Prepare Your Body For Skiing by Kristoph Thompson

It’s amazing how sore just a few hours of skiing can make you the following day. A little preparation can really help to reduce this soreness, and increase your enjoyment. Preparation should focus on the muscles of the bottom, thighs, and stomach, as they are constantly involved.

Resistance Exercises For Skiing

The squat, leg press, and lunge are all excellent exercises as they isolate the muscles of the thighs and bottom. Aim to perform 3 sets of 15 repetitions 3 times a week. Add resistance to increase the difficulty as you become more accustomed to performing them.

Lie on your side, legs extended and lift your top leg until it is at a 45 degree angle to the other, lower slowly and repeat to focus on the outer thigh. For the inner thigh, again lying on your side, legs outstretched, move your top leg 6 inches forward and lift the bottom leg slowly off the floor 3-5 inches, lower slowly and repeat, without letting it touch the floor again. With both of these exercises perform 2/3 sets of 15-25 repetitions on each leg.

In the gym, using an adjustable cable machine, perform the movement of a tennis backhand or forehand moving against a small resistance by holding to the handle. Ask your gym instructor to help you with this particular exercise and aim for 2 sets of 12-15 repetitions each side.

Functional Exercises To Prepare For Skiing

In addition to using the machines in the gym you can perform some exercises that require your body to move in the same way as when skiing. First try side lunges. Standing upright, take a large step to the right, bend your hips and knees slightly and push off with right foot and stand feet together again. Try the same only stepping the left, alternate sides and repeat 12-15 times.

Plyometrics For Skiing

Try the following jumping exercises to prepare your muscles for the shock absorbency required of skiing.

Stand feet together and jump forward a small distance (maybe a foot or two), jump again as soon as your feet touch the ground. Try 5 jumps in a row like this, rest for 15 seconds and repeat twice more. Once you have mastered jumping in a straight line, try jumping to the side. Think of a line on the floor and aim to jump accross it using the same principle as above, jump again as soon as your feet touch the floor. Begin with 5 jumps left and right, resting for 15 seconds and repeating twice more. Finally try jumping forward and to the side, imagine there are 6 points on the ground two feet apart and one foot in front of each other. Usinng the same principle jump from one to the next, moving forward and sideways as you go. Rest for 15 seconds and repeat twice more. With each of these exercises try to jump a little higher and further as you become more comfortable performing them.

Copyright Kristoph Thompson Train more effectively with advice from Kristoph.