Great Britain’s Number 1 Freestyle Mogul Skier, Ellie Koyander, takes some time out of her busy preparations for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics to offer some expert last minute fitness tips to help you get the best from your skiing / snowboarding experience.

Plan ahead - for many people, hitting the slopes is the most physically demanding activity that they do all year! A bit of forward planning with your fitness will get the best from your skiing and limit aches, fatigue or injury setting in.

• Be realistic, if you have only a week or two before you go skiing then the chances are that the most you will be able to achieve is to make improvements on flexibility, cardio vascular fitness, balance and core stability. There’s unlikely to be sufficient time to get much strength improvement accomplished and you can run the risk that you will ‘pull’ something the week before you leave. From January onwards it’s better to enhance what you have and go skiing injury free than to go into the gym pumping iron!
• Make small changes to build fitness by a layering process doing regular conditioning. The body is a living organism and changes need to be gradual over time.
• Set yourself a simple programme that is enjoyable and is structured to fit in with your life.

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Core fitness, balance, and stretching - These three elements are within easy reach of anyone about to go skiing and are fundamental to a good skiing experience.

• The core (abdominal) muscles connect the upper and lower body together and in skiing you are constantly moving, making adjustments with all parts of the body. Making improvements to your core muscles will improve your performance and enhance skill.
• There are many exercises such as planks and crunches that will build your core. Do core exercises daily and you will get a quick payback. Record everything – how long you can hold a plank, how many crunches, how many Swiss ball lifts you can do.
• Balance – investing in a ‘balance board’ is not only good for improving your skills, it’s also really good for developing the core and is just really good fun! These are similar to skateboards but without wheels and you balance on a variety of rollers. There are many other products on the market such as Bosu’s or wobble boards and a great activity to do whilst watching the tv or relaxing at home.
• Try shutting one eye whilst standing on one foot, then try shutting both. Try brushing your teeth on one leg with both eyes shut; you will be surprised at how hard this balance exercise is at first! Throw a tennis ball against a wall and catch it stood on one foot – take a step back for every 10 balls that you catch and alternate legs.
• Stretching – this is the most powerful thing that you will be able to do to prevent injury. Improvements are almost instantaneous and you can perform reach tests and see how quickly flexibility arrives in your body. Remember that you will be more than likely to have a tumble or two whilst you are skiing (no matter what level) and a daily stretching routine of all the major muscle groups will really pay dividends in preventing injury.

Build your aerobic base – no matter what level a skier you are, you will need good lungs! Altitude takes it out on the body; everything is a lot harder work when the air is thinner.

• It is surprising how quickly you can improve your heart and lung function. The secret is to find something that you enjoy doing that exercises your cardio vascular system.
• Try using a turbo trainer wheel and rig up your bike at home (the rear wheel clamps onto a roller). It’s easy to grab half an hour each day at a regular time and watch the TV in the living room, for example.
• Going swimming is a great way of getting some low impact fitness as an alternative to jogging, as are all the machines that you can find in the gym. Try team sports or just going on power walks with a friend or the dog. Try to make small steps in your endurance and make sure that you are well hydrated whilst exercising.
• Write down your comfortable endurance times and aim to train at least three times a week. You will be amazed at how quickly you will build your endurance if you start from a reasonable position and seeing your times improve is really motivational!
• Avoid any heroics; for example running 5 miles on your first session. Always be comfortable and build from the aerobic base that you currently have.

Go and see your chiropractor. It may seem peculiar to say this but this is about injury prevention. If you are a naturally sporty person, the very nature of training means that the body gets loaded with all sorts of stresses, especially when you are trying to build up some strength perhaps earlier in the year. One function of the muscles is that they project the skeleton’s joints from snapping apart and they go into spasm if a force is too much for the body. When they are in spasm the muscles don’t work as they should for skiing.

• A good chiropractor will do a full body test to check that everything is in good order. The analogy is that the Chiropractor is like a formula 1 racer’s pit stop crew checking that the vehicle is in prime condition. Ask whether your chiropractor does muscle testing.
• If you get your pre-skiing ‘pit stop’ sorted early you can get the body in tip top condition to hit the slopes knowing that you are not carrying a weakness that could turn into an injury.

Above all, enjoy yourself in your physical preparation, it’s so much easier to stick to a programme if it’s fun and you can see the progress that you are making! Happy skiing / snowboarding!

Ellie Koyander, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

Photo credits: Mike Austen