Skiing Exercises for Recreational Skiers

If you exercise often, you'll begin to build your strength and enhance your endurance in the muscle groups used in downhill skiing. You'll be preparing yourself for the rigors of skiing in the expert zones where staying power and explosive power are of the utmost importance. Here, we get into the why and when to exercise, before moving onto the five essential elements of exercising for skiing.

The ultimate body for an expert skier is powerful, from strong ankles to strong shoulders, and every finely-tuned muscle in between. Remember the last time you watched someone effortlessly weave through a mogul field and wondered, "How does he do that?" It's partly due to practice, and partly to the body awareness and balance that strength training provides. The expert skier, who is physically strong, instinctively cues every part of his or her body. A fit body is like a well-tuned sports car. It handles effortlessly, acting on subtle intuitions.

Expert skiing requires a number of athletic abilities including technical, physical, and mental skills. This article is all about the physical requirements of expert skiing. To ski strong, you need to be strong. In addition, refer to the lessons in the web-based course entitled Skills of the Expert Skier, which deal with the technical aspects of all-terrain skiing, as well as establishing the right mind set.

Why do ski exercises?

If you think skiing exercises are just for serious skiers, think again. Strong muscles improve every skier's performance, whether he or she is a beginner, intermediate, advanced, or expert skier. For those who feel they've reached a plateau in their skiing ability, ski exercises may provide the boost you need to reach the next level.

Few sports are as physically demanding as alpine skiing, especially skiing on moguls, in trees, and down steeps. Yet, many skiers hit the slopes after little or no training in the preseason. They pay for it with sore muscles, but that's only the beginning. The lack of good physical fitness also increases the chances of injury. The most common ski injuries are joint related, and the best way to protect joints is by building muscle. Strong muscles stabilize your joints and, in turn, enable you to control your skis.

In light of the above, this article will focus on building the muscle groups around the joints that skiing taxes the most, including the knees, hips, and ankles. For the knee and ankle joints, we'll be dealing with the upper leg muscles, including the quads and hamstrings, as well as the lower leg muscles, most noticeably the calves and Achilles tendons. For the hip joints, we'll be concerned with the core, namely, the hip flexors, glutes, abdominals, groin, and lower back muscles.

Doing the downhill skiing exercises on a regular basis will make your skiing a lot easier, as well as take your skill set to the next level, because you will:

• Build muscle strength in your legs, core, and upper body
• Enhance muscle endurance for long runs that never seem to end
• Increase your cardiovascular endurance so you can ski all day
• Improve your balance in all types of terrain and snow conditions
• Help your foot-to-foot quickness in the tight, tree runs
• Add explosive power for those short, intensive bursts in the moguls
• Avoid sore muscles, injuries, and spills

When should you do ski exercises?

Exercising in the Preseason

The ski exercises can be done any time you feel like it. However, in the context of the sport of downhill skiing, and the Skills of the Expert Skier, I recommend you begin exercising at home, two to three months prior to the start of the ski season. If your season kicks off in December, try to begin your preseason conditioning program in September.

However, if you're already involved in a ski-related conditioning program during the summer months, you'll be able to shorten you're fall program from three months to about six weeks.

In addition, you should do your ski exercises on three nonconsecutive days each week. This will allow 48 hours between successive work-outs. The muscle groups will have plenty of time to recover. Does this seem like a lot of work?

At first, it will be. But after your first runs of the season, you'll be amazed at how much easier it is to link smooth, short-radius turns from top-to-bottom, all day long. You'll look back up the hill and smile, knowing that your exercise program in the fall was well worth the effort. You will have cleared the first hurdle on the road to becoming an expert skier. Physically, you will now be much stronger!

Exercising during the Season

Strenuous activities like downhill skiing, especially at the expert level, promote tightness and inflexibility in the muscle groups. Stretching before and after any skiing will keep you flexible and help prevent common injuries. Should you do the ski exercises after the season starts?

Yes, definitely. If you registered for the training course after the season started you can catch up and get in sync by doing the ski exercises during the week when you're not out skiing. If you ski on Saturday and/or Sunday, do the skiing exercises on Tuesdays and Thursdays. By exercising throughout the season, as well as skiing, you'll accelerate the strength building process, and your performance will show a marked improvement.

Exercising in the Postseason

The last lesson of the training course, which will be published in late spring, will include a number of recommendations for establishing a summer conditioning program. By exercising in the postseason you will maintain your fitness level that you worked hard to implement in the preseason. Aspiring expert skiers need to impart continuity in their conditioning programs throughout the year. Once you become strong, you need to stay strong.

In addition, by participating in a ski-related exercise program from June to September, you'll be able to ramp up much more quickly in the fall. The summer is also a good time to improve your cardiovascular endurance.

The Five Essentials of Ski-Specific Exercising

Flexibility, cardio, strength, balance, and power are the five essential elements for the expert skier to master. Let's consider each one of these requirements in turn.

Flexibility: Your range of motion or mobility is of prime importance. Stretching to maintain muscle elasticity, which decreases with age, is vital for skiing. Refer to the article entitled Ski Fitness for Recreational Skiers for further details.

Cardiovascular Endurance: Aerobic capacity is very important to skiers so they have the stamina to ski in the expert zones, and the endurance to ski all day long. If you wish to improve your cardiovascular fitness on your own, try one of the activities below on three nonconsecutive days per week. If you do the strength, balance, and power exercises that follow on Tuesdays and Thursdays, perhaps it would be best to do your cardiovascular routine on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

• Lap swimming, 25 laps to begin with, increase to 50 laps
• Brisk walking for at least 30 minutes, preferably 45 minutes
• Jogging, 15 to 20 minutes, no more
• Rowing machine, 15 to 20 minutes
• Treadmill, 15 to 20 minutes
• Cross-country skiing
• Cycling, short sprints are best
• Inline skating, short sprints and long distances are best

Strength and Endurance: Muscular strength improves the expert skier's ability to relax, yet still maintain control, and to handle the quick adjustments needed in all-terrain skiing. The movements in downhill skiing include all the major muscle groups, so total body muscular strength is of prime importance. You'll want to do ski exercises that strengthen your entire body.

With this in mind, Lesson #3: Ski-Specific Exercises in the Skills of the Expert Skier focuses on the following exercises and muscle groups:

• Essential ski exercises for the legs - quadriceps, hamstrings, hips, calves, and ankles
• Essential ski exercises for the center - abdominals, hip flexors, glutei, and lower back

Stability and Balance: Why should you care about balance? Well, for starters, it's the basic skill needed in practically every sport. Changing your center of gravity to match your moves is the key to efficiency in sport. Good balance can help you keep your form when you encounter changing terrain and snow conditions. The result is better skiing and fewer spills.

Slight deviations in terrain often require subtle adjustments in your balance to avoid injury. To enhance your stability and balance, Lesson #3: Ski-Specific Exercises in the Skills of the Expert Skier targets the following muscle groups:

• Essential ski exercises for the center - abdominals, hip flexors, glutei, and lower back

Fortunately, the exercises that help improve stability and balance work to build muscle strength and endurance in the core, all at the same time. This can be seen if you look back at the previous topic, Strength and Endurance.

Power and Quickness: To improve your reflexes and foot-to-foot quickness, you need dynamic ski-specific drills that simulate the actual movements you do on the ski hill. With this in mind, five jumping exercises are included in Lesson #3: Ski-Specific Exercises, which are also called plyometrics. These essential exercises all work to improve your foot-to-foot quickness and explosive power.

Plyometrics are commonly referred to as explosive types of exercise drills, and are often used in conditioning programs for elite skiers along with weight training because the combination of squatting with weights and lateral jumps, sprints, or quickness drills, develops the leg and hip power necessary for high performance skiing. However, Skills of the Expert Skier foregoes the weight training part for now, since we're more concerned with the development of the physical skills you need to ski in the expert zones, and not to ski like a competitive racer on the World cup scene.

The Complete Course

The above article deals exclusively with the rationale behind doing ski exercises before, during, and after the ski season. Twenty-five skiing exercises are described and illustrated in our web-based training course entitled Skills of the Expert Skier. The exercises are geared to the ski-specific muscle groups that are used in downhill skiing. For those who aspire to become expert skiers, refer to Skills of the Expert Skier for details about the lessons and course.

The Module

However, if you prefer to have the module containing only the ten, ski-specific stretches and the twenty-five, ski-specific exercises, buy Exercises for Recreational Skiers now to enhance your endurance and strenghten the muscles used in skiing. You'll be able to ski until the lifts close and experience minimal muscle pain on the mornings after you go skiing. With our $29.95 limited time offer you receive both the module and a free gift entitled Food Guide for the Skier with your purchase.

Order "Exercises for Recreational Skiers"

About the Author

Jim Safianuk is the writer and publisher of the sixteen-lesson web-based training course entitled Skills of the Expert Skier. He is also the developer and owner of the Become An Expert Skier. The site was established in 2003 to act as a hub for the adult, recreational, downhill skiing community. If you're interested in becoming an expert skier and/or you need more information about their online ski lessons, modules, and courses, send an e-mail to .