You might have been active this past summer with running, cycling, and/or swimming, but if you love to ski or snowboard, you may want to think about preparing your body now for hitting the slopes in November and December.

Getting your body ready for movements that are specific to the sport is an important initial focus. If you start prepping now, you’re placing an eye toward preventing injury and reducing soreness that you might otherwise experience if you just jump right in without any prior lead up.

Given that these sports are seasonal, there’s a good chance that it’s been a while since you’ve engaged in these movement patterns. With that said, a slow ramp-up is likely advisable for most of us who are trying to get our body back in optimal condition for winter sports.

Here are a few suggestions for conditioning with a ski and snowboard-specific emphasis:

Cardio

From a cardiovascular perspective, skiing (both downhill and cross-country) and snowboarding can be quite taxing. If you are not currently doing any activities that get your heart rate elevated (e.g., brisk walking, cycling, running, swimming), you’ll want to start adding it to your workout routine. If we’re lacking cardiovascular endurance, form will start to break down, and that’s when injuries happen. Lift tickets are expensive these days, and we want to get as much skiing as possible in an allotted amount of time, but many injuries occur on the “last run of the day,” which is when we’re the most tired. Increasing cardiovascular endurance can help decrease the risk of injury in this manner.

We all have a different current fitness level. With that said, you’ll want to begin a program with activities every other day (~3 days/week) that are appropriate to where you are physically right now, and then gradually build to up to 5 days/week. Start with doing activities for a limited amount of time if you’re deconditioned, and gradually increase your duration doing the activities in the coming weeks.

Strength Training

Skiing and snowboarding engage your entire body, but a big part of each of these activities involves the strength of your hips, legs, and core. To prepare for doing these in real time on the slopes, you’ll want to incorporate single and double-leg exercises like squats and lunges (body weight or weighted) and performing them both statically and dynamically. Squats and lunges are particularly targeting strength in your glutes, core, hamstrings, and quads.

You’ll also want to focus on exercises that develop muscle endurance, strength, power, agility, and stability. Functional movements that mimic skiing and snowboarding are good to practice in a controlled environment (not out on snow and ice) so you’ll be prepared for when you actually hit the slopes.

A Strong Core

A strong core can help you stay injury free. Getting six-pack abdominals is a bonus, but moving your body through space actually draws on the engagement of the deeper abdominal muscles that support your spine and movement as a whole. It’s important to note that only doing abdominal exercises when you are lying on the ground will be less transferable to skiing and snowboarding, which are sports done in standing while moving at speed. Core work done on the floor is a great place to start but try incorporating dynamic core exercises in a variety of standing positions to get the most bang for your buck from a functional perspective. Pilates (which we offer at Beacon PT) is a great activity with experts who can help you to target muscle imbalances and weaknesses, help to strengthen your core in a variety of positions, and to prevent injury.

If you need help putting together a winter sport workout, we can definitely help you out! If you have any questions about what to do before you hit the slopes, let us know.

Beacon Physical Therapy

At Beacon Physical Therapy, we support our clients in establishing healthy movement patterns that help maintain strength, flexibility and mobility. We are ready to assist you if you want advice in designing a personalized ramp-up to ski season!  And if you are having an issue, make an appointment today. We’d love to meet you and get you back to doing what you love.