Balance and Agility

This week is the first week of my ski fitness class and I am really excited about the groups I have. Everybody is really motivated and excited to get strong. The first week we are going to just work on agility and balance which are so important with skiing and snowboarding so that you can be quick on your feet and also be able to feel more balanced on your skis or snowboard. A lot of the balance exercises definitely can transition onto your skis or snowboard which is great. I love doing a lot of single leg exercises with balance and also using the Bosu ball. For agility I love doing a lot of heart rate control and also the ladder I believe is a great agility workout, you really have to work on the fast twitch muscles and keeping your feet moving. This is a 6 week progressive course and it will continue to get harder as the athletes get stronger! Each week we will focus on something specific. This is an example of a workout similar to what the groups did this week.

Warm-up

ladder Group A

Group B high knees, inchworm, shuffle, grapevine, donkey, bounds, alligator push-ups. 2xs

Workout

1. TBSquats- 20 sec go, 10 sec hold do 6 times, 1 min rest then go again. 2 rounds

2. 45 sec hop each leg.

3. Bounds 1 minute.

do this 3 times.

Stations: 1 min 30 sec

1. Bosu Ball straddle and jump

2. High knees

3. Swings

4. Dot drill

5. Single leg touch

6. Burpees

7. jump lunges

8. Dumbell Crawl

9. Single leg squat

Abs

1. Bosu balance

2. ankles to bar

3. Ghd situp

4. side crunch

5. v-sit

6. elevated plank

7. side plank

8. Med ball side to side

9. Flutter kicks

The Importance of Ski and Snowboard Fitness

I think participating in some type of ski and snowboard fitness class is the best way to prepare yourself for the season whether you are a recreational, competitive or endurance skier/snowboarder. Three main reasons are it helps improve balance and agility, it helps prevent injury and lastly it creates the strength to be able to ski the top to bottom runs without stopping. I feel that everyone could work on sports specific balance and agility, this is something that can not just be trained through doing the sport itself. If you work on quick feet and balance than it will transition onto your skis and snowboard and you will feel such a difference.

This type of training would include a lot of single leg balance drills and for agility something like the ladder will help a you with coordination and make you quicker on your feet! So many people become injured skiing and snowboarding in the first month, because they are not strong and not ready to ski/snowboard the way they would like to. So if you have the opportunity to try and prevent injury why would you not want to try and do so. Lastly I am sure everyone has been frustrated that on the first powder day or first big day of the year when they are not able to ski top to bottom or they are not able to ski the entire day. Building strength in the core, knees, legs, hamstrings and glutes will really help you to be able to ski all day or without stopping. How nice would it be to be able to ski top to bottom without stopping? I trained a bunch this summer and was able to jump on my skis with only one day of skiing and compete! Mentally I was very nervous, but when I felt strong on my skis I was able to do the 3000 vertical foot venue strong and fast. I could not believe how much my training had paid off. It also is a lot of fun!