Best Slide Boards For Therapy And Training | 2020 Useful Buyer’s Guide

What is the best slide board? This kind of equipment mimics the movements made on the ice hockey rink but it is by no means limited to this sport. Slide boards allow you to strengthen your full body, help your muscles to function better, improve balance and make your workouts more dynamic. When shopping for your slide board, make sure that it is made from quality and durable material, such as high-grade polyethylene. The product should be flexible and, at the same time, should not curl up. Also, choose a model with a smooth surface and anti-slip bottom for better stability during exercises.

We recommend you try Obsidian Exercise Slide Board. This is the thickest slide board on the market, making your workouts highly effective. Made of quality polyethylene, it is durable and flexible. The anti-slip padding makes the board stable while protecting your floors from any potential damage. The item measures almost 25 inches in length, meaning you will have enough space for exercises. That said, the board will not take much space in your room as it can be rolled up for easy storage. The product comes with booties and mitts ensuring comfortable sliding. On top of that, you will be able to download useful videos featuring 100 exercises you can do using this slide board.

Obsidian: Check the current price

Pedro Bernardes, an expert on fitness and sports equipment at Gadget Reviews, explains what factors contribute to developing strength.

Slide Boards are very useful gadgets to use when you are exercising. They are somehow a specialized gadget because it’s characterized by a unique movement, sliding. This limits what you can do with this gadget.

Slide boards are much used by Ice Hockey players and other athletes of similar sports, where you have to use your body to slide sideways, but they can be used by anyone. Either if you want to increase your stability and speed in direction changes, increase your resistance or tone your body this is a great, simple and not a very expensive gadget to use.

What Are The Benefits of Slide Boards

Which muscles do they work?

Sliding boards can make you work out practically every muscle in the body. Because their main purpose is to train your posture, you will be bending your ankles, knees, back, arms, and more.

You will mainly be using the muscles in your legs to gain the sliding momentum, but you will also be working out your back and your arms, too; it all depends on which exercises you are doing. You may or may not know it, but there are also certain exercises that you can do with a slide board that exclusively work out the arms, too.

Who will benefit from using slide boards?

In particular, slide boards can be practically a necessary training tool for athletes who use skates, but they are also great for anyone looking to build up their muscles, increase their balance, and train themselves to hold a better bending position.

Slide boards are especially targeted towards hockey players and ice skaters mainly because they can help condition someone to get used to sliding, hence the name.

TOP-4 Best Slide Boards

Below, you will find a review of the four most popular slide boards at a price ranging from $50 to $200. Some of them are available in multiple sizes and colors while others have the advantage of being customizable and long-lasting.

1. American Lifetime Slide Board | Best in two lengths: 6 feet and 7.5 feet

This board is one of the few that can come in a color besides black, which is the most popular color. It can also come in blue or white, and the board can also come in 2 different lengths: 6 feet and 7.5 feet.

Unfortunately, because slide boards longer than 6 feet are a little more popular and harder to find, the 7.5-foot board is often out of stock or unavailable in the standard black color, but it is almost always in stock in the other colors.

The board comes with 2 shoe sleeves, also known as booties, and a matching mesh carrying bag for easy transportation. It also comes with a 1-year warranty, too.

The board itself is pretty decent-quality when it comes to ease of sliding, but the board can stick quite firmly to carpet. Because of this, if you do not have hard floors in your work out area, you may want or need to get some cheap foam workout matting to place over your carpets.

Pros Cons Available in several sizes and colors

Comes in one of the longer sizes Is out of stock often

American Lifetime: Check the current price

2. SPRI Slide Board with End Stops | Best under $50

This slide board is one of the more affordable options, and like the last one, it comes in standard black and comes with shoe sleeves and a mesh carrying bag. Unlike the last one, it is only available in the one color, and it does not come in a larger or smaller size; just 6 feet long.

It does, however, come with a simple exercise guide that includes pictures and detailed descriptions of each step for that exercise.

This board does not stick to carpet as much as the previous one does, but it does attract pet hair, which can be quite difficult to clean off. True, this is a trait that nearly all slide boards share, but pet hair seems to cling to this board far more than some of the other boards out there.

However, lightly wiping it down with a damp cloth seems to catch and pick up nearly all the cat hair. If you are planning on using this at home or around animals, be prepared to clean it at least once before you start your workout and once after.

Pros Cons Is one of the most affordable

Exercise guide included Pet hair clings to it easily

SPRI: Check the current price

3. Obsidian Exercise Slide Board for High-Intensity Exercise | Best in 6 and 5 feet

This is another 6-foot board that is only available in black and comes with a pair of shoe sleeves, but it also comes with a pair of board gloves/mitts for your hands, an instruction manual, and DVDs of exercises.

One of the more noticeable features this board has is the extra tall end stops which are made from a somewhat clear high-quality plastic. This can make stopping a little bit easier, but you also have to be a little more careful not to run into it a certain way to avoid injury, even more so when you are doing certain exercises.

This board does also come in a 5-foot size, but this can be too short for most adults, and the sliding ease can be too sensitive for children and beginners depending on if they are used to sliding or not.

Pros Cons Available in multiple sizes

Comes with a lifetime guarantee Not big enough for some adults

Obsidian Slide Board: Check the current price

4. Hockey Revolution Adjustable Length Sliding Training Tiles | Best Professional Hockey Slide Board

This is one of the more expensive sliding boards, but it is also one of the more high-quality and professional models. It is also one of the more unique ones, and that is because it is not made of one sheet of rubber or other materials. This board is actually made up of several small square pieces, that are 13 inches by 13 inches, that you can arrange in a variety of ways to customize your workout.

They can come in 3 different sizes: 12 tiles (about a 6-foot-long board), 18 tiles (about a 9.75-foot-long board), and 20 tiles (nearly an 11-foot-long board). Nearly all of the sizes come in a bright orange, but the 18-tile set comes in a silvery-grey color. The boards also come with customizable stoppers to work with any arrangement you would like.

While this board does cost more, it is one of the most durable and high-quality ones between the harder-than-average material it is made from, and this material also makes it more slippery than other models.

Pros Cons High-quality material

Long-lasting and customizable Most expensive

Hockey Revolution: Check the current price

11 Best-Selling Slide Boards Comparative Table

Recommended Slide Board Exercises

How to exercise properly using a slide board?

You should try to warm up for about 10 to 30 minutes before you start any exercises that do or do not involve a slide board in order to avoid an injury, mostly muscle pulls and sprains.

Before you start any exercises with the slide board, you should also make sure that your shoes are tied before securing the shoe sleeves on them; otherwise, your laces may come out of the sleeves and increase the chance you get injured.

Always keep a proper position whenever you are doing an exercise. Keep your knees bent, arms up, and head up, unless the exercise you are doing requires you to be in a specific position.

What are the main slide board exercises?

The most common exercise is the slide-to-slide, which is exactly as the name suggests; you are sliding back and forth to each side of the slide. This is one of the main exercises for hockey players.

Then there is the skater slide which is more focused on balance and flexibility, and as the name suggests, this exercise is more targeted for figure or speed skaters.

You can also do other exercises with a slide board like pushups, lunges, and more, too.