Top five skiing holiday preparation tips

Top five skiing holiday preparation tips

Pre-season Ski fitness.

Give your skiing a leg-up by getting fit beforehand.

With a couple of months to go, you still have time to get fit and ready for the season. Experts define three main areas to focus on during a pre-season program:

A: Endurance To gain the most out of those slopes and attack the scary downhill piste you need to have worked on some cardiovascular fitness during the run up to hitting the slopes. You cannot rely on your previous fitness capability and go straight from the office onto the slopes. Downhill skiing will stimulate aerobic activity and raise your heart rate. You should aim to exercise with a heart rate of around 50-60% of your maximum. a quick and rough guide is to take your age from 220 to find you maximum. Pre-season you need to test this rate on a regular basis – this only needs to be for 20 minutes and can be a mixture of: • Running • Walking • Cross-training • Cardio exercise programs

To compliment your endurance work you will need to focus on ski specific strengthening to improve muscle fitness.

B: Strengthening If you wake up after the first days skiing feeling unable to move then you probably have not been building any strength prior to entering the slopes.

Top tips and you'll really improve your holiday following our ski routine (A= online link) or just for a taster these exercises are essential

The top FIVE exercises for skiing or boarding:

1. The plank
 is an essential exercise to help improve your core strength, which helps with your stability and support for skiing or boarding.

Goal: strengthen abdominals and upper body.
2. The squat
always perfect for the thighs, butt and hamstrings preparation, all three muscles will be used every time you jump off the chairlift to head down the mountain.

Goal: strengthen the thighs, butt and hamstrings
3. The superman/woman
 With all the bending, carrying, stretching on your skis / board, your lower back will take a lot of strain. The superman/woman is perfect for strengthening your lower back.

Goal: strengthen the lumbar area of your back.
4. Walking / jogging
Skiing requires a good level of fitness. Whilst many people think skiing is easy - as all you have to do is point your skis/board down the mountain and go - the fact is that you do need stamina to really master the art of skiing.


5. Bunny hops
A great exercise to build more strength in your legs.

Goal: increase the body's ability to respond quickly to greater loads

C: Flexibility Improve your flexibility to assist you response time to changing conditions, ease the tension from your muscle and to make them stronger through better range.

All these essential three areas will help to minimise muscle strain, tension and possible injury as well as help improve your activity levels during your holiday.

Further assistance? If you normally get to the ski slopes feeling under-prepared, book one of these courses or days out in the UK before you go:

The White House offers several courses in the run up to the start of the season.

1. A Prepare to Ski with Pilates course over six weeks for – a six week program over Christmas designed to improve your flexibility and core strength.
2. Cardio-ski pilates Classes to develop and test your aerobic fitness prior to attacking the slopes.
3. A Ski Fit course is designed by highly qualified sports physiotherapists with a broad understanding of biomechanics and a very high level of practical expertise. The sessions are intimate, friendly and informative, allowing you to develop your own knowledge and continue to improve your own fitness by your self. This is a 6-week fitness courses will prepare your body for the rigors of skiing; in our small classes (max 10 people) we will improve your lower body and core strength, endurance, balance, and cardiovascular fitness. Over 6 weeks you will notice as your skiing fitness improves: you will become more conditioned and during your holiday you will experience less muscle soreness and improved stamina, allowing you to push yourself further than before.
4. The course includes: strengthening and conditioning in our gym setting with the use of a stepper, cross-trainer and the latest Watt-bike to help build and prepare the strength of the hamstrings, quadriceps, calves,hip and lower back muscles.
5. Pre-ski yoga class 1:1 flexibilty class or small groups to improve you flexibility and shake off the office stiffness prior to heading off for the slopes.

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