Living in Chicago is a dream for those of you who cherish a good rollerblading path.  The Chicago waterfront is like a rollerblading freeway during the summertime.  It is an exhilarating sport and a great work-out at the same time. 

One of the more common areas that can lead to problems is the muscles of the upper legs and buttocks.  Imbalances and adhesions between the iliotibial band, the gluteus medius, the hamstrings, and the vastus lateralis muscles.  Adhesions between these muscles impairs the skating motion and can lead to muscle strains.  These adhesions are easily corrected using Active Release Technique. 

Much like in hockey, a common problem that can occur in rollerbladers is a groin injury.  In this type of injury the small muscles that run along the inside of the leg are overstretched and damaged.

Low back pain is also a common complaint to rollerbladers.  This is due to the leaning forward posture that must be maintained while skating.  This puts a lot of stress on the muscles and joints of the low back.

Another injury type that has increased in incidence in the last few years for rollerbladers is tibialis anterior type shin splints.  With the introduction of the soft shelled boots in the last few years, compared to the older rigid boot style of rollerblades, there is an increased amount of stress put on the anterior muscles of the shins.