Best Workouts for Snowboarders and Skiers

Carving down the slopes—whether on skis or a snowboard—gives you an exhilarating feel of adrenaline. The rush of cold air, the stunning mountain views, and the thrill of gliding over fresh powder (or heavy wet snow 🙂 are hard to beat. To make the most of every run and reduce your risk of injury, it’s important to prepare your body for the physical demands of these sports. A well-rounded fitness routine can increase your performance, help you ride longer, carve harder, and recover from potential injuries. This guide will take you through the top workout ingredients for snowboarders and skiers, focusing on strength, balance, coordination, flexibility, and endurance.

Why Core Strength is Crucial For Snowboarders & Skiers

Your core is the powerhouse for nearly every movement you make on the snow. It’s more than just your abs—we’re talking your obliques, lower back, and glutes. A strong core provides stability so you can maintain control while turning, absorbing bumps, and helps your balance. Your core allows you to perform at a high level, and it’s also what holds everything together and keeps you from an embarrassing and dangerous yard-sale spin-out.

Core Workouts

Plank⎯The classic plank remains one of the best ways for strengthening your core and increasing endurance. Side Planks are especially great for snow sports, check out how to do a side plank and some variations in this video. If you’re already a pro at the plank, it’s time to find more challenging variations.
Russian Twists⎯This exercise targets your obliques. Strong obliques are super important when doing moves like carving in the snow. To perform a Russian Twist, sit on the floor with your knees bent and feet slightly elevated. Lean back to engage your abs, keeping your back straight. Clasp your hands together and twist your torso from side to side. Aim for 15-20 twists per side for 3 sets. For an added challenge, hold a dumbbell or medicine ball.
Dead Bugs⎯This exercise helps with spinal stability and cross-body coordination which is what skiers and riders need for powerful, controlled movements. It’s usually performed incorrectly! So check out how to do dead bugs in this video.
Bird-Dog⎯The bird-dog improves stability and coordination as well. Start on all fours with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Extend your right arm straight forward and your left leg straight back simultaneously. Keep your back flat and your hips level—you can check yourself by putting a yoga block or your phone on your low back—don’t let it fall! Hold each extension for a second before returning to your starting position. Alternate sides for 10-12 reps per side for 3 sets.

After doing core exercises, be sure to stretch out your abs. Stretching your abs helps with mobility giving you a fuller range of motion in your spine, hips, and torso. This means you’ll be able to twist and bend, and get back up more easily in the event of a fall.

Leg Strengthening Workouts

Your legs do most of the work on the mountain. They absorb impact, power your turns, and hold you in an athletic stance. Building both strength and endurance in your quads, hamstrings, and glutes is really important for preventing fatigue and injury.

Leg Exercises

Squats⎯Squats build strength in your quads, hamstrings, and glutes. Having a strong core will also help with your squat form so you can control your movement. The dynamic nature of snow sports challenges your legs individually, so single leg variations are important for preparing. There’s an excellent single leg squat variation in this video on how to do soleus split squats.
Lunges⎯Lunges are excellent for building single-leg strength and stability, which will help you when your weight is unevenly distributed during turns. To do lunges, start in a standing position, then step forward with one leg and lower your hips until both knees are bent at a 90-degree angle. Make sure your front knee stays aligned with your ankle. Push off your front foot to return to standing. Alternate legs for 10-12 reps per side for 3 sets. If you’re already comfortable with the form, add weight so that you reach good fatigue in this rep range.
Jump Squats⎯To build increase your power and dynamic movements on the mountain, add plyometrics exercises. Start in a standard squat position, then push upward into controlled, powerful jumps. Try to land softly to minimize injury, then immediately lower into your next squat. This develops fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are important for making quick adjustments on changing terrain. Aim for 3 sets of 8-10 reps. We play with many plyometric jump variations in Strength & Stamina workouts, come join us to try them so you’re ready for the season.

Balance & Flexibility Training

Having good balance allows you to navigate rough terrain, avoid potential falls, and maintain control at high speeds. Flexibility is equally important because it increases your range of motion and helps prevent muscle strains.

Balance & Flexibility Exercises

Single-Leg Balance⎯Sometimes the simplest exercises are the most effective. Standing on one leg and holding your balance stabilizes the muscles in your feet and ankles, but also notice how your hip and core can help you, especially if you add limb movement to further challenge your balance.
Yoga Poses⎯Yoga is one of the best exercises to improve both balance and flexibility. The Tree Pose (Vrksasana), Warrior Pose 3 (Virabhadrasana III), and Eagle Pose challenge your stability while stretching your muscles.
Skaters⎯a single leg leap and stabilize movement—improve balance by strengthening the core and leg muscles in a way that is very relevant to skiing, and also improves your proprioception. Because skaters force you to make constant adjustments to maintain stability, they help with muscle memory and coordination so you can stay balanced while you shred on the mountain. This exercise also introduces lateral momentum that you need to control and decelerate, which is very translatable to both skiing and snowboarding. If you habitually place your back foot on the ground when you do Skaters, progress to not putting it down, which is a greater balance and leg/core strength challenge.

Endurance & Conditioning

In addition to core, leg, balance, and coordination exercises, you also need to integrate endurance and conditioning training into your workout routine. You can build this fitness by running, cycling, and rowing. But a format that translates even better to the mountain is a class like Strength & Stamina where you elevate your heart rate through alternating strength and cardio circuits. The workouts we do require moving the full body through multiple planes of motion, accelerating, decelerating and moving resistance with power. There lies your skiing and snowboarding fitness!

Let’s Train for Snow Season Together!

Join us in some of Seattle’s finest park settings for a 6:30am or 9:30am workout, or join us on Zoom from your own home or yard on Thursdays at 6:30am. Get a great workout while connecting with amazing people! Sign up for our weekly newsletter so you know where we’re meeting each week.

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