Overall Strength

"Resistance training for legs as well as upper body helps maximize and even build on strength gains you have achieved from skating. "

A consistent strength-training program adds muscle mass that can give you a more powerful stride, increased energy for bursts of speed and a metabolism that burns more calories, even while you’re asleep!

Lifting weights—whether it is your own body weight, the resistance from elastic bands, or from the machines found in a gym—improves the body’s general flexibility, muscular strength and overall strength. Whole-body resistance training raises your overall fitness level and improves your ability to recover from hard skate training. If you already perform strengthening exercises, use the points below as a checklist to make sure you are optimizing your workouts for long distance skating.

Beginner

This workout is designed for those who are new to using resistance work as a cross-training aid for skating. The exercises are entry level but you should still get approval from your family doctor before you start them. Although you will mostly use gravity and the weight of your own body for resistance, useful additions to your home gym might include elastic tubing, a Swiss ball, adjustable weights, and a doorway chin-up bar.

Do the following exercises twice a week on non-skate training days. Leave one or two rest days between each strength workout. Perform two sets of 10 repetitions for each move, and try to gradually increase to 15 reps if you can. But take it easy! If enthusiasm causes you to overdo, you may end up too sore to do your next workout, on or off skates.

Push Ups: (Chest, shoulders, upper arms, abdomen) Lie on your stomach with palms flat beside your shoulders. Straighten the arms to raise your chest and hips into a "plank" position: the neck and spine are aligned and straight. (Keep the knees on the floor unless you are strong enough to do 10 reps on palms and toes.) Bend your elbows until your nose is one inch from the floor and push back up. Don't rush. Slower reps are more effective.
Lunges: (Front and back thighs, buttocks, lower back) Standing with hands on hips, take a giant step forward and sink down so the back knee comes close to the floor. To avoid knee strain, keep your front knee directly over your ankle. Rise over the front foot and push strongly back so you can return it to your original starting position. Repeat, either with the same leg or alternating until you reach 10 reps for each side.
Rows: (Upper back) To make resistance for this exercise, recycle a plastic jug with a molded handle and fill it with water or sand to a reasonable starting weight—the weight can be adjusted after you try the exercise once. With the jug in your right hand, position yourself in front of a sturdy dining room chair. Place your left hand on the seat to support your upper body so the jug can hang off to the side in your right hand. Keeping spine, hips and shoulders square to the floor, pull the right elbow up close to your waist. For all reps, raise the jug to chest level, taking three seconds going up and three seconds going down. Repeat on the other side.

Intermediate

In the Beginner workout, you learned how to engage your core muscles while lying prone. To engage them while standing, exhale fully until you feel your navel pressing back toward your spine. Try to maintain this lower ab compression as you perform all of the Intermediate exercises below. Incidentally, engaging the core muscles this way also protects your low back while skating in a tuck.

This workout utilizes the following home fitness accessories:

Stability ball
Chin up bar (or pull-down apparatus)
Dumbbells (or 2 large plastic jugs filled with water or sand)

Add the following exercises twice a week to your cross-training days. Split your upper and lower body workouts across four weekdays, with upper body workouts on two skating days and lower body on two non-skating days.

Perform two sets of 10 repetitions of each move. If you don’t feel tired when finished, start from the beginning and do two more sets of 10 reps each. Add one or two reps each workout to progressively continue to gain strength. Once you reach 15 reps, start to increase the amount of weight or resistance if possible.

Upper Body Workout

Exercise	Body part	Apparatus	Instructions
Push ups	chest, triceps	none	Lying on your stomach, choose the push up position right for you: knees on the floor, the standard “plank,” or shins resting atop a stability ball. Do not allow your hips to drop or fold as you complete your reps.
Flys	chest, ribcage	dumbbells stability ball	Sit on the ball and hold the dumbbells close to your stomach. Roll your hips forward off the ball so it supports your upper back horizontally. Keeping elbows slightly bent, lower and raise the dumbbells in the same plane as your shoulders.
Chin ups	upper back, forearms, biceps	chin up bar or pull-down apparatus	With a shoulder-width or wider grip, palms facing out, do as many chin ups as you can, keeping your lower abdomen compressed. If necessary, have a partner hold your feet. Do your second set with a narrower grip, palms facing in (if the apparatus allows).
One-arm rows	upper back, shoulders, torso	dumbbells, stability ball	Bending forward, support your upper body directly over one hand on the stability ball, and grip a dumbbell in the other. Draw the dumbbell up until it touches your ribs, then lower it. Immobilize your torso over the ball as you complete the reps, then swap sides.

Lower Body Workout

Exercise	Body part	Apparatus Monday, September 1, 2008 1:19 PMp>Instructions
Squats	all-round lower body	none, or with lower back against a stability ball at the wall	With feet hip-width and parallel, engage your core. Lower your hips over your heels and then return to standing. Without added weight, aim for 20-30 reps. To protect your knees, don’t squat lower than a 90-degree knee bend.
Walking lunges	quads, gluteals, hamstrings	Dumbbells (optional)	Stand in good posture with core muscles engaged. Lunge forward onto one foot, letting the rear knee lightly touch down. Rise and bring the back foot forward into a new lunge without touching at the mid-point. Take 20 deep steps on each foot over a minute ’s time.
Side lunges	abductors, hips, gluteals	none	Assume your skating tuck with core muscles engaged. Raise the right foot slightly and lunge deeply to the right, landing in nose- knee-toes alignment. Push against the right foot to spring back up and realign over the left foot. Complete all of your right lunge reps before switching to the opposite side.

Return to top

Advanced

Strong legs can maximize your skating technique and deliver the speed you need. Although regular full-body workouts are important for good overall fitness, skate-specific exercises for your lower body builds muscular strength where it counts the most. For best results, keep this type of training on separate days from your endurance training.

Try to do two resistance training workouts per week on low back, gluteals, hip flexors, quadriceps, hamstrings and abductors (not on skating days). Home-workout alternatives to these exercises are offered below where possible. Make sure you warm up with 15 minutes of cardio before you start lifting.

For the following exercises, choose a weight that lets you do 12 reps in good form. Lift slowly to eliminate momentum, which lets you cheat by involving other muscles. In all movements, keep your lower abdominals compressed to stabilize your spine and prevent back strain. Complete one set of 12 reps for each exercise, rest 10 seconds, and then move on to the next exercise until you have done all of them. Repeat the entire circuit 3 - 4 times.

Squats - This movement engages the entire lower body to build balance and strength, especially when you do free-standing squats with dumbbells or a barbell. To protect your low back, use a Smith Machine, which is also great for the extra intensity of one-legged squats. At home, do one-legged squats or high reps of regular squats with your back supported by an exercise ball pressed against a wall.
Hamstring curls - At a gym, work the backs of your thighs using equipment that lets you bend at the knee to move a weigh stack while standing, seated or lying face down on a padded bench. At home, lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat. Raise hips high, then pause and squeeze at the top of each repetition.
Side lunges - Build abductor strength that directly applies to your side-directed strokes. From a standing start in skating posture, step wide to the side, land nose-knee-toes over the lunging foot, then spring back to center without setting down. Complete your reps, then switch sides. Many of the pros do this type of work using a slideboard. In October 2004 I purchased a ProFitter 3D Trainer (see right) to build abductor strength and balance and get a cardio workout all at once.
Front lunges - Build strength in hamstrings, gluteals and quads. Carry a light barbell across your shoulders or grip a dumbbell in each hand. Alternating feet, step far forward but keep the front shin perpendicular to the floor as you drop the back knee. Push back to your starting position. At home, do walking lunges with or without dumbbells (deep forward steps across several yards).
Deadlifts - Build strength in your lower back, butt and hamstrings by raising and lowering a weight in front of you between shin height and mid-thigh. Lift by squeezing the glutes and hamstrings. Keep your abs compressed and your back flat throughout the movement. Knees remain almost straight but not locked. At home, do Good Mornings: carry a lightly weighted bar across your shoulders to help keep a flat lower back. Keeping knees slightly bent, bend forward from the hip joints to raise and lower your torso parallel to the floor.
Leg extensions - Build strength in your quadriceps using a seated leg extension machine at the gym. (Until I bought the ProFitter, I could not devise a way to isolate my quads effectively at home.)

This type of work tightens as it strengthens, and a good stretch afterwards will keep you flexible as your strength and muscle mass increase.