Ski Exercises to Get You in Shape for the Snow!

Ski exercises are a necessary part of the skiing experience. You must not approach this athletic and demanding of a sport with out some type of preparatory work. Most physical fitness experts and ski instructors recommend an intense workout for at least four or five times a week. In order to ski successfully and to avoid injury you need to develop your muscles, learn balance and flexibility.

How can you do this?  You don’t have to join a gym, nor do you have to spend any money if you don’t want to.  (Now there’s a new one, an Internet article that isn’t trying to sell an ebook)  We’re going to give you all the ski exercises you need to know.  Let’s start with the basics. First of all, skiers use what is called static strength.  You may notice that many skiers actually keep a semi-seated body posture for their skiing activities.  This is the easiest way to approach this sport, and so you will notice many skiers bending their knees for the majority of ski time—and holding that position.  Therefore, you’re not training for full range strength necessarily, but “static strength.” 

The word static refers to inactivity or a lack of physical motion.  According to the rules of exercise as well as physiology, when you train your muscles statically, then they start to develop more strength for static activity.  Therefore, keeping this semi-seated position might not be as difficult as it seems.  It’s not about intensely holding a difficult pose.  It’s just a matter of training your body to be static, and this is what many ski exercises will focus on.  Skiers (or snowboarders for that matter) will maintain a body position that is close to their strongest range of motion.  This means that heavier weights can be used in weight training because there is no reason to exercise inside of the weak range.  Ski exercises will focus on bringing strength gains to skiers in the muscles and in the range that they actually use most. The average skier is not going to hold the weight for just a few seconds.  Therefore, the trainee can use heavier weights in this process. 

Preparing for Skiing with Ski exercises

Let’s consider the most important parts of the body for the skier and snowboarder.  First, let’s consider the legs.  This is fairly obvious as you certainly use your legs the most when going down a hill.  In particular, you will be training your quadriceps and teaching them to take on a static hold leg press.  Try to move the empty sled of a leg press all the way to the top of the range and then lock into position.  You might also try loading the press with twice as much as you normally would, and tripling the amount of weight you would squat.

Try sitting in the leg press and then adjusting the seat so that your legs fall about 2-  3 inches of a full spread.  Then press the sled upwards and hold it without motion.  You’re not locking out here but forcing the leg muscles to carry the load.  Afterwards, try adjusting for more weight.  If your hamstrings are not worn out then try doing a static hold using the leg curl device.  Take a normal position and then use double the weight as usual, lifting the weight about three inches for at least ten seconds.

Now move on to the back muscles for ski exercises.  The lat muscles help you press down on the ski poles.  The lower back will be involved in keeping the upper half of your body straight.  In order to strengthens your upper back try to do lat pull downs. You can adjust the seat so that the pull down bar is at the very end of your grasp.  Double the weight again.  Use an overhand grip and try to pull the bar 2-3 inches and then hold it for ten seconds.  If you are already in peak shape then try doing this one arm at a time. 

For the lower back of ski exercises you can train with barbell dead lifts.  Try putting the barbell in a power rack so that it rests right above the knees.  Again, try loading the bar with 200% more weight than the usual.  Use an overhand grip (about the width of your shoulder) and then lift the bar 2-3 inches off, holding it for ten seconds. 

The trapezius muscles also deserve some attention, as these will help you pole and moving your shoulders. Do the barbell shrugs for training the trapezius. Put the barbell in the power rack right above the kneecaps. Use the same amount as you dead lifted before or try to top yourself. You will be using an overhand grip on the bar so you can lift it off the rock. Raise the weight an inch and hold it. The key to this exercise is not necessarily range of motion but weight.

Now we move on to the triceps in ski exercises.  These are actually the most used muscle when you are poling.  To strengthen your triceps, do the close-grip bench press.  Put the barbell in the same rack as you used for dead lifts and adjust it so that it’s about 2-3 inches from your farthest reach.  Put about 150% or 200% (if you can handle it) than you would ordinarily put on there.  Try using a narrow grip with your hands.  Make it about six inches and then press the bar up an inch.  Hold this static position for ten seconds.  

Finally, we come to ab muscles.  The abs is what will keep your torso upright during skiing.  For this, we recommend weighted crunches.  Lie on the floor and put your head up to the pulley weight stack.  Now, use the rope handle and grasp the cable until your arms are at the side of your head.  Contract the ab muscles in the crunch and make sure your shoulders come off the floor and draw the weight stack up about 2-3 inches. Hold for ten seconds.

This is a relatively simple ski exercises work out and it’s all you need to increase static strength.  Do this workout about once a week for (ideally) three months.  This will keep you in shape and ready to ski all day long come the winter season.