Do you have access to a new UltraSlide at your gym training or facility, or perhaps one you’ve purchased for your home? Congratulations! You’re now able to add variety to your workouts, challenge your muscles in new ways, and have fun with exercise. If you haven’t used a slide board before, these tips and exercise ideas will help you get started. (Please consult with your physician before beginning any new exercise regime.)
Getting Started with a Slide Board
- Warming Up: Get your heart pumping with slide board moves that engage your whole body.
- Core Moves: Slide boards work your core unlike anything else and will make your core muscles feel like they’re on fire!
- Lower Body Exercises: Major and supporting muscle groups in your legs and lower body are used in new ways when working out with a slide board.
- Upper body Moves: Taking your workout down to the slide board for upper body work can engage multiple upper body muscles with compound movements.
Warming Up With A Slide Board
Warming up with a slide board is an efficient way to prepare your cardiovascular system, loosen joints, and increase blood flow to your muscles before beginning your strength or conditioning workout. Try these warmup exercises to get started.
- Speed Skaters: Stand with both feet on the slide board near one end, with the foot closest to a bumper positioned against it. Bend at the knees and lean far forward before pushing off the bumper towards the opposite end of the board.
- Striders: Similar to skating, this move requires that you slide from one end of the board to the other by using your upper thighs to move your body across the length of the slide board.
Core Exercises with A Slide Board
Slide board exercise engages the core muscles in ways they aren’t accustomed to, calling on them to provide constant support and stability. These moves will give the muscles in your core an excellent workout!
- Body Saws: Get into a plank position with your elbows on the floor and feet on the slide board. While on your forearms, push your body backward and then move back into your starting position.
- Trunk Flex & Extend: Place two yoga blocks (vertically) or kettlebells on either side of the slide board’s width and sit between them, holding on to one with either hand. Holding your body above the slide board and keeping your feet together, move your legs forward and backward underneath your body, along the length of the board.
Lower Body Exercises with A Slide Board
Many traditional slide board exercises were developed to target the major muscle groups of the legs and lower body. These moves will present a new challenge to those muscles and engage them in ways they haven’t been challenged before.
- Lateral Squat: Put one foot on the floor and the other on the slide board. Squat down on your stationary leg while sliding your board foot out on the slide board. Push yourself back to your starting position.
- Forward & Reverse Lunges: With one foot on the floor and the other on the slide board, slide your board foot forward (backward for reverse lunges) until you are in the normal lunge pose. Then, push yourself back into your starting position.
Upper Body Exercises with a Slide Board
Upper body exercises performed on the slide board effectively work many muscles between your arms, chest, and shoulders with compound movements. The following moves are best performed using Slide Mitts, created specificallyfor moves using your hands on the slide board.
- Chest Fly: Start in the push-up position with your hands on the slide board. Slide your hands apart and bend at the elbows 90 degrees. Push up and slide your hands into your start position.
- Shoulder Reaches: Get into a plank position on the slide board. Reach one hand out (to the side or front, your choice), while not letting your core sink or your rear raise up. Repeat, alternating sides.
UltraSlide slide boards are extremely versatile pieces of equipment that allow for working any body part or muscle group or helping you achieve any fitness goal you might have. If you’re new to using a slide board, try the exercises we’ve outlined in this blog post to get a feel for all a slide board has to offer.
UltraSlide slide boards have benefited teams, athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and rehabilitation patients worldwide for more than 25 years. Relied upon by professional and collegiate strength and conditioning coaches, sports medicine professionals, leaders in fitness, personal trainers, and home fitness enthusiasts, UltraSlide slide boards provide fun and challenging lower-body workouts and are highly effective functional training tools.
