The cold blast this week has brought a good cover of snow to the mountains and it’s looking like we may have a good ski season! Are you ready to hit the slopes to ski or snowboard this winter?
Snow sports demand strength and endurance in your leg and core muscles as well as a good sense of balance. These 10 exercises will challenge different aspects of stability to make sure you’re snow ready this winter.
10 Snow ready exercises
Balance board tipping
Downhill skiing and boarding requires balance and control. We can mimic a ski action on the wobble board to challenge your skiing or boarding technique. Try this in double leg stance or progress to single leg if you really want a challenge.
Balance board arabesque
A great balance and core stability exercise for any sport requiring stability. In single leg stance see if you can maintain your balance on one leg, while tipping forward at your waist and stretching the other leg out behind you.
Spin disc standing rotations
Practice those turns down the mountain by shifting your weight and pivoting on the spin discs. This will help strengthen muscles around the hips, knees and ankles.
XR slide ‘J’ lunges
XR slides can really challenge your strength and stability. These standing lunges will help strengthen your leg muscles and the ‘J’ lunge adds a little extra difficulty as you narrow your base of support. Start with your feet side by side with one foot on the XR slide. As you glide your foot backward and bend your front knee, you’re aiming to draw a ‘J’ with the XR slide foot if using your right leg, or a backward ‘J’ if using your left leg, so that the XR slide lands up behind the front leg or can even cross the midline. Watch that your front knee stays behind the line of your toes and that you don’t let your knee roll inwards.
Side scooter sliders
When you need to push yourself uphill or across flat snow, you’re going to want your hip muscles to be strong and ready to help. Stand beside the reformer, facing the carriage. Push your leg outward against resistance to help strengthen your glutes.
Bosu weight shifting
Stand on the bosu ball with the flat side up. and legs a fair distance apart. Practice shifting your weight from on leg to the other. Get down into a squat position and shift your weight from left to right and back again. You can progress this exercise to pulsing in a squat position which will help strengthen the muscles needed in snowboarding.
Standing Reformer split series
A high level exercise challenging balance and control. Stand on the reformer with one leg up against the shoulder pad and the other leg on the bar. You can hold one or two poles to assist with balance and also help mimic your ski poles on the mountain.
There are 3 variations of Standing split series.
- Both legs straight- pushing back as if trying to do the splits
- Front leg bending- front leg shifts weight forward and backward
- Back leg bending- Holding your front leg straight, move the carriage in and out by bending your back knee.
Standing Eccentric Adduction
Ever feel like you’re doing the splits as your legs spread apart down the mountain. To help keep those legs together in perfect parallel ski form, we need strong hip adductor muscles. On a light spring, stand on the reformer and platform board. Slowly push your legs outward, ensuring you control the movement and stop the reformer from sliding out too quickly. This will help strengthen your inner thigh muscles.
Wunda chair standing leg press
Another great standing balance exercise. Stand in front of the Wundu chair with one leg on the bottom bar. Push up and down on the bottom bar and maintain your balance in single leg stance. To progress the challenge, rise up on to your toes on your standing leg. This will not only help your balance and stability, but it will strengthen your calf muscles too. Snowboarders in particular spend much of their time up on their toes, so this exercise will make sure your calves are adequately prepared.
Wundu Chair tricep dips
Beginner skiers or boarders might find themselves sitting on the snow more than standing! Can you push yourself up easily while also negotiating the slippery snow?
You can start off practicing the push up with a tricep dip on the Wundu chair. Sit on a step infront of the Wundu chair with your arms out behind you on the bottom bar. Push the bar down to strength your tricep muscles. Once you can master this, we can add in a balance challenge such as having your feet on the bosu or dura discs.
Give these exercises a go next time you’re in Pilates and see how ready you are to hit the slopes! Like any exercise, these can all be adapted to make them easier or even more of a challenge.
Sheree
Read through some other snow related blogs
Chee’s guide to snow in Victoria