SportsCare's Athletic Trainers

November Exercises - Core and Lower Body

These core and lower body exercises are great cross training techniques to get you in shape for various winter activities including skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing or sledding!

Wall Sits

Sounds pretty self-explanatory right?  Well while you are sitting against the wall thinking about the slopes make sure that you are aware of your body positioning.  Bend your knees to 90 degrees, making sure that your knees do not go past your ankles.  Press your body weight through your heels while flattening your lower back against the wall.  Once you can hold this position for 15-30 seconds for a set of 4 repetitions, then you can progress to lifting your toes off the ground for 5-10 seconds at the end of each rep.

Ski-Jumps

Find a rope, line, or piece of tape on the floor and hop with both feet back and forth over the aforementioned line.  Do 10-15 repetitions front to back and 10-15 repetitions side to side counting as one set.  Rest for 15-30 seconds between sets and try to complete 2-3.

Slider Lunges

If you have access to a plastic disc known as a slider or even paper plates then you can do this exercise.  It starts out like a regular lunge except that your mobile foot sits on the slider.  Keep your knees behind your toes and slide your foot out into position behind you or out to the side, press into the floor and slide back to starting position.  Complete 6-10 repetitions per set for 1-3 sets, adding weight as necessary.  Be especially careful with this particular exercise not to over extend your leg while on the slider as it can be rather difficult to come up out of an over extended position.

With these three exercises at your disposal along with your regular exercise routine you'll be racing down the slopes with new strength in no time.  They may not make you into an Olympian but they will definitely improve your performance.