It’s definitely the way that you take care of yourself. We’ve even exercised or whatever and gotten personal trainers; stuff like that. And I think that, not in a jockish way, but it’s more for a better lifestyle and to preserve being able to perform at your best on a board. Not even perform, but just—we love skateboarding so much and we want to do it the longest we can.
– Guy Mariano
Skate focused training content.
There are many ways you can tweak your body to make it work better and many different reasons for why you might want to. Skateboarding involves an insane amount of skills and abilities, arguably more than most other sports and activities:
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strength: to get yourself off the ground, reduce absorb the impact of your tricks and protect you from injury
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power: to get you off the ground faster and increase your pop
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endurance: to maintain your performance and reduce the stress on your body after repeated efforts, and to protect you from injury
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stability and balance: to maintain proper alignment when you’re skating – popping tricks, landing tricks, holding a grind or manny, etc., and to protect you from injury
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speed and agility: to change direction quickly during tricks, to flip in or out of tricks, to potentially save yourself from a slam
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motor control: to coordinate your body so it does what you want whilst you’re skating
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mobility: to move your body within the ranges you need to skate, without compensating with bad mechanics that can waste energy and increase injury risk
Along with a load of others skills like focus, confidence, perseverance, vision, and even more that I’m definitely missing.
Although you can obviously skate without ever working on anything off your board, doing so can massively improve your skating and how you feel when you skate, along with slowing down the destruction of your body as you get old and saggy.
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benefits of strength & conditioning.
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Lower risk of injury
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Reinforces body
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Increases endurance
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Feel lighter on your board
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Absorb more impact
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Increase energy levels
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Increase tendon & ligament strength
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Rehab injuries & restore body to pre-injury state
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Improve balance & stability
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Enhances sleep
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Protects joints
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Increases pop
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Increases power
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Increase bone density
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Improves balance
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Improves stability
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Improves flexibility*
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Improves mental health
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Improves hormone & immune health
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Reduce recovery time
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and many other things!!
One of the many things I love about skateboarding is the never ending progression, constantly improving and pushing through tough times to learn a trick or film a line. I love the drive that comes with skating that forces you to not give up when in the moment all you want to do is purposely sack yourself so you have an excuse to end the session. For me, the things in this section generate a similar drive and sense of progression, especially considering the only reason I do any of them is to help me skate better and for longer and to ultimately enjoy skateboarding more. If you stick at the things in this section you'll see a direct improvement in the way you skate and how you feel, making it easier to stay motivated to do them. A couple of years ago I went through some serious injuries that kept me off my board for more than a year, if I hadn't had made an effort to tweak my body and make it stronger I might not have been able to keep skating. Now - partly thanks to the things in this section - I feel better on my board than I did before my injuries. Guy Mariano says it best (full quote at top of page):
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We've even exercised or whatever and gotten personal trainers, ... not in a jockish way, ... just we love skateboarding so much and we want to do it the longest we can.
– Guy Mariano