Specific exercises for skiing and snowboarding endurance?
David | March 17, 2010 | 12:17 pm
I don’t ski all that often, but I need to prepare. What are some exercises that I can do to get in shape so that I have strong endurance all weekend on the mountain?
Oh, and I just learned about some "secret" exercises that all skiers should be doing for powerful legs and reducing injuries. Click here to read about the secret exercises. The exercises were really awesome and helpful. I highly recommend it.
While skiing, you will mostly rely on your leg-muscles, more precisely your ankles and knees. So, you will have to make sure you train them a lot.
Next to that, you will need to have stamina. Swimming is good for building up stamina quickly.
Start training about 2-3 months before you go on holiday. This will give you enough time to build up some extra strength, without having to keep it up for a prolonged period.
Personally, I do a lot of exercises that I need to bend my knees for, and keep that for a longer period. One very good exercise is grabbing a vertical pole (like a door-post), stand on one foot, and ’sit’ down until your leg is at a straight 90 degree hook. Keep that up for about 30 seconds, and switch legs. Repeat this as much as you want/can.
Another good one is stand on one foot, and then try to stand on your toes with that one foot. Repeat 15 times, switch feet, and also 15 times. Repeat as much as you want/can.
A third good one is to make ’skating-hops’. Stand on one foot, bend over like when you are speed-skating, and hop to the other leg. Hop back, and repeat as you want.
The link below provides even more insight in the type of training you can do.
Wall squats! Probably the best thing ever for skiiers/snowboarders.
Head to a wall near you and lean on it with your back. With your feet shoulder-width apart, slide yourself down the wall until your legs bend at 90 degrees and it looks like your sitting on an invisible box. Hold for 10 seconds, shuffle a *tad* up the wall, hold for another 10, shuffle back down to 90 degrees, hold for 10…. etc for a total of 90 seconds. Ouchie.
If this is too easy, try the single-legged version of the above, alternating legs every 10 seconds.
Skiing and boarding requires both technical and physical skills; including strength, endurance and balance to master the slopes.
Muscular Strength
Muscular strength improves the skier’s ability to relax and still maintain control, while making quick adjustments needed on uneven terrain. All the major muscle groups of the body, especially the core, are used for skiing. A great strength exercises is a single leg squat. A second great strength exercise is a weighted quadriceps squat.
Explosive Power
When strength training is combined with speed, quickness and agility training, power is developed and expert level skiers are born. Exercises that create power include plyometrics, sprinting, agility drills, and stair running. Plyometrics are commonly referred to as explosive types of exercise drills often used in the conditioning program for skiers along with weight training because the combination of squatting and cycling develops the quality leg and hip power necessary for high performance skiing. One great exercise is to stand on a bench or box (12 inches or so), jump down and then immediately back up. Do this 10-30 seconds at a time, rest and repeat. Experts can try to do one-leg jumps.
Flexibility
The best stretches for skiers and boarders focus on the lower extremities and snow boarders need to stretch the upper body as well. One great core stretch is a core twist. Stand with your knees slightly bent and your arms crossed in front of you. Slowly look over one shoulder and let your whole body follow until you feel a good stretch in the back and side. Hold 5 seconds and repeat in the other direction. Hamstring and Quadriceps stretches are also recommended for skiers.
Endurance
For cardiovascular endurance good preparation exercises include: road, mountain or stationary biking. It build the heart and lungs and focuses on the leg muscles used during skiing. To Warm-up with an easy spin of 5 minutes and then add high intensity efforts (sprint) for about 30 seconds. Spin easy for a minutes and repeat 2-5 times depending upon your fitness level. Cool down about 5 minutes and you have a great workout.
Balance Training
Working on balance can include one-legged squats or work on balance boards.
Agility Exercise
To improve side to side agility stand in a relaxed half squat position and step quickly side-to-side (maintain the squat). As you improve, jump side-to-side keeping the inside foot off the ground and the focus of your weight on your outside foot/inside edge. Perform for 30 seconds, rest and repeat several times.
You can also visit HERE for training for betting skiing.
Some other useful links:
http://www.pro-ride.com/snowboard_workout.cfm
http://www.nismat.org/traintip/snowboard/index.html
http://homemakers.com/HomeMakers/client/en/Health/DetailNews.asp?idNews=2382&idSM=192
falling leaf (move side to side on the mountain to streangthen your legs)
so cardiovascular (cv) training is important to enable you to hold your concentration and read the snow conditions. As well as building cv for endurance, include higher-intensity interval training.
More advanced skiers and boarders should do some anaerobic cardiovascular work, to equip you for brief sprints or bursts when tackling more challenging terrain.
Because skiing requires a lot of lower-limb work, the cv element needs to include activities such as cross-training or cycling. Snowboarders need more upper-body strength and endurance, so consider swimming, too.
Strength training needs to combine eccentric, concentric and plyometric muscle work. Skiers and boarders (especially intermediate and higher levels) repeatedly overload and stretch the quadriceps (front of thigh) muscles. Plyometric training should help to prepare the knees by giving them more ‘spring’.
Novices need good ‘holding’ or eccentric strength in the quadriceps. Isometric holds on the leg press in differing degrees of bend are good, as is the classic ‘sitting wall squat’. Try to mimic the stance adopted by a skier or boarder, with a forward lean, rather than planting the back fully against the wall.
For advanced skiers and boarders, dynamic sliding wall squats are more useful (maintain squat while flexing and extending the legs); or use a conventional full leg press.
Snowboarders can mimic their action by facing the wall, using it for touch-balance with their hands while performing squats on the balls of their feet;
Include strengthening for the lower quad muscles. Step exercises are simple and effective.
Good core stability and postural alignment are essential.
Try to do some training to improve your reaction to a ‘falling back’ loss of control, eg practise lying on your back over a swiss ball, back extended and head low, and curl up to horizontal.
Boarders should practise push-ups, paying particular attention to full arm extension under control (avoiding fierce elbow lock-out). Standing facing a wall and ‘falling’ on to it with outstretched arms (an explosive form of a wall-squat) will improve the neuromuscular reaction required to ‘catch’ a fall.
Boarders need strong rotational control of the trunk, so, for example, add trunk rotation with medicine ball to a free-standing squat. The swiss ball is also very useful for rotation exercises.
Work on uneven surfaces and practise control in off-balance conditions, eg two-handed throwing and catching of a ball while balancing on one leg on a trampette;
Stretch exercises are especially important for quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, adductors, gluteals and hip flexors. Pay particular attention to achieving good length in soleus (lower calf) and gastrocnemius (main calf), because of the position of the ankle in the boot in both sports.
Novice skiers need good adductor flexibility to cope with the snowplough, as well as a good range of internal hip rotation. Snowboarders must have good low back flexibility in all ranges.
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