Slide boards are used by athletes, physical therapists, and home fitness enthusiasts to accomplish a wide variety of training and exercise goals. While slide board exercise can truly work any muscle in the body, there are several primary muscle groups that are traditionally best engaged through slide board use. Among the many muscles that are stimulated when performing slide board workouts, the core, hips and glutes, and hamstrings and quads are major muscle groups that benefit from routine slide board exercise, which we will discuss in this blog.
Muscles that Benefit from Slide Board Exercise
- Core: Exercise with a slide board uniquely stimulates the core and calls for its muscles to provide constant support and stability for the body.
- Hips & Glutes: Low-impact moves on a slide board work the hips and glutes and condition them to provide better stability and balance for overall performance.
- Hamstrings & Quadriceps: Slide board workouts effectively engage the thighs’ hamstrings and quads, improving your body’s ability to move with explosive power.
Core Benefits from Slide Board Exercises
The muscles that make up your core serve the important function of supporting your entire body’s movements. Exercising with a slide board uniquely stimulates the core, calling on it to provide constant stability as the rest of your body is executing slide board movements – movements that challenge less frequently-used muscles, resulting in a greater-than-ever need for the core’s support. Using a slide board such as the UltraSlide 8H also adds variety to traditional core exercises, such as mountain climbers, plank varieties, and hip raises, challenging and engaging the core muscles in ways they are not accustomed to.
Hips and Glutes Benefits from Slide Board Exercises
Many traditional slide board exercises focus on building and maintaining muscles supporting the hips, as well as the gluteus muscles (glutes). We count on our hips and glutes to help us sit, stand, and maintain our balance while we carry out activities like running and jogging, so properly exercising them is essential to maintaining your body’s ability to move well. Low-impact skater slides, alternating slide lunges, and lateral squats on a slide board like the UltraSlide 6 help to challenge and condition these muscles. Studies have also shown a direct correlation between weakness in the hips and glutes with knee, hip, and ankle pain, providing all the more reason to ensure you are keeping these muscles strong.
Hamstrings & Quads Benefits from Slide Board Exercises
The hamstrings and quadriceps (quads) are the major muscles found in your thighs and are responsible for stabilizing your knees, moving your legs, and allowing your body to move with explosive energy. With such an important role in your athletic performance, it’s crucial these muscles are exercised effectively. Slide boards offer low-impact workouts, with moves such as reverse lunges and hamstring curls on a board like the UltraSlide 10 effectively and efficiently working these important muscles. Additionally, slide board exercises like lateral lunges and traditional sliding or striding are excellent for engaging the hamstrings and quads as well as the smaller muscles that work along with them.
While slide board exercise is great for full body workouts that challenge many of your muscles, major muscle groups that are frequently engaged by slide board moves are the core, hips and glutes, and hamstrings and quads. Regular workouts with UltraSlide slide boards challenge, strengthen, and condition these muscle groups and help your body build and maintain the stability it needs to perform.
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 effect
