There are lots of great reasons to go on skiing holidays, and these range from the rather amazing views that you can get at the top of those mountains, to the incredible sense of exhilaration you get when you’re hurtling down the sides of them. However while these are perfectly great reasons to go skiing, there is one other good reason too, and that’s the fact that it’s also rather good for you.
Skiing And Your Health
When you ski this isn’t a passive activity – if you don’t move when you’re going down the mountainside then things are going to end badly. As such then this continuous movement is a great form of cardiovascular exercise which will help you to burn and deplete those fat stores around your body. This then helps you to tone up and get leaner and this is a great way to get chiselled abs and a slimmer waist.
At the same time when you’re rushing down-hill, you’ll find yourself using your muscles to steady yourself. Specifically you will be using your core stabilizer muscles which means your abdominals, your obliques (to either side of your abs) and your legs. This again will help you to look more toned and more ripped and this can help you to get a body very similar to that of a surfer.
There’s more good news too though – because using those poles will also help you to develop grip strength and forearm power, as well as your shoulders, lats and triceps. This is even more of a full body workout that surfing.
How to Train for Skiing
As you’ll be using all these muscles to ski, it stands to reason that you’ll need to work equally hard to develop them the rest of the time if you want to be able to ski your best when the opportunity arises. To do this you should make sure that you practice skiing regularly and just repeating these same movements on a regular basis will generally be enough to build up those muscles specifically. Not all of us have access to ski slopes near where we live unfortunately (hence why we go on skiing holidays in the first place…), but if you don’t have that or even an indoor centre, then you can get many of the same benefits by simply using the aptly named ski machine in the gym.
Meanwhile though you can also train individually the muscles you are going to need without having to actually do any skiing and this will help to give you more core power when you’re on the slopes. Sit ups, twisting sit ups, and leg raises will all help to train your abs and obliques, while using the roman chair and doing deadlifts can help to train your lower back – all of this will help to keep you upright and enable you to make rapid changes in direction.
Meanwhile you can also train your core by working out on any kind of uneven surface. This might mean doing sit ups or press ups using an exercise ball for example, or it might mean curling weights while standing on a wobble board and trying to keep yourself in position.
John Smith is an avid blogger and a travel enthusiast who is currently working for Leo Trippi Winter Holidays .
