Skateboarding

Skateboard Stretches: 5 exercises to do before shredding the skate park

A stretch in time saves nine!

By Holystoked / Out Door Journal

2 min readPublished on 01/24/2020 · 9:56 PM UTC

The sporty aspects of skating like stretching once were anathema to skaters who tended to warm up for skating by skating gently and building up. — Stretch in time
© Finn Andres

Skateboarding is an exhaustive workout and before you perform those tricky flips and styles, prepare your body for the sport. You must stretch before you begin and this can go a long way in keeping your body in tune. Before shredding, it is important to do some gentle stretches to loosen up the muscles and joints that are yet to gather what they will be enduring soon. Cruise around, do some basic tricks and warm up to your stretches. Skateboards can also be used as tools for stretching various parts of the body. Here are some are some exercises:

1. Neck and shoulders

Start by doing some arm rotations. Pull the elbow back across your neck horizontally to stretch the arm. It will reduce the stiffness of your muscles and get you ready for the session. Hold the skateboard behind your neck, rotate your trunk sideways and get the shoulders warm and loose.

Pushing on a skateboard hyperextends your Achille’s tendon in a way even sprinting does not and a pulled one is an extremely difficult niggle to shift. — Always start from the basics
© Allen Ying

2. Hips

Do some hip rotations on both directions. Twist, turn and flex those muscles.

3. Calves

Strengthening your calf muscles will enable you to balance yourself on the board, while allowing to pop harder. Elevate the top part of the foot with the heel still on ground. Do this on a sloping surface like a ramp or any elevated surface and stretch out your calf muscles. Gently tip forward with your weight to stretch it out further until your body opens up. Repeat this a few more times.

If ankles are the short term injury that hamper skate careers, then lower back problems are the slow burner which give veteran skateboarders most long-term issues. — Warming up before skating
© Mike O'Meally

4. Pelvis and thighs

Indulge in a regular workout to integrate balance, strength and flexibility. Practise long lunges and bend backwards with your arms stretched behind and relax the joints in your thigh and pelvic area.

5. Ankles

The worst thing is to skate with stiff ankles and roll them out during a bail because they were not prepared to take the impact. To prevent this from happening, rotate the ankles in both directions for a couple of counts.

Once you feel a little lighter, you're good to go. A little stretching after your session would remove the built-up acids in your muscles and help you relax.