I am trying to remember if the skaters are Price and Skinny Scientist.

I am a dance roller skater.  I have skated for 40 years on/off. Last 20 years I skate during Fall/Winter seasons, and bicycle during Spring/Summer.  It used to be that it would take me a few weeks before I could do 3 turns and mohawks and keep an edge through a lobe.  As I get older it may take 6 weeks to get back in shape.  Each year I lose more precision, stamina, and grace.  But it is still a fun 2 hour workout.  

My dilema is that my left leg is so week.  That is the leg that gets more weight transfer from clockwise skating around rink. Did you have to lift weights, or do any special training to be able to skate again?

I have been skating for 3 weeks, having started 1 week after surgery.  I have not been doing turns, or edges.  I have been holding my arms out, working on posture and maybe a couple of deep knee bends for edges.  But my legs are so weak. I take off the summer, and usually struggle when I return to skating, but this time, I am wondering if I lost that much muscle already being only 1 month out from surgery.  Please help.  

Interesting question... I'm wondering if you can go at an off-peak time and ask that they reverse the direction?  My indoor skating rink reverses it at halftime of every "session" routinely ... maybe it just never occurred to your rink's  management that it could and should be done .

Hi!  I am SkinnyScientist and I am a figure skater. I am unsure about Price!  I dont know price.

First, congrats on getting back into skating!  I love it for its cardio, full body workout, speed, and how it helps us maintain your balance.

Now, when I was a kid, skating was my ONLY winter and summer sports (I lived on the Candian border..). Between quitting when I was aroudn 13 (family had a job loss) and restarting as an adult (I.e. 38), I gained up to 282 lbs, had a back surgery, physcial therapy, a bariatric surgery,  a weight loss down to 142 lbs, took up step aerobic, running, and body pump.

Here was my experience: forward 3 turns and forward-backward mohawks and choctaws were fine. What took me 3 months and a lot of falling was brackets. I literally had to by hand guards for those. Worse, one side of my body (left) doesnt innervate like it did when I was a kid. I think it is weaker and I think was caused by my back surgery.  Literally, I can pick up a move on my right side in two attempts (or maybe 2 weeks at the most) but that left side takes months and lots of falls and it always feels like more work/harder to do. I literally SWEAT from the effort.  But eventually it comes.

Now, back when I was in Highschool lots of football players, played hockey. The radio announcer for the hockey games would talk about how some of the players were slow due to their "football legs" .  If you think about it, you use an entirely different set of muscles for skating than you do for bicycling/ running.  Runners typically have weak glutes and tight hamstrings.  I am not sure what bicyclist have (?strong calves and quads?) but where do skaters generate our force?  When going forward we push sort of to the side right?  That muscle is up on the side of our hips!  It doesnt get "worked out" by running or bicycling! 

When we skate backwards, we sort of sit down and stick our butts out (sort like the mild version of being in a chair) so that works our lower back, glutes, thighs.

When we do 3 turns we are using the our thighs, hips, core, and lower back to turn us.

So basically what I am saying is ...dont be so upset with yourself. You are using an entirely different set of muscles when you skate. They have rested from being on vacatiosnin the spring and summer.

On weakness. I never felt overly weak from just basic stroking. However, I DO lift weights. I do body pump and mimic lots of skating moves on the trx (right now doing one legged squats with foot forward to mimic the sit spin. I also do a lot one legged squat-hold, raise forward foot up and down so that my right leg gets used to statically holding me in the spin while my left leg has to keep itself up so I dont stick a blade in teh ice).  I notice lots of the school age kids cant do a spiral because they got weak glutes and back. They are also tight.

So yes, I DO lift weights, I do use the TRX and I DO A LOT OF STRETCHES/YOGA to help me with my grace, balance, and precision. It may be a pipe dream, but I believe that I can get a 135 (i.e. my leg lifted to 135 degrees while going back ward) at 39 years young. Yoga, yoga blcks and yoga straps help me with this.

I think goiong both directions at the rink is good. When in track, our coaches made us run counter clockwise on odd days and clockwise on even days. My rink does not do this and it is annoying.

As soon as you are able, start resistance training and weight lifting.

Also..dnt be so hard on yourself. You are fresh out of surgery. I couldnt do more than walk for FOUR MONTHS after the surgery otherwise I would pass out. I couldnt even do yoga. I almost past out 3 times in ONE class, just 3 weeks after surgery.

With you being so new post-op, I think you have an unrealistic expectation for what you should be able to do. Go, skate till you get tired, take a break or leave. But don't get all crazy, because my experience has been, one will pass out. Your body is still healing, and adjusting to life with very little calories and trying to figure otu how to catabolize the stored fat. That is a LOT for it to figure out.  

Good luck and keep me in the loop for how it goes.

So in summary, this weakness is a combination of being fresh post-op, and having the summer off (i.e. bicycle muscles are nto the same as skating muscles).

Thank you so very much for such a long and detailed reply.  I have tried water aerobics - too much of my tummy moving.  In the one yoga class, I had to move slow, kept getting light-headed like you did.  I tried a zumba class last night.  They had us touching our toes and doing the move like a runner starting.  I was getting dizzy, had to quit after 20 minutes.  I've been walking, some hiking and cycling.  Yesterday I cycled 15 miles with my bike club on a road bike.  I took a 3 hour nap.

I started at the gym on machines working only my arms, hips and legs.  I added glutes.  Still nothing for tummy or any twisting.  I am only doing light weights and 2 sets of 10.

I will continue to "fake" skate.  Not much effort or turns, just working on posture and trying to remember dances.

I will work on Yoga and strengthing at home, and just cool my jets.  Thanks again for so much information.

I too am 58 and reached my goal wt without doing any crazy exercising like running. I weight train with a trainer to build/maintain muslce mass (on machines so low risk of injury) and walking and being more mobile. I had varicose veins which were more than just cosemetics, and after i had them take care of I had alot more zip. I hiked down the Grand Canyon and up and down Yosemite Valley - but not until I was under 175 pounds. I kept it easy until I felt my knees could take the stress.