With the ski season fast approaching, we at Care for Health wanted to give the keen skiers within the community some key tips and tricks on how to prepare you for the slopes.
The key things we would suggest working on are; lower limb strength, balance, core strength and stability, explosive strength and agility and aerobic endurance.
Lower limb strength:
With the position you find yourself in when skiing, strength of the lower limbs is paramount. It is important to work on muscles in isolation, this builds up the strength of muscles which may be weaker in compound movements (such as squatting).
In addition to this you need to work on the movements which use all the muscle groups together to ensure that they work in cohesion with each other.
The first step is to find which muscle groups you are weakest in. For example; commonly people we see have weaker hamstrings compared to their quadriceps. Small side note: You will still want to work on the stronger muscles because if you don’t use it you lose it.
Compound exercises would include:
- Lunges
- Squats
- Deadlifts
- Leg press
- Wall sits
- Bulgarian split squats
Isolated exercises would include:
- Leg extension
- Romanian Deadlifts (RDL’s)
- Bridging
Balance
Balance is a key attribute for skiing as it helps you stay on your feet and counterbalance any lumps, bumps or rough terrain you encounter. This not only makes skiing more enjoyable but it also helps reduce the risk of injury.
The good news about working on your balance is that you can do it anywhere. You can start by standing on one leg when brushing your teeth, boiling the kettle, washing up or just when you have a spare 30 seconds and a little space. When you feel your balance starting to improve you want to make it harder.
Standing on things such as pillows, cushions and uneven surfaces are a great way to test yourself as well as bosu balls and balance pads, so if you’re a member of a gym it is worth seeing if they have one or something similar.
In addition, you can also make it harder giving yourself something else to do so you are concentrating on two things; rather than just standing on one leg.
Some ideas for you include throwing a ball against a wall and catching it, leaning down and tapping the floor, writing your name with the other foot. If these feel fairly easy, which they could do, then try combining an additional movement with standing on an uneven surface, a balance pad could be a good investment for you and a good one is available online for roughly £20.
Core strength and stability
To maintain strength in the lower limbs and have good balance you will need to have a strong core. The core will also prevent your back from aching after a long day session on the slopes and will enhance how you perform. See below for some exercises to do for the best chance of building up your core before this ski season.
- Dead-bugs
- Bird-dogs
- Standing resistance band twists
Agility and explosive strength
The best way to target agility and explosive strength would be plyometrics. If you have not heard of plyometrics, it is defined as ‘a form of exercise that involves rapid and repeated stretching and contracting of the muscles, designed to increase strength’.
To elaborate, let’s break down the box jump. Stand upright, relaxed, with an 18 inch box in front of you. Before you jump on that box you are going to slowly squat down to about 75⁰, hold it for a split second, and then explode up and jump as high as you can to land on the box.
Agility exercises can involve a wide range of movements, but they commonly involve a change of direction, therefore you may need a bit more space to practice these exercises. It is important to touch on agility exercises before skiing as they help improve short sharp changes of direction and also your reaction time.
You can combine plyometric exercises with agility exercises quite nicely. Some simple exercises; which require minimal equipment can be found below.
Some simple exercises to get you started with plyometric training:
- Box jump
- Single leg repetitive hops
- Jumping lunges
- Single leg box jumps (low step/ box)
- Broad jumps
- Hopping from left to right (skateboard hop)
- Explosive step ups (swapping legs over each time)
- Alternating jumping lunges
Cardiovascular Endurance
Finally, possibly the hardest of them all, cardiovascular endurance. Because how hard it is to replicate skiing without actually skiing, can be more challenging than the other areas we have focused on. However that is not to say there is nothing to be done.
The research suggests it is best to work on cardiovascular endurance with longer and slower forms of exercise to build up a base fitness (cycling, running or rowing would be a great place to start).
Alongside getting your base fitness up you will need to do some interval training which will include some high intensity work. You can do high intensity workouts in a number of different ways. You could do it on a singular piece of equipment such as the bike, rower or treadmill, or you can do it as a part of a HIIT class, or you could do your own workout combining weight lifting, body weight exercises and some cardio.
With these exercises you can get a little more creative, if you are stuck then we recommend starting out with a basic sprinting exercise on the bike or rowing machine at the gym where you do a relaxed pace for 15 -30 seconds and then sprint for 10-20 seconds, repeating this process around 10-15 times. Like anything it does depend on your current fitness levels to dictate where you start at for this category, but the most important thing is to just start.
To conclude
The physical attributes that we have covered in this newsletter are vital for making your time on the slopes as enjoyable as possible (apart from aprés ski), as we understand that can be pretty fun too.
The exercises above are a really good starting point for anyone looking to improve their lower limb strength, balance, core stability, agility and explosive strength and cardiovascular fitness before ski season as well as anyone who is looking to improve overall performance in sports such as running, football, rugby, tennis and the list goes on.
Our advice on how to implement these exercises would be to pick 3 strength exercises, 3 core exercises, 2 agility/explosive strength exercises, and one cardio and there you have a full workout. Try to do something similar again that week and in 6-8 weeks you will have a lot more confidence in your lower limbs.
If that is something that is not doable for you, and you find time is of the essence, or you want to do something little and often, then that is easily done too. You could pick 1 exercise from each category and do them daily, or even better you could change them up.
If you’re reading this and thinking ‘wow that sounds amazing but I just don’t know how to implement it’ or ‘I don’t know what exercises would best suit me’ or even ‘I do some of those exercises already and I want to progress to something harder’ then we would be happy to put something more specific together for you in a tailored program that suits your daily needs and allows you the best chance of reaching your physical goals.
Alongside this we would suggest having a 1 on 1 ski pre session at Care for Health where you can work with one of our therapists delving into any areas of weakness you may have as well as working on the important areas above, to prepare you for the slopes.
Skiing is great fun, but strenuous too. Start your exercise plan in plenty of time and be in the best shape for your skiing holiday.
Jack Underwood
Sports Therapist