Does Longboarding Burn Fat? Is Longboarding Good Exercise?

Yes, longboarding is good exercise and it does burn fat.

Of course, like all activities it depends on intensity and perceived exertion. Walking at a leisurely stroll is considered activity, but few would consider it exercise and the energy expenditure involved in a relaxing walk won’t be enough to burn much fat at all. Compare that to jogging, or running, and as expected fat burning will go hand in hand with the exercise intensity.

With longboarding, you can have a very leisurely push, but in reality studies have been done that look at this type of activity and measure effects on calorie burning, obesity, etc, so we can have a bit more confidence that our new hobby is actually good for us also!

What studies show longboarding is good exercise?

One study in teens in 2008 showed benefits likely to carry over into adulthood:

 “Regarding extracurricular physical activities, the likelihood of being an overweight adult was reduced most (ie, 48%) by performing certain wheel-related activities (ie, rollerblading, roller skating, skateboarding, or bicycling) more than 4 times per week.”

The article background is below.

Another study looked at something called metabolic equivalents, described in one article in 1990 by the author Jette as: “One metabolic equivalent (MET) is defined as the amount of oxygen consumed while sitting at rest and is equal to 3.5 ml O2 per kg body weightx min. The MET concept represents a simple, practical, and easily understood procedure for expressing the energy cost of physical activities as a multiple of the resting metabolic rate.” 

Meaning, higher metabolic equivalents essentially mean more calorie burn in exercise compared to rest. 

In 2014, a study looked at what the metabolic equivalents were for self-perceived speeds while longboarding. 

This study showed that while longboarding was efficient for commuting (about 50% better than walking at typical speed) – it was considered a vigorous exercise with typical speeds giving about 8.5x more energy expenditure than rest.  

Typical speed longboarding burned 10 calories per minute or 600 calories per hour, which is more than the ~398 calories per hour while jogging. At self-reported fast speeds, which was roughly 10% faster than typical, the calorie burn rate went to 756 calories per hour, which was even more than jump rope which was 670 calories an hour.

Is riding an electric powered skateboard actually good exercise also?

Surprisingly, yes. In fact, one study also showed that it was such good exercise that it was also classified as vigorous activity. Well, the study used an electric-skateboard in trained snowboarders, and the board was programmed to simulate snowboarding, so I am assuming there were some pretty deep, long carves.

Likely, there would be a good deal of muscle contraction and exertion applied in the carves, with little “rest period” between. In fact, this study did use something called surface EMG to measure muscular contraction and exertion during the activity.

The average heart rate got quite high at 158 bpm, and the MET score was 10.5, higher than the reference sport in this study, snowboarding which had 8, and higher than the longboarding above. 

Again, I presume this is because it was non-stop carve to carve!

Conclusions

Longboarding is an excellent exercise as well as fat burning option. At an average of 600 calories an hour, I was actually surprised at the numbers while researching this article. It beats my morning job, and just might make me trade my minimalist running sandals for the board on some mornings.

In addition to the calorie burn, you will get more muscle contraction and activation, more balance training, and likely, a lot of fun and stress-relief.