Regardless of what anybody says, the main way to look at skating is that it is most definitely a sport, one where you wear your regular clothes, where you compete against yourself to land as many tricks as possible. You sweat, you hurt, you bleed, you stress, you fatigue the exact same as you do in football, boxing, rugby, etc., albeit with a different mentality about why you’re doing it in the first place. So all that means, you’ve got to treat your body like athletes to if you want to skate as best you can.
This is what works for me, aside from the obvious “Skate more!” advice, which is hard to achieve if you have kids and a career. In summer, I get skating 2-3 times a week; in winter I’m satisfied with 2 hours, as I live in a wet city with no indoor or covered skatepark. Basically, I want quality over quantity at this stage.
Hail, rain or shine, I cycle 20 km every day to and from work, it’s about 30 mins each way in traffic - none of that lycra clad, Tour de France stuff, just a well-built 3-speed beast. On the cycle home, I’ll often stop at some outdoor gym equipment and do a few circuits of dips, chin/pull-ups, leg lifts, etc. I don’t spend too long at it, anywhere from 10-30 minutes. All that builds strength for the mind, the muscle and the heart. I also cycle to the skatepark or spot all the time, mainly as I don’t have a car anyway. I live in Ireland where it snows enough for a national shutdown every 3-4 years, so if you’re in Winnipeg or similar, not cycling in winter is understandable.
Invest in a chin up bar and stomach wheel. Do push-ups and burpees. Burpees will kill you at first - they never get easy, just you do them faster as time passes - but they’ll help with keeping your legs in shape over winter.
I’ve been doing yoga since 2001 - I used to do it close to every day, but at the moment, it’s just twice a week on weekends. Youtube has a verifiable fuckton of classes and routines from beginner to expert worth checking out and definitely start doing some dynamic stretching before and after skating to keep you supple and flexible.
I’ve lapsed from doing muy thai training over the past couple of months and it’s something I need to get back into one night a week after work. From a purely fitness point of view, all martial arts are absolutely savage. I just do pad work and getting into this via boxing helped me learn how to skip, which as many have said already, helps loads with strengthening calf/thigh muscles and help with rehab of shit ankles.
Eating properly is a winnter - get as much fresh fruit, veg and home cooked food into as possible - smoothies are always a winner. Microwave ready meals are utter bullshit and cost a goddamn fortune. Cut back on processed food in general, sugary drinks like sodas and all energy drinks.
I’m fortunate that many of my skate friends, especially the tight crew, are into similar stuff, so I’m dealing with a similar mentality in the first place. We’re able to get out with our kids, skate together, hang out, push ourselves and each other and still progress as a result (early 40’s here), all of which is far better than sitting at home watching TV 5 hours a night.