I would rather be chilling on the couch, sleeping, comfortable, but I just gotta self-discipline man. It's easy to give up and not go but when I'm tired it really makes me realise like oh shit, you know, sometimes you gotta do some shit you don't wanna do.

– Brandon Biebel

high-intensity interval training for skateboarding.

If you ever have sessions where you feel like you run out of energy fast, you can’t skate for as long as you’d like to, or you lose power quicker than you’d like to, then these 3 endurance exercises for skateboarding might be what you need. These exercises are considered high-intensity interval training (HIIT) which is a form of endurance training that alternates between periods of intense work and lower intensity work or rest, which is then repeated for a given amount of times. But HIIT for skateboarding? How can it be used to improve your skating? Well sir, read on and the knowledge will be yours. And I'm sure you'll be hyped to know that these exercises can all be blasted out in just 15 minutes.

download exercises printout

endurance exercises for skateboarding.

When we skate we use a lot of energy. We do a lot of fast and powerful movements in quick succession - popping tricks, jumping onto ledges, jumping down stairs, running back up stairs - which require a lot of energy in a short period of time. One primary reason of fatigue and that feeling of a lack of power is that your body can’t supply the energy you’re asking it to fast enough, which can happen for a variety of different reasons. As the intensity of your skating increases the duration you can sustain that intensity decreases, because high intensities require more energy, and the energy systems that provide energy faster, get depleted and fatigue faster, and they might not be optimised to provide energy as quick as you'd like. But, with the right kind of training your body can adapt to generate more energy faster, maintain higher levels of energy for longer, and offload higher intensities of work onto the more sustainable energy systems of your body.

WTF does all that mean? Well basically that you’ll be able to sustain a higher intensity of skating and maintain power for longer without getting tired. The exercises in this HIIT workout can do all of that, and at the same time help you to recover faster from your sessions and reduce the risk of injuries; as a lot of injuries occur when you’re fatigued.

the exercises.

There are endless variations of exercises and work:rest ratios you can mess with to enhance your skating endurance, but for this specific session we’re going to be cycling through 3 exercises, doing each one for 20 seconds at max effort, followed by 60 seconds of rest in between each one, and we'll do that whole cycle 4 times. So that's actually 16 minutes in total, yeh I lied, I said it was 15 mins to lure you into the article.

These exercises are designed for those who aren't injured and have already been skating or working out regularly for a while. To avoid injury, it might be a good idea to visit a physiotherapist/ personal trainer to be sure of what you can and can't do before doing the exercises.

So if you've qualified yourself to razz the exercises I would recommend starting off doing them twice a week and progressing to three times a week. You should evenly space the sessions throughout the week and preferably do them on days you're not going to skate. If you skate every day then try and leave a decent amount of time between the exercises and your skate, and it might be a good idea to get in some carbs straight after the exercises to make sure you've got full energy for your session (learn more in the post-skate nutrition section). Also if you find the exercises really intense you might wanna start off with, for example 15 secs of work, 60 secs of rest. Whenever you start skating more or add exercises into your life, pay close attention to how you feel and the level of your skating. If you end up throbbing more or skating worse regularly then that's probably a sign that you're pushing yourself too hard and you need to slow things down. It's all about progression and recovery is king.

Once you've practised the movements and got them down, make sure you're doing each exercise with max intensity, and when you rest you can either stop completely or walk around slowly.

HIIT exercises.

0. warm up

Spend 5-10 minutes warming up.
Jog around your house, do some dynamic stretches, some squats, or anything your body's asking you for.

1. jump squats

Keep your knees inline with your feet and your spine inline from your ass to your head when jumping and landing.
Squat down and instantly jump up powerfully.
Land with good technique and absorb the impact as much as possible by landing softly, and repeat.

2. box trot

Again, keep everything as inline as possible throughout the whole movement.
With the box on your left, jump off your right foot onto the box, landing on your left foot.
Quickly swap your feet on top of the box and hop down to the opposite side landing on your left foot.
Tap your right foot on the ground and repeat; jumping back across the box in the opposite direction.

3. jimmy kicker

Don't think you can lose your form on the last one! Keep things inline here too.
Squat down and instantly jump up off your right foot whilst kicking your left foot to the side and towards the floor - at no more than 45°.
Land softly and absorb the force.
Repeat for 3x each side.