Cold Weather Conditioning By: Lisa Ritchie

Like it or not, winter is here but that’s no reason to ignore your workout. Snowboarding is on the rise along with snowshoeing, skiing, sledding, and ice skating. Many of the same skills are used for all of these sports including balance, agility, coordination, leveraging body weight, and cardiovascular ability.

Cardio is the backbone of snow sports. Biking, running, elliptical training, or inline skating can help increase your endurance. Interval training can help with the anaerobic demands of playing at higher altitudes. Inline skating and cross-country ski simulators in the gym are great examples of off-season training as they use similar movements in muscle groups. Strength training should focus on those muscles used for the stabilization of the knees, ankles, hips, lower back, shoulders, and wrists.

Be sure to also include strengthening your core; your abs and back are supportive and generate much of your steering motion. Flexibility is also needed for successful skiing, skating, and snowboarding. Joints must be capable of quick changes in direction and balancing moves, especially knees and ankles. Coordination and agility drills should also be included in your plan, and don’t forget to warm up before and cool down after each session.