefits of skateboarding from physical and mental health to social benefits.
This sport isn’t just for punk rockers and Tony Hawk wannabes. In fact, skateboarding has a plenty of benefits for your body, mind, and social life. From boosting your cardiovascular health and strengthening your core, to reducing stress and boosting your confidence, there are so many reasons why you should give skateboarding a try.
So, why not join me on this wild ride and explore the incredible benefits of skateboarding? Let’s dive in and discover why skateboarding is the ultimate way to improve your health and happiness.
Benefits of Skateboarding – Reasons Why You Should Start Skateboard
It’s worth learning how to ride a skateboard due to various benefits including social and health. So, don’t be afraid and get a skateboard to take full advantage of this best sport. Indeed, skateboarding is addictive and it is going to become a good hobby.
Skateboarding has become a part of the culture and it affects our social life to a great extent. Let’s dive into the social benefits of skateboarding;
1. Extend Your Friends Circle
The Skateboarding community is very friendly and they always welcome a skateboarder. It is a great way of socializing and meeting new people to extend your relationship circle. The best part is, this community is active and they do a lot of reunions to keep everyone together, know their lives and help out those who are mentally isolated and living in dark places.
2. Affordable Sport
It is an affordable sport that you can start playing even at $50. Unlike most of the games where you need memberships of sports clubs and gyms, you can literally drag your skateboard in the streets. Moreover, there are multiple free skating parks where you can practice and enjoy performing skateboarding skills.
Not to mention, we recommend using protective gear to protect you from injuries – but they are not high priced as other X-game sports like hill climbing, biking and snowboarding, etc.
3. Perfect for Transportation
Skateboarding is a great means of commuting. Once you learn how to balance the board, you will find it quite handy in traveling short distances such as going to school and the office, etc.
And, a skateboard is not heavy, you can easily carry it around when you aren’t riding. This way, you save transportation money and learn the art of spending wisely.
4. Trendy and Fashionable
Some guys think that they have no style of their own and that builds up an inferiority complexion. However, once you learn the basics of this sport, you develop your own skills to play tricks with the board and eventually have your own style.
As a result, your tricks become trendy and you become a fashion symbol among the skateboarding community and others start following you.
Skateboarding does not require teams or a group of players to play together – that’s the beauty. You can simply get on a board and cruise around streets just by yourself, kickflip the board and enjoy performing Ollies all alone. However, we recommend you skateboard with friends.
From our experiences, we felt more confident skateboarding among other skateboarders – that develops a sense of security and you get to learn new ways too.
6. Creative Freedom
Unlike other sports, skateboarding does not have specific rules to follow. That means you are free to skate your way and bring new innovations to your style. Skaters have the benefit of creating new tricks and stunts to enjoy this sport the most without following the guidelines of the sport. However, always remember to be cautious and not to perform deadly stunts.
Once you are on a board, you intend to experience the joy of riding in new places. For that, your commute through undiscovered streets (where you have never been before). This way, you get familiar with your city streets and map in a better way.
Plus, you will be able to view the streets, routes and signals in a different way rather than viewing them behind the steering wheel – you actually feel the streets.
8. Eco-Friendly
I would personally say, the best benefit of skateboarding is that it is eco-friendly. Longboards can easily be dragged using force and it does not require any fuel or battery to get moving.
It does not emit harmful gases such as Carbon monoxide, Nitrogen oxides, etc. Hence, you can commute short and long distances without harming the environment – which is a great concern of the modern world!
B. Health Benefits
Just like other sports, skateboarding also has health benefits. Let’s have a look at the health benefits of skateboarding;
1. Fun Way of Workout
Skateboarding is an exciting way of exercise for us rather than doing tedious workouts like running and cycling. You get moving on a board and burn calories. A study states that you burn between 300 to 500 calories during an hour’s skateboarding.
All you have to do is push the board using your feet, balance it with your arms and enjoy the ride – isn’t it fun?
I experienced it to be the easiest and a great sport to lose weight. You might have noticed that most skateboarders are slim and their bodies are toned which represents good fitness.
Skateboarders use their energy to push, flip, jump and rotate the board. They learn the art of staying active which keeps them fit and more energetic.
3. Good Cardio Exercise to Reduce Body Cholesterol
Cardio exercises reduce the chances of heart disease. Some of the cardio workouts require you to move fast – that is what a skateboard makes you do. When you ride faster, your heartbeat goes higher because it pumps faster.
As a result, it burns extra cholesterol around the body to reduce the chances of heart disease.
We cannot run the whole day, play soccer or hockey the whole day – but we can skateboard from morning to evening and wise versa. This sport beats us, breaks us, and builds us to skateboard for long hours. This fun activity enhances our stamina to play this sport every day throughout the week.
5. Increases Flexibility
As we mentioned above, skateboarding requires a full-body workout. You push and stand on a board using your feet and legs, arms to keep the balance, and slight movements in the body to shift the board direction. Plus, you perform sudden body-twisting actions to play tricks. As a result, your body gets more flexible which leads to fewer injuries and a more active body.
6. Muscle Building
It is a great sport to build your muscles, especially in the lower body, from the core to the calves. Your quad muscles get involved when you extend your knees for ollies and acceleration.
Gluteus muscles are one of the largest muscles in your body and stay active throughout the skateboarding ride. They are frequently used while crouching from an upright position to propel forward.
Calves are the most active muscle when you are on a board because you use them to push and shift the board.
Skateboarding builds your core stronger and if you use it on a daily basis, it enhances your stamina too. This sport depends on balance and you balance your body by using the core. Hence, your core muscles always stay active which leads to strengthening your core.
There is a saying, “A strong body depends on a strong core”. Also, if your core muscles are well built, not only you have strength but also your body shape looks amazing.
8. Increases Metabolism
As we mentioned above, skateboarding burns calories and obviously your body would require more food to convert it into energy for you to get going. A healthy metabolism is essential for a healthy body because it processes the food to provide energy to your body.
C. Mental Benefits
Apart from social and health benefits, skateboarding has a lot of mental benefits from reducing stress to controlling your mind and making you able to fight hurdles. Let’s read about the mental benefits of skateboarding;
1. Complete Mindful Sport
In this era where we are bombarded with information and continuously stressing about work, skateboarding provides relief and diverts our minds from tensions. When you are on a board, your focus is to balance it using your body and that makes you feel as if the board is a part of your body.
You are too focused on the board that you stop worrying about other stressful stuff that grounds you and does not let you sleep at night.
2. Teaches Resilience
There is no other sport that teaches us to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations better than skateboarding. Though this sport is mostly about falling – a study shows that skating is 95% falling. However, you want to get up again and try the same trick over and over until you master it.
Hence, skateboarding works on your fears and teaches you resilience even though failed attempts hurt you.
3. Teaches Patience
Skateboarding requires an extreme amount of patience. As we have stated above, this sport is mostly about falling, it requires multiple attempts time after time to learn a technique. Failing multiple times and trying back to learn the same trick teaches you patience and keeps your personality calm in hard situations.
4. Increases Self-Esteem
It is obvious that you are unable to ride and perform tricks as a beginner. Skateboarding is all about progressing in your abilities along with being competitive with your fellow skaters.
However, this does not develop of sense of challenging others – mainly you challenge your past self. You strive to be better in every new attempt.
Hence, it enhances your self-esteem, provides you courage, and builds confidence to come out from the cautious zone.
We recommend parents teach their kids how to skateboard to build body and mind correlation at an early age.
5. Deals with Anxiety and Depression
Skateboarding puts you in anxiety-inducing situations again and again and that develops a sense of facing it and fighting its fear. It makes you control over your thoughts and makes you able to confront your fears that cause anxiety and depression.
Once you start learning tricks, you continuously think about practicing them more and making them better. This way, the depressing thoughts do not attack you and you feel more relaxed.
6. Improves Pain Tolerance
Since skateboarding is all about falling, you intend to get bruises and cuts on your knees, elbows, and wrists, etc. But believe me, you immediately get up and want to get on board again to ride.
You will hurt yourself in the beginning, but once you get used to these minor bruises, the fear of getting hurt goes away and you become more tolerant of pain.
7. Stress Reliever
Physical activities intend to provide relief from stress. In particular, skateboarding act as a good stress reliever because it makes you able to have control over your mind. You get engaged in performing tricks, you are more focused on sports and that redirects your thoughts to excitement and achievements on performing tricks successfully.
8. Precision and Coordination
You fail countless times learning a trick. You fall and fall again while practicing. Every next attempt you try, you place your feet in a different way and kick the board with slightly more precision. The coordination between your mind, feet, and arms has to be precise to master than trick.
Once you learn, you move on to the next skill and so on – hence you learn the art of coordination and precision.
Final Verdict
The above-mentioned reasons are just a few to consider why you should start skateboarding. There are various other benefits of skateboarding that improve your social life, health and mental condition.
Indeed this sport is difficult to learn, but once you are on board – the excitement level makes you ride for longer. The better you get at skateboarding, the more benefits you will endure.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is skateboarding good for your brain?
Yes indeed, skateboarding is good for your brain. It has many social and mental benefits that bring positive changes to your brain. Especially, it makes you able to better in socializing and let go of your inferior complexities. Plus, skateboarding works as a good stress reliever, teaches you patience and resilience.
What muscles does skateboarding work?
Skateboarding works on your calves, hamstrings, gluteus, and core muscles mostly. It works on your arms to some extent because you use them for balance. However, the main pressure is on the leg muscles because they stay active throughout skateboarding.
Is skateboarding bad for your body?
Skateboarding leads to injuries and bruises to your body. You fall multiple times and get bruises on your knees, wrists, ankles, and palms. Some hard falls can lead to serious injuries. However, if you use protective gear, it is not bad at all. They protect your body parts and prevent you from getting injured.
Is skateboarding better than walking?
Skateboarding is faster than walking and better in a way that it saves your time – plus it is a fun way of workout. However, walking has its own benefits. A board makes you reach your destination faster than walking. So, it is better than walking!
I got inspired by my father after watching him performing heroic tricks on a skateboard. Started at the age of 8 and performed in multiple competitions, now I coach professionals for tournaments. It's not just a sport for me - more like a passion and meditation! After years of experience with different skateboarding products, here are my reviews about Best Skateboard Brands and Best Skateboard for Beginners. It's an era of technology, you can also check unbiased reviews of Best Electric Skateboards. You can also read Benefits of Skateboarding.
Skateboarding is a great means of commuting. Once you learn how to balance the board, you will find it quite handy in traveling short distances such as going to school and the office, etc.
Once you are on a board, you intend to experience the joy of riding in new places. For that, your commute through undiscovered streets (where you have never been before). This way, you get familiar with your city streets and map in a better way.
I experienced it to be the easiest and a great sport to lose weight. You might have noticed that most skateboarders are slim and their bodies are toned which represents good fitness.
It is a great sport to build your muscles, especially in the lower body, from the core to the calves. Your quad muscles get involved when you extend your knees for ollies and acceleration.
It is obvious that you are unable to ride and perform tricks as a beginner. Skateboarding is all about progressing in your abilities along with being competitive with your fellow skaters.
Since skateboarding is all about falling, you intend to get bruises and cuts on your knees, elbows, and wrists, etc. But believe me, you immediately get up and want to get on board again to ride.
