How to Tighten Your Butt with Inline Skating

Inline skating, also known as rollerblading, is not kids' stuff, even though it seems as though most people zipping around on skates are kids and teenagers.

The term, "inline," refers to the fact that the four wheels on the skates are in line with each other -- in single file, as opposed to the old-fashioned style of skating wheels, in which two are side-by-side upfront, and two are side-by-side behind them. A good pair of inline skates, unlike traditional rollerblading skates, provides great shock absorption (and a great butt workout). The glide can be very smooth and comfortable.

When an person jogs, the legs propel forward and back in a front-to-back motion, moving through the so-called sagittal plan (personal trainer jargon). The muscles involved include one of the three butt muscles, called the gluteus maximus. The gluteus maximus is the largest butt muscle, and in mere jogging, it doesn't really work that much. This is why distance runners don't have big muscular glutes.

However, look at sprinters. They have some glutes on them, because running your fastest recruits far more gluteus maximus muscles than simply jogging.

So where does inline skating come in, as far as butt toning? Inline skating recruits the two other butt muscles, the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. The motion in rollerblading is not front-to-back, but rather, side-to-side.

If you've ever skated, you'll realize that in order to start going, you must push off somewhat to the side. Have you ever seen speed skaters at the start of a race? Their legs are pushing out side-to-side to gain momentum. This side-to-side motion takes place in the so-called frontal plane, and the joint motion is called hip abduction.

You've heard of the hip abductor machine at the gym, right? This machine works those two smaller glute muscles.

However, inline skating is the better choice for toning the butt. If you've never skated, give it a try. You will quickly feel the burn in your butt and the sides of your upper thighs. And there's a bonus: Inline skating also strengthens the lower back, ankles and quadriceps muscles.

The obstacle to skating is learning how to stop. What you can do is limit yourself to courses in which you will not end up being trapped on a downhill street that ends abruptly. But unless you learn how to stop, you'll be limited in where you skate.

Take inline skating lessons. Learning how to stop isn't that hard, and there are several ways to do it. Of course, you can't stop at super fast speeds; you can only slow down over a distance. But in general, learning to stop will enable you to skate anywhere.