Athlete:Øystein Aasheim - photo courtesy of Sverre Hjørnevik

DYNAMIC LEG EXERICSES

Whether you are cruising the bunny hills or bombing down back country lines, Skiing is a leg dominate sport. Cutting, turning, and tranfering bodyweight from leg to leg requires a good amount of lower body muscular strength, balance, and coordination. One of the best ways to develop this strength is with dynamic leg exercises. Unlike isolation exercise which are great for targeting specific muscle groups, dynamic movements allow you to stimulate the entire body through movement. Some leg specific examples are jump squats, lunges, mountain climbers, and sprints.

Try this:

• 5 rounds of 3 minutes of work followed by 1 minute rest
• 1 minute: air squats
• 1 minute: alternating lunges
• 1 minute: mountain climbers
• 1 minute: rest

Athlete: Amie Engerbretson- photo courtesy of onthesnow.ca

YOGA

Far removed from the brisk, high-energy land of skiing lies its perfect counterpart—yoga. Where skiing is fast and risky, yoga is slow and thoughtful. The two sports’ philosophies diverge, yet the physical demands of skiing call out for a practice that merges both mental and physical training. When you are pushing your limits on the slopes, you need to maintain a peak level of focus, something many pros like to call, "the flow state". Yoga is one of the best ways to harness that focus. Not to mention improving the range of motion and flexibility of the joints and muscles of the body is vital for injury prevention. No wonder it is one of Amie Engerbretson's favorite ways to train for ski season.

Athlete: Caroline Gleich- photo courtesy of instagram

TABATA TRAINING (HIIT)

Tabata training is one of the most popular forms of interval training which is also known as HIIT. It consists of eight rounds of endurance based exercises. The process looks like this. For 20 seconds you perform an exercise at max effort followed by 10 seconds of rest, then repeat. It may only take four minutes to complete a Tabata circuit, but those four minutes may well push your body to its absolute limit. You may not consider skiing an endurance sport like cycling or running, but it requires a good amount of metabolic conditioning to be able to push your limits like the pros. Some great ways to do a tabata is with exercises like the burpee and jumping rope.

Athlete: Steve Nyman- Photo Courtesy of Noah Hoffman

BALANCE TRAINING

Understanding where your body is in space is called proprioception, and this is what allows pros like Øystein Aasheim to throw backflips off of back country rock faces ...and make it look easy. Proprioception can be developed through working on balance. Balance training is present in all sports and skiing is no exception. Some challenging balance exercises to practice are the pistol squat, side plank, and if you want to get outside and train like the pros, check out the slack line.

Athlete: Jonny Moseley- photo couretsy of kidsinthebayarea.com

OFF-SEASON ACTION SPORTS

Being a professional skier basically means that there are no days off. You have to constanlty be working on elevating your sport. However there is not always snow. A great way to upgrade your skills on the slopes is to take on new activites. Get into mountain biking, join a rock climbing gym, or take up surfing. No matter what it is, learning new skills and getting outside is one of the best ways to prepare for a hard charging ski season.

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