Get Ready for the 2024 Ski Season: The 4 Key Fitness Areas to Focus on

With ski season just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to get your body in shape for the slopes. Whether you’re a skier or snowboarder, a solid fitness routine is essential for maximizing your performance and preventing injuries. In this post, written by the brind’O Aquaclub Fitness Center team in collaboration with the North Face, we’ll spotlight the four essential physical qualities you should focus on before hitting the trails.

1. Muscular Strength: The Foundation of a Strong Skier

Muscular strength is the cornerstone of good ski preparation. It not only helps you support your body weight on the slopes, but also stabilizes you in turns and while navigating descents. At Tremblant, where conditions can vary with steep runs and different snow textures, good strength will keep you in control.

How to build it:

• Key exercises: Squats, deadlifts, step-downs, bench press, and chin-ups.
• Reps: If you’re just starting out, aim for 6 to 12 reps per set. For more advanced athletes, work with shorter sets (1 to 5 reps) using heavier weights.
• Benefits: Increased strength will help you stay powerful and endure a full day on the slopes, especially when your legs start feeling the burn after multiple runs down the Versant Soleil or more challenging trails like Duncan.

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2. Power: For Quick, Explosive Turns

Once you’ve developed a solid base of strength, it’s time to add speed to your movements. Power is all about applying that strength quickly, which is crucial for making sharp turns, jumping over bumps, or quickly adjusting your direction in variable snow conditions.

Exercises to enhance power:

• Plyometrics: Box jumps, squat jumps, lunge jumps, and lateral jumps.
• Contrast training: Alternate between a strength exercise (like squats) and an explosive one (like lunge jumps).
• Fast tempos: Slow down the descent of a squat and then explode on the way up.

These power-building exercises will give you the confidence to tackle tricky terrain like La Griffe or Expo, allowing you to react swiftly to changes in snow and slope angles.

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3. Endurance: Ski All Day Without Fatigue

Endurance is key if you want to enjoy full days of skiing at Tremblant. Whether you’re lapping the Versant Nord or just spending hours on the slopes, building both muscular and cardiovascular endurance will help you keep your energy up.

How to improve endurance:

• Cardio: If you haven’t been doing much cardio lately, start now by incorporating running, biking, or swimming into your routine.
• Muscle endurance: Do exercises like squats and lunges for at least 15 reps, with shorter rest periods.
• Circuit training: Combine multiple exercises in a sequence with a set number of repetitions to boost the intensity.

Endurance training will help you power through long days on the mountain and avoid early fatigue, especially when tackling long runs like Algonquin.

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4. Flexibility and Mobility: For Smooth, Pain-Free Movement

Flexibility and mobility are often overlooked but are crucial for skiing. Flexibility increases your range of motion, while mobility ensures your joints move freely, which is essential for skiing’s repetitive and demanding movements.

How to improve flexibility and mobility:

• Static stretching: Hold each stretch for at least 30 seconds, two to three times per week.
• Dynamic stretching: Do these before hitting the slopes to warm up your body.
• Joint mobility: Focus on your spine (cervical, thoracic, and lumbar) to improve fluidity and prevent injuries.

Incorporating mobility exercises into your warm-up routine can enhance movement fluidity and reduce muscle tightness, helping you feel more relaxed and efficient while skiing.

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Ready for a Successful Ski Season at Tremblant?

If you have any questions or need personalized advice, feel free to stop by the brind’O Aquaclub training center to meet our coach and kinesiologist, Camille, who will be happy to help you with your preparation.

Get ready, and see you on the slopes!