Logrolling is an exercise in humility. Just stepping onto a floating wooden log causes it to spin. It’s no wonder first-timers to Madison Log Rolling’s drop-in classes on Lake Wingra, a few miles from the Capitol, are challenged to stay stationary for just five seconds.
Check It Out!
“Maybe half” can do it, says owner/lumberjack athlete Shana Verstegen, pictured here. Logrolling is a “hard sport to pick up,” but also “addicting,” because each time you do it, she says, you get a little better.
Don’t think for a minute it’s not workout, Verstegen says. It trains “every single aspect of fitness,” she says. In the beginning, that’s things like balance and body awareness. As you get more advanced at it, that benefits progress to anaerobic and aerobic endurance and “wild amounts of strength,” she says.
In Verstegen’s amateur classes, the painted cedar logs are carpeted to make them less slippery. Even as a fun form of leisure, the sport is reverential, a nod to Northwoods lumberjack lore and what was to a thriving 19th-century state industry.
You also don’t need to be a jock to get the hang of it. While It is “a challenge,” she says “everybody will improve” with practice. “That’s why I think so many people love [it]: You’re basically, in the beginning, just competing against yourself, and you get to see improvement every single time. So, even if other sports like soccer and baseball and whatever don’t resonate with you, a lot of people just enjoy spending time outside, getting better at something, and hanging out with a great community.”
