5 things to consider when preparing your body for a skiing holiday

1. Make a plan and set goals for your training

Give yourself at least 6 weeks to prepare your body and you will be happy you did. We would recommend a combination of strength and conditioning sessions with a focus on skiing or boarding. Building that hip stability, leg strength and endurance, whilst working on flexibility and cardiorespiratory fitness should be the key areas of your skiing exercise program.

Try setting yourself some goals around time and frequency of your training. Rather than aiming to lift a certain weight, take a certain number of steps or burn a certain number of calories.

Be realistic when you set these goals and then hold yourself to high standards. If it’s 6 weeks of preparation and you are aiming for 4 sessions per week, that’s 24 sessions, aim for 90%, which means 22 sessions completed to reach your goal.

2. Get some advice from an expert

If you are preparing for a skiing holiday, then your training should be both varied and geared towards this activity. Your training should also be progressive and safe for you, ensuring you stay injury free and making improvements as you go along. If this sounds like something you can plan yourself, that’s brilliant, but if you don’t have the knowledge, it’s worth asking a professional coach to help.

3. Get the gear:

When I say get the gear, I mean the essentials first. Having a good pair of trainers, comfortable clothing, a drink bottle and sweat towel are must-haves and will be useful moving forward, even if you only use them occasionally. There’s lots of tech available to assist you with your training, however, none of the tech will get the training done for you and generally serves as entertainment or a distraction.

4. Make small changes

If you have committed to doing some training and you are making the effort, then why not make just a little more effort and make some other small changes to help prepare you to be your best.

Small changes could include

• Eating 2 pieces of fruit a day, you could add some fruit to your breakfast, morning snack, have post exercise or even make a smoothie after work.
• Stretch a little each day, even if it’s 5 mins here and there. Hang one heel off a small step and stretch the calf, take a shoulder stretch while waiting in line, take every opportunity you have to stretch!

5. Join some online sessions

Having someone guiding you through a session can give you confidence and motivation. If you have the time and access, joining an online class is great. If that doesn’t work for you, there are lots of online options.

At Buzz Performance we offer a Core, Strength, Conditioning and Cycling online session each week. The classes are recorded and can be completed either live or when you have time. Many of our community members use the sessions to complement their own training, some do all 4 sessions and some just opt in to a few each week.

To conclude, there is so much to gain and so little to lose by doing some training to prepare you for hitting the slopes. Plus, being kind to your body with a little bit of skiing aftercare, can also enhance your performance and keep you feeling great during your trip.

For deep sleeps, relaxing hot tub soaks, award-winning food and a beautiful chalet to call home for your skiing holiday, browse AliKats’ selection of luxury chalets in Morzine.