The skiing and cross-country skiing season is approaching. For quite impatient now offers Nordic Blading: that is inline skating with poles in cross-country skiing freestyle. The body is loaded holistically and trained well. Nordic walking has now become an integral part of the fitness programs of all sports organizers. Nordic Blading proves that intensive walking can be increased: cross-country skiing with inline skates.
What is Nordic Blading?
Who now believes that Nordic Blading is still a young trend sport, is mistaken. At least the principle of roller skating has been known for over 200 years. As early as 1760, the Belgian John Josef Merlin tinkered rollers under his skates and called them “Patins á roues alignées” – roller skates with rollers in a row. In 1863, American James Leonard Plimpton made roller skates with four wooden wheels, two in front and two in back. In 1894, the rubber goods factory Bäumcher and Co. introduced tire roller skates with two tires in a row. Finally, the American Scott Olson, an ice hockey player, made roller skates with the wheels in a row: the inline skates were born. He called them “Rollerblades” and became rich. It is impossible to imagine fitness sports without inline skates or rollerblades.
Easy on the joints yes, but risk of injury.
Experienced riders quickly reach 20 to 30 km / h, especially if it goes downhill even faster. Broken bones and bruises are the most common injuries, in older people in the femoral neck area, but also wrists, forearm, lower leg, head and face are affected. In addition to protective equipment such as helmets, knee and wrist pads, it is always a good idea to learn Nordic skating under the guidance of a trainer. Because it is not so easy to coordinate the arm and leg movements at the speed, to practice braking techniques and to keep the balance, not to bend the feet inwards and to keep enough distance to the other skiers. But thanks to the poles, some even find it easier to learn to skate than without support. Nordic blading is used to train all types of endurance training, interval training, long distance training, speed, and strength. Through the use of arms, more muscles are used than in “normal” skating. According to sports physician Dr. Klaus Gerlach, the training is 40 percent more effective than skating alone. In addition to the leg muscles, the entire upper body, including the back and abdomen, is also trained; all in all, about 90 percent of the skeletal muscles are used. Per hour, reasonably well-trained people process about 600 Kcal. The non-impact motion is easy on the joints and the combination of arm and leg movement trains coordination skills.
Technique like cross-country skiing
The Nordic blading technique resembles the movement execution of cross-country skiing with symmetrical and asymmetrical departures. For example, you move forward with the double stick push, which means rolling slowly, bending your upper body slightly forward, lifting your arms to shoulder height and placing them on the ground in front then pushing off forcefully. While doing this, you need to bring your arms back and straighten your upper body. In the two-to-one technique, the arm movement is started every other step, that is, for example, whenever the right leg is in front. When rolling on the left leg, the upper body straightens again and the arms swing through to the back. In the one-to-one technique, a faster variation, each leg kick is combined with the arm movement. The poles, made of carbon, are similar to cross-country ski poles, but are equipped with a combination metal and rubber tip, or special Nordic blading tips, to provide optimal grip on asphalt. The optimal length is calculated with the following formula: Body height (in cm) x 0.9 + 2.5 cm.
Skike as a variant of Nordic Blading
A variant of Nordic blading is skiking. A skike, unlike inline skates, has only two wheels, located in front and behind the foot respectively. The air-filled wheels have a diameter of 15 cm and have, that is the special, at the rear wheel a brake system, which is operated with the calf. Skikes can be used with normal gym, jogging or trekking shoes. Velcro fasteners fix the foot. With 4 cm ground clearance and a wheelbase of up to 47 cm, even riding on uneven tracks is no problem. In particular, the brakes provide additional safety and skiking can be learned quickly even for beginners.
