If you’re looking for a dynamic, full-body exercise that builds strength, burns calories, and boosts athletic performance, all without equipment, skaters are a must-add to your routine. This movement is inspired by the explosive, lateral movement of speed skaters. Whether you’re a beginner looking to improve coordination or an athlete wanting to level up your agility, skaters are a versatile exercise that delivers results. In this article, we’ll break down exactly how to do skaters, the muscles they work, key skaters’ benefits, and the most common skaters’ mistakes to avoid so you can train smart and move better.
What Muscles Do Skaters Work?
Skaters, also known as skater jumps, stimulate a multitude of muscles:
Primary Muscles:
- Gluteus Medius and Gluteus Maximus: The gluteus medius and gluteus maximus are key muscles of the buttocks that work together to stabilize the pelvis, support hip movement, and generate power during walking, running, and lifting. These are activated during the lateral push-off and landing
- Quadriceps: The quadriceps, a group of four muscles at the front of the thigh, are essential for knee extension, hip flexion, and powerful movements like squatting, jumping, and running. They engage to extend the knee and control the landing
- Hamstrings: The hamstrings, located at the back of the thigh, are a group of three muscles responsible for knee flexion, hip extension, and providing stability and power during movements like running, jumping, and bending. They stabilize the knee and assist with hip extension
- Calves: The calves, primarily made up of the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles, are responsible for plantarflexion of the ankle, enabling movements like walking, running, jumping, and rising onto the toes. They help with push-off and ankle stability during skaters.
Secondary Muscles:
- Adductors: The adductors, a group of muscles located on the inner thigh, are responsible for pulling the legs toward the midline of the body and play a key role in stabilizing the hips and pelvis during side-to-side motion.
- Hip Flexors: The hip flexors, including muscles like the iliopsoas and rectus femoris, are responsible for lifting the thigh toward the torso and play a crucial role in walking, running, and maintaining proper posture. During skaters, they help lift the trailing leg during the jump.
- Core muscles: These muscles include the obliques, rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, and erector spinae, and work to stabilize your torso and maintain balance.
Benefits of Skaters
This exercise has numerous advantages. Here are the most notable benefits of skaters:
- Lower Body Strength: Skaters target glutes, quads, hamstrings, calves, and inner thighs, helping build unilateral (single-leg) strength in those areas.
- Balance and Coordination: This exercise challenges your ability to stabilize while moving side to side. It engages core and small stabilizer muscles, enhancing proprioception and motor control.
- Cardiovascular Fitness: This dynamic, high-intensity movement raises your heart rate and can be used in HIIT or circuit training.
- Athleticism: Skaters mimic athletic movements like cutting, pivoting, or skating, improving lateral movement, agility, and reaction time – great for sports like tennis, basketball, hockey, and soccer.
- Fat Burning: Full-body engagement leads to higher calorie expenditure, helping boost fat loss when incorporated into workouts.
- Functional Fitness: Skaters strengthen movement patterns used in daily life, such as stepping sideways and regaining balance, which improves injury prevention, especially in knees and ankles.
- No Equipment Needed: This exercise is performed with your own bodyweight, so you don’t need any equipment. It is perfect for home workouts or when you are traveling, and can be easily modified for all fitness levels.
How to Do Skaters

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do skaters with proper form:
- Stand with feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent.
- Engage your core and shift your weight onto your right foot.
- Slightly hinge at the hips and lift your left foot off the ground.
- Push off your right foot and jump laterally to the left.
- Land softly on your left foot while swinging your right foot behind and across your body (like performing a speed skater).
- Keep your hips low and your chest up.
- Quickly rebound and jump back to the right, landing on your right foot and swinging your left foot behind.
- Repeat.
Skaters Mistakes
The following are the most common mistakes people make when doing skaters and how to fix them for better results:
- Letting Your Knee Cave In: Allowing the knee to collapse inward during landing can put unnecessary stress on the knees and lead to strains or tears. This can also create misalignment of the hip, knee, and ankle, leading to poor load distribution. Focus on keeping the knee aligned with the toes and engage your glutes to stabilize the hip.
- Landing Too Stiff or Upright: Landing with straight legs or not bending the knees enough can also be damaging. Soften your knees and hips as you land to absorb impact and reduce joint strain.
- Not Engaging Your Core: When you fail to engage your core, your torso leans too far forward or rotates excessively. Keep your core braced and your chest lifted to maintain stability and balance.
- Going Too Fast: Sacrificing form for speed can make you lose control or skip the full range of motion. Slow down until you can land each rep with control. Remember, quality beats quantity.
- Not Using Your Arms: Not moving your arms naturally as you perform the exercise keeps you stiff. Swing your arms opposite to your legs like a speed skater to enhance coordination and momentum.
- Taking Narrow Steps: Taking small steps, keeping your feet too close together, instead of taking full lateral steps, decreases the range of motion. Increase the distance of each jump to challenge your glutes, hips, and balance.
- Ignoring Your Back Leg: Letting the back leg drag or touch the floor too early decreases the intensity on the working leg. Actively swing the back leg behind you (without touching down) to simulate a true skater motion and engage more muscles.
Skaters Video Tutorial
Full Body Exercises
Here are a few more whole-body exercises that you can incorporate for a full-body workout:
Conclusion
Skaters are more than just a cardio move. Skaters’ benefits are numerous; they’re a powerful combination of strength, agility, balance, and coordination. By engaging your lower body and core through lateral movement, skaters help you build real-world functional fitness, boost your metabolism, and enhance overall athleticism. Whether you’re training at home, warming up for a workout, or adding intensity to your HIIT routine, skaters are an efficient, no-equipment exercise that can be modified for any fitness level. Just remember to focus on form, stay controlled, and avoid common skaters’ mistakes to get the most out of each rep. Challenge yourself to move side to side and feel the difference skaters can make in your body and performance.
To a Fitter Healthier You,
The Fitness Wellness Mentor
About the Author
Adriana Albritton has a Master’s in Forensic Psychology, certifications in personal training, nutrition, and detoxification, and is the founder of FitnAll Coaching and blog. She is the author of 28 Days to a New Life: A Holistic Program to Get Fit, Delay Aging, and Enhance Your Mindset, and a coauthor of The Better Business Book Volumes II and III. With a background in mental health, Adriana brings a holistic, science-backed approach to wellness. She combines mindset coaching, fitness, and nutrition to help people stay lean, energized, healthy, and centered. As part of Health Six FIT, she’s also helping reshape healthcare through AI-driven, integrative wellness education.