Pre Ski Exercises

Pre Ski exercises

If you are off to the slopes this winter it’s important to get your body ready. People tend to forget that zooming down the slopes for hours a day, 7 days a week can be much more than what your body is used to. Following the exercises below will not only help you enjoy the slopes much more, but you will not ache as much (or at all) and will protect yourself from injury. Many accidents happen because your legs fatigue and you wipe out.

To really enjoy the snow, make the most of the slopes and protect yourself you will need good overall body strength but particularly legs and core.

 

Here are 5 exercises to get you in shape:

Single leg squats- Do these on a bench if you have good balance otherwise on the floor. Keep your hip, knee and toe all in line with each other, all your weight on your heal and sit down as low as you can. Repeat 10 times on each leg

 

 

Lunge walk with rotation. Lunge walk 10 steps and rotate over the leading leg and repeat. Between each step do an extra lunge to really work the quadriceps.

 

 

 

Box jumps- Using a step or box that is as high as your knee ideally or as high as you are comfortable with. Start with both feet hip width apart, jump onto the box landing as softly as possible with both feet together- repeat 10 times

Ski sits- sit against a wall with your knees at 90 degrees. Hold for 1 minute. Each day you repeat this exercise try to add another 5 seconds

Plank- The good old plank. A great exercise for core strength. Hold for 1 minute. To make this exercise harder, lift 1 foot off the ground for 10 seconds and alternate legs.

Do all these exercises in order and repeat the sequence. Try to do them 2-3 times a week for the weeks leading up to your holiday.

One of the reasons people ache so much the next day is they forget to stretch. Make time to stretch for 10 minutes at the end of every day.

Enjoy the snow, it sounds like the European snow is amazing this year.