The Time To Get In Shape For Skiing Is Pre Ski Season

Article by Aaron Jochum

The ski season finally arrives and you just can[t wait to get out on the mountains. And, hopefully, you have been conditioning your body for the slopes. Because the right time to start your conditioning program is long before the ski season starts.

Professional athletes expend a lot of time and effort in pre season getting their bodies in shape for the upcoming season. And, while you may not be a professional athlete, you also want to get yourself into good enough shape so that you don’t incur any injuries once you are actually on the ski slopes. A large number municipal parks in all regions of the country have winter conditioning programs. You can can sign up at these and get conditioning tips and techniques to allow you enjoy the ski season with minimal injuries.

A great way to both have fun and keep in shape over the winter months is to participate in winter sports. But, to do so, you have to get into shape. If you don’t, you will be more susceptible to all kinds of sprains and injuries that can ruin your enjoyment.

A great number of the injuries and accidents that happen on the ski slopes is due to skiers hot-dogging and doing dangerous stunts. But, If you take these away, it turns out that the majority of injuries occur to people who are simply not in shape to go barrelling out of control down the mountain. This is why you see so many weekend skiers coming down with knee sprains, stomach pulls, hamstring injuries, muscle cramps, and so on.

Once you start your off season training, you should mainly focus on two types. One is general fitness training. The second is training specifically geared towards your skiing muscles. In skiing, the leg muscles are the ones that you use the most. So your off season training should include plenty of fitness routines to both strengthen and give flexibility to the muscles of your legs and thighs.

If you don’t have an exercise machine, a really fantastic exercise to improve the flexibility of your legs is the calf stretch. Otherwise, there are quite a number of exercise machines on the market that can be configured to both strengthen your calves as well as stretch them. These exercises will get you in shape for the twists and turns that you will be making on the ski runs.

One of the main parts of your general fitness routines should be to encompass at least one activity that will really get your heart rate going. As an example, an exercise such as jogging or skipping rope can quickly get you into skiing shape. The functionality of general exercises is to simply condition the body so it doesn’t easily get winded. These exercises also serve to build up your heart and lung capacities so that, once you get onto the slopes, you aren’t constantly getting out of breath.

Even though no one really disputes the intelligence of working to get yourself into skiing shape before the ski season, you shouldn’t try to jump into your new exercise program too rapidly. This is especially true if you have been a couch potato for most of the preceding months. And, before you implement any new and strenuous training program, as always, check with your physician.

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