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In the mid-1990’s, determined to have fun getting exercise, I got myself a pair of Rollerblades.

It wasn’t long before they were relegated to a dark corner of a spare room.

While I had loved skating as a child, it was with roller skates, not ice skates. I just couldn’t really get comfortable with them.

Now, more than 10 years later (ack!), I’m still wanting to have fun while getting exercise… so that the exercise part is icing on the cake.

Just two weeks ago I told my husband that I was going to start walking in the mornings; by myself, so that I could get a good pace (and not walk at my childrens’ pace, which is slow-going to no-going).

But I couldn’t get excited about it at all .

Today I happened upon a website that’s all about skates: Skates.com . Just finding it made me excited about getting exercise!

I’ve spent most of the morning looking around their site, and told Dave that I want a pair of skates for Mother’s Day.

There are so many options there, but I think I’ve settled on the Skorpions .

Already being excited about skating again (even though it’s been about 25 years), I was even more excited when I read this on the Skorpion site:

Recommended by the American Heart Association (AHA) as one of the best aerobic activities for improving the fitness of the heart and lungs, roller skating involves all of the body’s muscles and is equivalent to jogging in terms of health benefits, leg strength development, body fat reduction and the amount of calories burnt. In fact, just one hour of moderate roller skating at 6 mph will burn up approximately 350 calories for a 143-pound person, and an hour of vigorous skating at 10 mph will burn up to 590 calories. Studies have also shown that roller skating causes 50% less impact shock to joints than running.

These skates, which fit over your own shoes, look big and clunky and a little awkward. But watching the videos of people riding them, dancing in them and playing soccer in them assured me that they’d be easy and smooth to use.

And good for the whole family!

Okay, this was meant to be a quick post. I’ll have to write a review when I actually get them. If you’re interested but want something a little more challenging or cool, check out Xliders (also available at Skates.com ).

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