Some people think that longboarding is not an exercise but just a sport. Well, yes, they’re right that it is a sport and a very widely played sport but it is a little more than just a sport.
Actually, it is a very good exercise as it helps you a lot in losing weight, getting a complete workout, strengthening your muscles and whatnot. But does longboarding build muscle?
Let’s find out.
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Does Longboarding Build Muscle?
Yes, longboarding is a sport that gives you the chance of having fun as well as getting healthier each day. This is because it puts a lot of pressure on your body muscles. The major muscles it acts directly upon are your leg muscles because you stand on them so they get strengthened.
After that, those muscles tighten your gluteus and quads. Not only just these muscles but also the other muscles as well that we are going to explain in this article in detail.
What muscles does longboarding build?
Well, for those of you who started thinking that you can get your bodybuilder’s shape by just doing longboarding, it is not like that. Actually, longboarding only targets a few specific muscles because you stand on the board and do certain things and nothing more than that.
So what muscles are targeted during longboarding and what effects take place on them?
Longboarding majorly affects your core muscles, quads, and calves. So when you lean on the board or push it to speed it up and also when you guide it left and right, the core muscles are activated. Similarly, the quads and calves work out while you push the board.
Most importantly, the most amount of action is performed by your hips and the stabilizers.
Longboarding isn’t a complete exercise
When we say that longboarding is a great source of workout, people start to think that they will get cutting-edge shape with longboarding. But this is not true because longboarding isn’t a complete workout as it only targets certain muscles of your body.
Actually, your upper body looks like it is always on rest during the ride and only works for a bit when you pick the board up.
Therefore, if someone is trying to find a good and entertaining source of a good and complete workout, then they should try longboarding with something extra. Like you will need to add a little bit of weight lifting with longboarding just to complement it.
Core muscles
Core muscles are some important muscles because these are the ones that get shaped by hard work but look great and get into shape. Also, these muscles keep us from a lot of the types of pain like knee pain, pelvis, and back pain. These muscles are at your abdomen on the front side and at the backbone, spine, and hips.
The major task of these muscles is to help us maintain our balance and stay stable. Other than that, if they get into shape, you can show them off by taking your shirt off because they look great when in form.
When we squat, lean, or pivot the bodies on our longboards during the ride, we are actually working on these muscles. Guiding the longboard and getting control of it takes a lot of work from our side like leaning and positioning ourselves on the longboard in the right way.
If you want to do a good core workout, it will be enough if you just roam around your neighborhood. A good, like a straight 20-30 minutes ride on your longboard will give you that amount of workout.
Calves
Calves also majorly get activated by your longboarding activity because when you push the longboard to go forward, the calves and quads are engaged. We have seen that most people have only one leg as their dominant leg and that’s why they keep pushing with only that leg always.
But this practice is not good for anyone, especially for those who aim to work out with longboarding. It is because it can cause asymmetrical muscle growth which looks absurd and your body weight and balance might not be accurate anymore.
When you walk, run, or jump, your calves pull the heels up so the movement is on the forward side. But with longboarding, you should particularly focus on pushing the longboard with both feet one by one so that the force and pressure they take are equal for both legs.
According to my personal experience, I have been longboarding for the last 5 years and my calves are still the same size. Actually, these muscles are the hardest to grow in your body but still making sure that their strength remains equal, requires this balanced activity.
Quads
Quads are a group of four muscles attached at the front of your thighs that help you a lot in pushing, jumping, propulsion, or any lower body movements. The full name of this muscle group is quadriceps and they help you keep your body stable and in walking or braking.
These muscles are not just involved in your exercise the most during longboarding but overall in any kind of activity.
Quads are prone to getting bigger with regular hardcore exercise but it is important that if that exercise is longboarding, then you must keep changing your foot. Pushing, braking, jumping, and directing your longboard with only your dominant foot is not good for your body’s balance, and your self-stabilization.
As quads keep our knees in good condition, so you must not ignore the fact that they can also cause injuries to us.
Hamstrings
Hamstrings are also as important as the quads but backward. Like the quads are at the front side of our thighs, these hamstrings are at the backside of our thighs crossing from hips and knee joints. They help us with jumping, walking, running, longboarding, and whatnot.
In short, they help us in almost all the lower body movements like the quads.
These help us in forward movements the most but also help us in backward movements. And that happens by them flexing the knee joints and extending the thighs backward to enforce the movements.
Longboarding takes a very big toll directly on the hamstrings so one has to make sure that one stretches their hamstrings before a long longboarding session.
As these muscles help humans in walking, running, and jumping, you will feel a lot of indirect pressure on your hamstrings during the ride as well.
Actually, your whole body works out during longboarding. But not the entire body is directly involved in taking so much pressure because there are only a few muscles in your body that do that. The calves and the quadriceps are the most important muscles that take a lot of pressure on your longboarding session throughout the ride.
Actually, longboarding is a fun sport majorly and it is taken as fun most of the time. But on the other hand, running is not just a sport but actually a proper exercise. So according to the researchers, longboarding, even though it is somewhat an exercise, doesn’t burn as many calories that running does. So, longboarding is only better than running in terms of a fun and easy approach to exercise.
Longboarding has many different benefits for your body as well as there are some serious tolls on your body. On average a longboarding session kills around 4-7 calories per minute. That means it is a good aerobatic exercise with some excessive cardio and powerful exercise. It also increases your body’s flexibility all along but getting in a certain shape isn’t that easy considering how a person rides a longboard.
For those of you who don’t really get into trouble by going for heavy weight-lifting exercises, you must try longboarding. This is because rather than sitting at home and wondering about the wonders you could do, doing a little on the longboard actively will actually do something. So yes, this is a good way to start losing weight.
Longboarding is not hard at all if you just follow the instructions of the experts and have even just a medium level of helping hand with you. We didn’t even have anyone around us but we just looked it up and then tried and tried. Even though some people complain about the first few days of this sport being so lazy and disturbing, it is good for you. This is because when you are a beginner, you do not ride fast and so when you fall inevitably, you don’t hurt yourself so seriously.
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