So you’ve got your winter holiday booked, then use this winter sports workout is to maximise your time on the piste. by being fitter and stronger for the slopes. Then this workout is ideal for either skiing or snowboarding. Designed to target muscle groups used during your winter sports holiday.
This is a sport-specific workout for skiing and snowboarding, designed to train the key areas used while on the slopes and will hopefully allow you to get the most of of your winter holiday and will also help protect against injury.
Are you fit enough for Skiing & Snowboarding?
Warm-Up
When warming up, look to do about 8-10 minutes on any piece of cardiovascular machines, upright bikes and cross trainers are common for warming up. The cross trainer especially is a great piece of equipment to warm up on, itâs very dynamic and stimulates joint mobilisation, lubricating your joints ready for your session.
Main Weights & Resistance Section
Select a weight that you feel comfortable lifting, it should be a moderate resistance and you should easily be able to complete all the sets and feel like that area has worked but should not be painful or large amounts of fatigue. Also be careful not to set it to light, if it feel as though you could do the set again then you probably need to add some more weight.
FREEE WEIGHT EXERCISES
- Barbell Squats – 3 sets of 12-18 reps
- Ski Sit – 3 x 1 minute hold
- Barbell Lunges – 3 sets of 12-18 reps on each leg
- Barbell Dead Lift – 3 sets of 12-18 reps
FLOOR EXERCISES
- Crunch – 3 sets of 20 reps
- Plank – 3 x 1-minute hold
- Side Plank – 3 x 1-minute hold
- Russian Twists – 3 sets of 12-18 reps
- Dorsal Raise – 3 sets of 12-18 reps
MACHINE EXERCISES
- Adductor – 3 sets of 12-18 reps
- Abductor – 3 sets of 12-18 reps
- Leg Press – 3 sets of 12-18 reps
CARDIO EXERCISES
During the main cardio sessions, aim for 30-40 minutes of cardio exercise at a moderate level and intensity, pushing up intensity into the high range for short durations would be very effective, this is called interval training. This essentially requires you to work at a certain level for example 2 minutes then moving up to a higher intensity of 1 minute and returning back down to moderate or low intensity for 2 minutes and so on. The ratios can change as well as the intensities. If you have use of a gym and are unsure about this type of programme, ask the fitness instructor as many machines are capable of being programmed to do this for you.
Select 2 or 3 cardiovascular machines for work times between 10-12 minutes, the cross trainer, rower, stepper or hill programme on the treadmill are the ones I would recommend.
Cool Down
Remember to cool down for 5-8 minutes on any piece of cardiovascular equipment working at a low intensity and level.
Stertches
Always finish a workout with a stretching routine to return the muscle length to what it was before we started the exercise.