The Ultimate Skiing Workout
A quick guide to preparing your body for ski season by Jack Embleton
As the season approaches, we are filled with anticipation and excitement for hitting the slopes. Whether you’re carving through powder or mastering new tricks, being physically prepared is key to maximizing your performance from the first run and minimizing the risk of injury. This article is for those who want to be ready to go as soon as the lifts open and want to prevent an injury ruining their ski season.
Strength Power Training
Pulse Squats with controlled eccentric: 15 – 20 reps for 3 sets.
Squats are fundamental for building lower body strength, crucial for skiing. For skiing we aren’t worried about the top part of the movement as we spend all of our time with our knees bent between 30 and 80 degrees. This is why pulse squats are so good, keeping the muscle working in the range we want them and tapping into the anaerobic energy system that gets used so much when skiing.
Skater lunges: 30 – 60s of maximum effort. Repeat 4 times with a big break between sets.
Tight, fast turns require fast muscle contractions that agility exercises replicate really well. One cause of dreaded ACL injury is when the knee goes into valgus/ bends inwards. These exercises train you to avoid that movement, reducing your risk of a big ligament injury.
Make sure the knees don’t collapse inwards.
Step-Ups with heel touch: 3 sets of 15 – 20 reps
Step-ups primarily strengthen the quads and glutes. Use a sturdy bench or platform and increase the height to increase the challenge. The heel touch encourages control and eccentric quad muscle power and avoids using a toe push off to help.
Slow, controlled reps with just a light touch on the floor. Use a wall, if you need balance
Tib ant raises: 15 – 20 reps for 3 sets
Freestyle skiers will need this more than any other types of skiers. In order to land big jumps you
need to be able to keep your weight forward instead of either sitting back and wiping out.
Start with both legs before progressing to single leg
Core Stability
Side planks with dips: As many reps as you can for 2 sets.
Without strong core muscles, we can’t efficiently transfer the force from our lower body to our upper body. Side planks help you resist the forces when turning.
Lightly touch the hip to the ground, then continue without resting
Russian Twists: 10 – 15 reps for 2 sets
In a similar vein to the above, the abs need to be strong in rotation in order to keep things stable in tight turns.
These should be done quickly to replicate fast turns. Keep your belly button pulled towards your spine for deep core engagement.
Cardiovascular Conditioning
Skiing can use a mixture of strength, endurance and high intensity physical energy, meaning that our cardio workouts need to replicate this. The worst-case scenario would be getting worn out after two runs, when the excitement for the season has been building up for so long.
Interval Training: start with a 15-minute session and build from there
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) boosts cardiovascular fitness and mimics the intense bursts of energy required for skiing. You can include exercises like sprinting, cycling, or rowing in your workout. Heart rate during fast runs reaches about 80-95% of your maximum heart rate so this is what you should aim for.
Endurance training: 30 mins. You should be able to maintain a conversation throughout
Accounting for approximately 20-30% of your energy demands during skiing is the oxidative system.
In order to train this, you need to be going low and slow. Running, swimming and other similar
exercise types will all work here; personal preference is key.
Conclusion
If you don’t want to be sore and hurting after opening day then incorporating some of these exercises will give you a massive head start. See you out there!
References
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