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"SKIING IS A SLIDING SPORT":
 Conditioning for Skiing  
by Bill Jones, Ski Instructor
Certified Professional Ski Instructor (Registration #110478)

Skiing is a demanding physical activity that requires use of all one's body's parts--muscles, skeleton, connectors, and organs like heart, lungs in strenuous ways.  Even the mind is challenged. To ensure the highest level of success and the lowest level of injury, conditioning of our bodies is a must. Even before that, however, an evaluation of our readiness for a conditioning program is wise. Your medical doctor can do that. Some may wish to also consult a personal trainer for an on-going program tailored to specific goals

A focus of many expert skiers is stretching exercises. Stretching lengthens muscles and allows joints to flex with a greater range of motion, allowing more options in positions of arms and legs to control skis. Many stretch mornings and evenings and again before  a ski run. Research has not shown that stretching reduces the rate of injury among skiers, but it certainly does increase the feeling of athleticism and general well-being and may thereby affect ski performance. Stretching of thighs and calves, twisting of spines and necks, and tilting of torso over legs all seem to improve readiness for skiing for many.

Balance is key in skiing. Balance is partly muscular and partly learned. Ways to enhance it for skiing are to strengthen leg, abdominal, and lower back muscles and to stand on one foot. Try putting on a sock while standing on one foot, for instance, or tying a shoe in the same position. And then do the other side.

There are some balance training devices. One is a balance board, which is a board of a few feet length that rests on a cylinder of about a foot diameter. The underside of the board has a runner that fits into a slot routed into the cylinder. You stand on the board with the runner in the slot, feet spread, and tip alternately to each side while the board runs over the cylinder. An advanced form uses a roller that is elliptical. See Tognar Toolworks for these.

Another balance training device is the Dynadisk,  a flattish-oval air cushion on which one stands, one foot at a time and does various bending maneuvers to touch the floor. It has other exercise applications as well.

A large ball is also used for exercising.

And there are many pieces of apparatus such as running machines, one that allows side-to-side hops, and more.

The Boy Scouts of America has developed a chart suggesting minimum body mass standards for strenuous activities, to be applied in addition to an examination and advice from a medical professional. The chart is not age-specific.

Persons who have weights above those recommended in the chart may be compromised in skiing simply because their muscles are more involved in holding their mass and less available for balancing actions. Persons with lesser weights may not have adequate muscle mass to balance well. And even those who lie within the recommended weights may have too high a proportion of fat compared to muscle or may have muscles that are not toned.

Following are links to exercise resources:

Skiing exercises: exits: details of exercises to get into shape for skiing.

Body Mass Index website: exits

SnowFit Magazine; exits devoted to fitness in non-motorized winter sports.

FIT SKIING: Your Guide for Peak Skiing Fitness, by Andrew Hooge: exits.  (book.)

"SKIING IS A SLIDING SPORT"--a skiing web manual:    Skiing Web Manual Contents   Why Read This Skiing Web Manual  That First Lesson   A Little Skiing History  Motion in Skiing  Conventional Skiing Wisdoms  Skier Excuses  Fear in Skiing  CONDITIONING FOR SKIING  Equipment and Technique  Skiing Equipment   How Skis Work  How to Develop Balance on Skis  A Skiing Turn Simplified  Tactics for Terrains and Snow Textures   Skiing Tips and Tales--a potpourri  Children and Skiing  Age and Skiing   Gender and Skiing  Culture & Skiing   Skiing Ethics and Slope Survival   Slope Safety Skiing Environment  Glossary  Acknowledgements SkiMyBest Website Contents  
This "Condtioning for Skiing" page last modified 03/16/2009: \SkiMyBest\skicond.htm. Copyright © 2010 William R Jones.