Ski Fit Program
4 Exercises to Help you Get Fit for the Slopes
Skiing and boarding involves prolonged periods of hip and knee flexion. This involves working the Gluteal muscles, hip adductors, quads and foot muscles hard to help stabilise and control knee and hip flexion. If you want to be able to ski a whole run and keep doing that all day for a week then you’ll need to start these exercises if you haven’t already.
1. Everyone knows the sitting on a wall exercise but to improve function you need to go a step further and squat with 60 degree knee bend and hold this position without a wall. To protect the knee push the knees out a little.
2. A progression of this is the one leg squat. Make sure you bend fully at the hip and not the back. Your bottom should move backwards rather than the knee moving forwards, your spine should stay locked out. It is fine to touch a wall for balance but move on to free standing if possible. By now you will be getting good hip strength and the muscles at the inside of the thigh will be stabilising the knee well.
3.A variation of this is the running man. Simply squat on one leg and move your arms as if running while staying on one foot. So you are doing repeat squats but stabilising with arm movements as if running.
4. If you want to get into the deep powder or power down the pistes then the next exercise is great for training explosive power. Lateral Bounds will give you the bounce you need to transfer your weight all day long. Simply jump forwards and sideways while springing in big steps. Use your swinging arms to stabilise. You’ll need a lot of room for this one so it’s really best done outside or at a gym with a running track.
Start on week one with the static squats, on week 2 add the dynamic squats, then week 3 one leg and finally if fit and strong the bounding in week 4. Do every other day to allow time for recovery. Stretch after the exercises.
