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SkaterSense

Beyond the Blade toolkit

Physical Health

Moving in different ways helps you skate stronger and safer.

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Move your body

  • Mix endurance, strength, flexibility and balance.
  • Ages 6 to 17: 60 minutes a day. Adults: 150 minutes a week plus strength 2 days a week. Some movement beats none.

Warm up and cool down

  • Warm up 5 to 10 minutes before skates go on: march, arm circles, side steps, leg swings, mini squats, heel raises.
  • Cool down with a slow walk, then hold gentle stretches 10 to 30 seconds — a pull, never pain.

Build balance and strength

  • Off the ice 2 to 3 days a week: one-foot balance, heel raises, sit to stand, wall push-ups, side steps, bridge.
  • Use a chair or wall. Go slow — good form beats more reps.

Check your boots and gear

  • Heel stays down, toes can wiggle, laces snug at the ankle, one thin pair of socks.
  • Bring a helmet, gloves, warm layers, blade guards and a towel. Boot pain is a signal to speak up.

Skate safe

  • If you fall: bend your knees, fall to the side, tuck your chin, keep your hands in.
  • Get up: hands and knees, one foot, the other foot, push up slowly.

Stop and tell your coach if you have sharp pain, swelling or dizziness, or if you hit your head. When in doubt, sit it out.

Skip warm-ups that press on the head or neck; for skaters with Down syndrome, ask the doctor about a neck check. This toolkit is for learning, not medical advice.

Read the full resource

Toolkit topics

Conditioning

  • List of exercises good for warming up: backed up by science
  • Effective and safe flexibility exercises
  • Injury prevention
  • What is the importance of off-ice, and how doing off-ice can improve your on-ice performance
    • Effective off-ice routines

Key information

Balance

Postural control and balance required for technical elements can be facilitated by neuromuscular exercises (balancing on a single leg or medicine ball work on a wobble board, lateral bounds, lunges) while reducing injury risk.

Skating harness systems

This approach often involves access to a harness system where a rope is connected to a round rail attached to the ceiling, initially developed as a jumping harness in figure skating. In addition to the harness used in this study, there are several variations of jumping harness systems used in figure skating, such as handheld systems and straight cable systems. What distinguishes the harness system used in this study from other types of harness systems, which enable children and youths with severe mobility impairments to participate in ice-skating without the risk of falling, is that the rope that attaches to the harness is completely static and can be used independently on the ice as it does not need an ice-skating trainer to support the weight of the child. To understand how this functions, see the video recorded by an adapted ice-skating association.

Impaired upper extremity

Individuals with a single or impaired arm face obstacles during some exercises requiring two points of contact, such as weightlifting. The “Aldridge Arm” Harness and Strap™ can be strapped to the upper body and assists in deadlift exercises by providing a second point of contact, which disperses the physical load on the body to prevent muscle injuries. However, achieving upper body exercises that involve grasping or holding above the shoulders requires a single-arm user to have a prosthetic with significant weight tolerance and grip strength. Currently, there are very few commercial upper extremity prosthetics with these capabilities, as most must be custom-designed to fit the unique anatomy of the user. The exception is weightlifting end-effectors with a claw-like design that attaches to a person’s existing prosthetic joint, like the Black Iron prosthetic accessory. It can provide safe and secure mechanical grasping and locking while performing weightlifting and other upper-body exercises. Grasping handles can also be difficult for people who have impaired grip strength. The Active Hands® Hook Exercise aids are a set of hooks that can be placed on the hands to be used in the gym for gripping and releasing equipment.

Skate boots and feet

Lace bite

“Lace bite” is a tenosynovitis of the toe extensors and tibialis anterior due to friction of these tendons against the tongue of the boot during ankle dorsiflexion and knee flexion, typically due to improper and uneven lace tying. This problem can be alleviated by changing the tongue padding to denser closed-cell foam or silicone and centralizing the tongue with a central hook placed on the tongue, around which the lace can be tied to prevent tongue movement during skating.

Pump bumps

“Pump bumps” refer to the Haglund deformity, which occurs at the posterior calcaneus when the heel slips up and down inside a rigid boot or wide heel of the boot. Pain is caused by the resulting callus or blister and sometimes a bony overgrowth. The best remedy is ensuring properly fitting skating boots with an adequately narrow heel to prevent heel slippage inside the boot. Additional measures to solve this problem include heel padding with moleskin, foam, or silicone material to pad the heel and prevent slippage.

Hammer toes and toe corns

Up to 25% of skaters may have hammer toes or toe corns due to dorsal pressure in the toe box with gripping of the toe inside the boot while skating. They are oftentimes bilateral and typically found on the dorsolateral aspect of the fifth toe and dorsum of the proximal interphalangeal joints of the toes. These deformities rarely cause symptoms requiring treatment and typically resolve after retirement from skating.

Physical health barriers

Helpful resources

Research used for this page