It can be really easy to not think about next season. It is, after all, the middle of summer, with plenty of sun (I hope) beating down and not an ounce of snow in sight. That being said, fitness is critical for having fun whilst skiing, and whilst do you don’t need to be a marathon runner to have fun on your skiing holiday, keeping fit can often be easier than fighting to get fit in the weeks leading up to your ski holiday.
My journey through skiing fitness has been something of a rollercoaster, so these tips are what works for me. You might have your own tips and tricks – feel free to comment below your best tips for getting and staying fit for winter – but I think my suggestions below cover a lot of bases.
These are the three ways I am looking to stay fit for next winter.
1. Running
I’ll start with one that I’m probably most guilty of not doing. I used to run a lot – like, a lot – but that was a decade ago and I’ve not seriously gone back to it in the meantime, until now. In a burst of energy one lazy afternoon in Dublin a few weeks back, I went for an 8km run and felt like a completely different person at the end of it.
Running is important as it builds your cardio and aerobic fitness, key for two reasons.
Firstly, simply having good fitness will allow you to go longer in the hills. It really is as simple as that. Good technique when skiing means you need to rely less on your fitness. But if your technique is a little sloppy or perhaps not as finely tuned as it could be, you’ll call more on your fitness. And as you get tired, and your technique begins to falter, you’ll call even more on your fitness, so you’ll get more tired, so your technique will falter more, and so on. This vicious cycle can really hamstring a day or even next morning’s ski really quickly, so even by improving your fitness slightly can you help push back that lunch break a little bit more.
The second reason is altitude. Up at 2,000m elevation the air is thinner, and whilst this isn’t summiting Everest levels of oxygen deprivation, it still makes a difference to your aerobic fitness. A good test is if you go for a walk in the hills, anywhere from the South Downs to the Scottish Highlands. If you are even remotely out of breath taking in a couple of hundred metres climb from (roughly) sea level, it’s going to be ten times harder at 2,000m elevation. This is most true for ski touring, which calls more on pure aerobic fitness than traditional downhill skiing, but still drives home the importance of fitness for all disciplines.
2. Bouldering/Rock Climbing
I adore bouldering. For me, it’s the perfect antidote to going to the gym, which I find so incredibly dull; “I’ve lifted a weight, great – what’s next? Lift another one. Oh. Okay”.
The fun of bouldering is in measuring your progress as you go, with a clear system of increasing climbing difficulty and adding in really spicy features like overhangs. The added bonus is it is a complete upper body workout, exercising your arms and shoulders – massively underappreciated muscles for skiing – and, most importantly, your core.
Your core does as much work as your legs when skiing, and possibly more when you venture off piste into the powder, something I came to realise quite late in my skiing journey.
When skiing off piste, your core needs to be really solid. A strong core allows your legs to move independently underneath your with far greater ease than if you are relying on your legs themselves to keep you supported. You can also find your sweet spot under the ski, supporting your weight to lift your tips out of the powder but not sitting all the way in the back seat. Finally, a strong core allows you to release your edges easier when in deep powder, and react quickly and unflinchingly to sudden changes in the snow beneath.
A good core therefore equals much more fun in the powder!
2.5 Rugby
I was a bit hesitant to put this one in, as it is very much a “marmite” activity. I returned to playing rugby in August last year and suddenly was in the best form of my life, losing 10kg of weight and being stronger and fitter as a result. However, full contact rugby is not for everyone, and whilst I had thought about putting in tag rugby, football, or American football – the latter I played for many years before this – none of them have the same combination of aerobic fitness you get from running around the pitch or muscle workout from squeezing in a scrum or ruck.
2.75 Your Liver
Right. First things first, I am in no way advocating for drinking for drinking’s sake here. However, skiing is its own thing, and to quote one of my favourite “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” episodes, “things are just different on the mountain.”
And that’s kinda true, in its own way. In no other sport would you go for a long, boozy Sunday lunch, then hop on the bike for a quick 50km cycle afterwards, for example. You wouldn’t run around on a football pitch with a hip flask in your pocket, as another. Add on top of this the added elevation making the impact of alcohol stronger, plus added dehydration from the dry climate, and it can be a recipe for a bad time. Again, I’m not advocating drinking for drinking’s sake, but it can be useful to know your limits before you try and push them at elevation!
3. Yoga & Pilates
This is the only one on this list that I don’t partake in, but I’m very aware that I should. Yoga and pilates does two things that are ideal for skiing.
The first comes back to something we mentioned earlier, core strength. The body weight core exercises are perfect for keeping your going for longer and enjoying powder skiing that little bit more.
The second major benefit of these exercises is the increase in muscle and joint flexibility that can come from it, that can benefit all aspects of your skiing. I’ve been lucky enough to do a couple of “Ski with Chemmy Alcott” days, run by the Ski Club of Great Britain at the Snow Centre, Hemel Hempstead. The biggest tip the four-time Olympian gave me was to really work to “fold” my upper body and bring my chest closer to my toes. I have a long body, and when I stand up straight on my skis it pitches my weight backwards and my centre of gravity up. By pulling my chest down and up, I bring my weight forward to better allow me to drive with the toe edge of my skis and brings my centre of gravity down, allowing my to pivot my legs easier under my body. Greater suppleness can make this easier to hold in the longer run – as my end-of-day back ache will greatly attest to.
I’ve also noticed a need for greater flexibility in my hips, especially when touring and trying in vain to execute a kick turn. This is when you execute a near-180 degree turn by twisting your uphill ski all the way round, something my hips get in the way of me executing in a graceful manner. At the touring level myself and my friends are at now, this isn't the end of the world, but as we progress into steeper and more challenging terrain the need to execute a perfect kick turn becomes more important.
If you’ll excuse me, I’m off to buy a yoga mat.
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