How To Stay Fit & Healthy While Skiing

15 Jul How To Stay Fit & Healthy While Skiing

Skiing or snowboarding are exhilarating winter activities that combines the thrill of speed with the beauty of nature. However, to make the most of your snow experience, whether it’s a single day trip or an extended stay, it’s crucial to stay fit and healthy. In previous blogs we outlined how to prepare your body for the snow (READ HERE) and also some of the most common snow sports injuries that occur (READ HERE). Now that the time has come that you are actually hitting the slopes, here’s a guide on how you can ensure that your skiing adventure is both enjoyable and safe.

Before you hit the slopes, a proper warm-up is essential to help reduced your risk of injury. Skiing and snow boarding demands a lot from your muscles and joints, so you need to prepare your body for the activity ahead. An ideal warm up should include exercises that increase your heart rate and get your blood flowing, activate the muscles and move the joints you will be using. We recommend starting with some light cardiovascular exercises like jogging on the spot or jumping jacks to get your blood flowing for 2-5minutes. Follow this with activation exercises and mobility exercises, which we will elaborate further below.

Activate Your Muscles Before You Start

Activation exercises are designed to engage the muscles you’ll be using. Focus on your core, glutes, and legs, as these exercises will help stabilize your body, improve your balance, and enhance your performance on the slopes. Some examples of ideal exercises to do are shown in the video below (with the descriptions of each underneath):

Glute Bridges

• Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Lift your hips toward the ceiling, squeezing your glutes at the top. Lower and repeat x15. As a progression you can do this as a single leg bridge.

Single-Leg Deadlifts

• Stand on one leg with the knee slightly bent. Hinge forward at the hip, extending your free leg behind you and reach towards the ground with your opposite hand. Return to the starting position and repeat.

Crab Walks

• Place a resistance band around your thighs. With feet shoulder-width apart, squat slightly and take small steps left and then right, keeping tension on the band.

Lateral Leg Raises

• Lie on your side with legs straight. Lift your top leg toward the ceiling, keeping it straight, then lower it back down. Repeat on both sides.

Standing Hip Abductions

• Stand upright with feet shoulder-width apart. Lift one leg out to the side, keeping it straight and your torso stable. Lower it back down and repeat on both sides.

Stretch Your Muscles and Maintain Flexibility In Your Joints

Stretching and mobility exercises are equally important before you start skiing or snowboarding, and for recovery afterwards. We recommend you stretch all the major muscle groups, including your hamstrings, quadriceps, calves, and back. Before starting it’s ideal to include some dynamic stretching- where you are actively moving the joints and muscles through a full range of motion. Some examples includes leg swings, lumbar rolls and arm swings. For recovery, then more static stretches can be helpful for cooling down and ensuring you don’t wake up with too much tightness the following day. Some examples of stretches you can do are outlined below, where we recommend holding the leg stretches for 30sec and the back stretches for 10sec with several repetitions:

Hamstring Stretch

• Sit on the ground with one leg extended and the other bent with the foot near the inner thigh of the extended leg. Reach for your toes of the extended leg, holding the stretch. Alternatively, you can please one foot up onto a chair, keeping a slightly bent knee, and then reaching forward again to your toes.

Quadriceps Stretch

• Stand on one leg and pull your opposite foot toward your buttocks, holding the ankle. Keep your knees close together and hold the stretch.

Calf Stretch

• Stand facing a wall with one foot forward and the other foot back. Press your back heel into the ground while bending your front knee towards the wall.

Hip Flexor Stretch

• Kneel on one knee with the other foot in front, forming a 90-degree angle. Push your hips forward while keeping your back straight to stretch the hip flexor of the kneeling leg.

Lower Back Stretch

• Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Gently pull your knees towards your chest, holding the stretch. Then with your feet flat on the floor, roll both legs across to one side, keeping your shoulders down and hold the stretch, then repeat on the other side. To take this stretch further, pull one leg across the body with your opposite hand, while your other leg remains straight.

Do self-release and massage

Particularly following activity, self massage techniques are useful in reducing post exercise soreness, improving circulation and helping reduce joint and muscle stiffness. Often people might use this also as part of there warm-up. Useful equipment to take on your trips (and doesn’t take up a lot of space) includes a small foam roller, massage/trigger ball or massage gun. Watch the video below with examples of some ideal release work (with the descriptions of each underneath):

Foam Rolling the Lateral Thigh(ITB)

• Lie on your side with a foam roller under your outer thigh. Roll from the hip to just above the knee, pausing on any tight spots.

Foam Rolling the Calves

• Sit on the ground with legs extended and a foam roller under your calves. Lift your hips off the ground and roll from your ankles to just below your knees.

Foam Rolling the Quads

• Lie face down with a foam roller under your thighs. Roll from just above the knees to your hip flexors.

Ball Foot Massage

• Roll a massage ball/trigger ball under your feet while seated or standing, focusing on any areas of tightness.

Ball Glute Release

• Sit on the ground and place a massage ball/trigger ball under one glute. Roll around the area to release tension, focusing on tight spots.

Heat and Cold Therapy: Managing Soreness

Using heat and cold therapy can significantly aid in recovery. Apply heat to relax tight muscles and cold packs to reduce inflammation and numb sore areas. Alternating between heat and cold has been shown to aid recovery and keep your muscles in top condition.

Cold weather & high altitude lead to increased energy expenditure. This occurs from the need of your body to keep warm through thermoregulation. Therefore fuelling & re-fuelling appropriately becomes even more important during snow activities.

At high altitude our bodies prioritise the use of carbohydrates as an energy source, so this should be the key component of meals around sessions. Some examples include pasta, rice, bread & potato/sweet potato.

Increased fluid loss also occurs in higher amounts when in the snow, so hydration & rehydration is something to be mindful of. Often, the cooler weather reduces the desire to drink and impairs our thirst response, so it means you’ll have to pay extra attention to this, despite not getting signals from your body to drink water. Make use of electrolyte drinks (e.g. Hydralyte), which contain the components lost in sweat & also act like a sponge, meaning they’ll help you get or stay hydrated easier. Even better, sports drinks (e.g. Gatorade, Powerade) contain these electrolytes as well as easy to digest carbohydrates, allowing you to achieve multiple goals at once. You might also consider keeping some liquids in a thermos to avoid your drinks all freezing.

What to eat prior

It’s important to eat foods which contain higher amounts of carbohydrates. Some examples of what to eat before heading out include:

• Warm porridge or Weet-Bix with banana & honey
• Eggs on toast with avocado
• Pancakes/waffles and maple syrup
• French toast and yoghurt and fruit

What to eat during the day

Having a few snacks handy during skiing/while out on the slopes is useful for keeping fuel up. These should also be high sources of carbohydrates, such as muesli bars, fruit muffins, date balls, jam/peanut butter/Vegemite sandwiches or hot chocolate are great options. A “hot” tip- try and keep some heat packs around your items, or even putting muesli bars in socks or in pockets under armpits, to try and avoid them freezing & becoming too difficult to eat.

What to eat after skiing or snow boarding

Recovery nutrition is an important final consideration. Your meal should contain both carbohydrates & protein, which allows you to replenish the energy you’ve used during your day and to start repairing any stress done to your muscles. Some good examples include:

• Spaghetti Bolognese & garlic bread
• Pumpkin/tomato soup with toasted cheese sandwich
• Chicken & veggie pizza
• Chicken risotto
• Curry & rice

Avoiding Overexertion

It’s easy to get carried away with the excitement of skiing and boarding, but it’s important to manage your load. Listen to your body and take breaks when needed. Overexertion can lead to fatigue and increase the risk of injury. Plan your skiing sessions with adequate rest periods to keep your energy levels consistent.

By following these tips, you can enhance your skiing experience and stay fit and healthy throughout the season. Remember, preparation and recovery are just as important as the activity itself. Warm up, activate your muscles, stretch, manage your nutrition and hydration, and ensure proper recovery to make the most of your time on the slopes.

Want to learn more? Click below for some more related information