Preparation and fitness for skiing

Why do I need to get fit?

Skiing and snow boarding are physically demanding sports, therefore participating in either activity means there is an increased chance of soreness and injuries. Injuries for these types of sports usually occur in the first few days of the holiday and can be incredibly frustrating and costly!

Keeping this in mind, being in good physical condition beforehand is essential to prevent injuries, as this is much easier than the cure! Not only is being in good shape useful for preventing injuries, it can maximise your potential on the slopes and make your holiday even more enjoyable.

Skiing and snow boarding require conditioning of the body in many areas. To work on these areas approximately 8-12 weeks of training is needed before your holiday to provide a good level of fitness.

The key areas of fitness to work on are:

• Aerobic training will enable you to ski longer, as fatigue results in poor concentration.

It is important that when training in these areas, the exercises you do are sport specific. This makes sure you mimic your performance on the snow and you will be training the appropriate muscles and joints. Before starting any exercise plan it is recommended you get advice from your GP.

health FAQ's

Muscular Strength and Endurance

When developing muscular strength and endurance, aim to train your muscles 2-3 times a week, making sure you allow 48 hours rest between sessions. This allows your muscles to recover to reduce the chances of injury and soreness. Before starting your exercises, ensure you are thoroughly warmed up and have stretched all the major muscle groups. After the session, perform a cool down for 5-10 minutes with stretching the major muscle groups once more.

Training should cover the arms, shoulders, chest, back and legs. All of these muscle groups are used during your activity. If you are a member of a gym you can ask your gym instructor to provide you with a weights programme which will help with your skiing fitness. Many people don’t have the time or money for the gym, but there are some excellent exercises that can be done at home that only require your body weight:

• For the upper body, press-ups are still one of the best all-round strengthening exercises and these can be combined with triceps dips.

• Abdominal muscle exercises are essential and can easily be done at home. Abdominal crunches performed slowly with good technique are effective and for core strength, pilates exercises are excellent.

Flexibility

Flexibility is the most important factor to preventing injuries. Stretch all of your muscle groups for 20-30 seconds before and after workouts. Pay special attention to the tendons and ligaments surrounding your joints, they'll need to be flexible, but strong to prevent injury. Yoga or pilates sessions will help to increase your flexibility and suppleness.

Aerobic Training

For cardiovascular work (exercising the heart and lungs), running, cycling and swimming are very beneficial. If you have access to them, the rowing machine and the cross-trainer are also excellent pieces of equipment to use. Roller blading is also good because you also are using the same motions and muscles as you would on snow. You will need to do a minimum of twenty minutes aerobic training at each session, with 3-4 sessions per week. This should rise to forty-five minutes to one hour per session after a few weeks of training.

To maintain and develop your aerobic capacity, you should be training at an intensity of at least 70% of your maximum heart rate.
Your maximum heart rate can be calculated by 220 – your age. For example, if you were 40, your maximum heart rate would be 180 b.p.m., and therefore your training heart rate would be 126 b.p.m. These can be measured by taking your pulse rate

Interval Training

With skiing being a sport in which you have sessions of moderate to high rate levels for periods ranging from 1-5 minutes plus, followed by periods of rest, i.e. traveling back up the slope, training at intervals is a great way to get fit for skiing and snow boarding. An example of interval training would be working at a high intensity for 30 seconds, then slowing down for 30 seconds, then speeding up again and so on. This can be done during swimming, running, cycling, or whatever activity you chose. Only persons of a reasonable fitness level should perform these types of workouts, if you feel faint or ill in any way, stop immediately.

Injury

If you are unfortunate enough to suffer an injury, the following guidelines should help:

• Rest: don't be tempted to get back to the slopes too quickly as you may aggravate the injury.

• Ice: there should be plenty of it around! An ice pack should be applied to the injury as soon as possible to minimise soft tissue swelling.

• Compression: strapping up the injury also helps to keep swelling down but it also enables easier movement with reduced risk of further damage.

• Elevation: keep your leg (or other body part) elevated and supported.

If the injury is more serious, you will probably have to see the local doctor for some expert treatment. The best advice we offer is to make sure you are fit before you ski and ensure you warm up properly, always the best way to avoid an injury! Good luck with your fitness preparations and fingers crossed you will have an enjoyable and injury free holiday!