How to Prepare for Ski Season
Ski season is almost here! Days are getting shorter, weather is getting cooler, and snow is starting to fall. Before too long, you’ll be strapping on your skis to take your first few turns of the season.
If you’re like most, you’re probably accustomed to using the “let’s hope for the best!” approach to start the season. Instead of ignoring pre-season prep and hoping for an injury-free start to the season, make this the year you properly prepare your body for the demands of skiing so you can enter into this season with confidence!
First, let’s look at what makes a pre-season ski program effective:
1. Eccentric Exercises
Eccentric muscle activity is when a muscle is contracting, but also simultaneously stretching or lengthening. In other words, it is the “lowering phase” of an exercise. Let’s take a bicep curl for example: the eccentric phase of the exercise is when you are lowering the weight back to the starting position.
With skiing, you are traveling downhill and having to slow yourself down to keep under control, thereby “lowering yourself” down the mountain. This is eccentric muscle activity! Any effective pre-season program will include heavy focus on eccentric exercises to develop the capacity of your muscles to handle this specific type of demand.
2. Single Leg Exercises
With skiing, you are rarely bearing weight equally through both skis. Instead, your weight is typically more heavily skewed towards one leg or the other, switching off with every turn. Therefore, single leg strengthening exercises are essential to developing the pre-requisite strength for a healthy ski season.
3. Increased Time Under Tension
Skiing not only requires strength, but it also requires endurance. If you’ve ever held your edge through a long turn or held your line across a long traverse, you’ve probably also experienced the quivering and burning in your legs that comes with it. An effective pre-season strengthening program will include exercises that utilize long periods of time under tension in order to properly build muscular endurance.
4. Strengthening on a Decline
While this element isn’t a requirement for an effective pre-season program, it can elevate your ski prep to the next level by introducing realistic sport demands to exercises that are already effective! With skiing, you are constantly navigating a downward slope, so by elevating your heels on a wedge, a book, or some plates while doing your strengthening exercises, you are essentially re-creating a downward slope, which more effectively mimics the demands on your joints and muscles while skiing.
At Revitalize Athletics, we have formulated a ski-specific training program that includes all of the above elements to ensure you are set up for the most success possible for the start of your ski season! Our program includes 3 days of ski-specific strengthening per week for 4 weeks (12 workouts total!), with each workout being 20 min or less! And best of all…it’s completely FREE to you! Click the “Get my free ski program!” button below to be added to our email list and you will receive your personalized pre-season ski program within 24 hours!
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