Personal Training for Snowboarding and Skiing
By, Carolin Newton, Discovery Learning Operations Manager
It’s that time of year again…everyone is hitting the slopes for a bit of powder! Most of my personal trainer clients are busy talking to me about wanting to improve their skiing skills and fitness to get ready for their trip. So I developed a “Snowboarding/Skiing Personal Trainer” package for people going on holiday. It was a great way to start off the New Year, and I saw a great increase in personal training sessions sold to new clients.
My “Personal Training for Snowboarding” package was designed over 8 Personal Trainer sessions, with a programme for the clients to follow when training on their own. The first couple of sessions focus on balance, flexibility and stability training. This was complemented by developing the anaerobic threshold with cardiovascular training. Exercises included a lot of bosu ball exercises, wobble boards and stability ball exercises all focusing on the lower body and core (especially the rotational exercises). I based most of my lower body exercises on compound movements such as squat and lunge patterns, with ever decreasing base of support. I also included a lot of upper body push exercises to ensure the client can push themselves up of the snow to stand up (I know from experience – that your triceps, chest and abs get very stiff and sore!!). All my exercises were within the Muscular Endurance variable ranges (i.e. high reps, moderate to light weight, and little rest). For my cardiovascular work – I base it on hill runs, the rowing machine, step machine etc. The aim is not fast, but more resistance – to increase the lactic acid tolerance. In terms of flexibility, I focused on doing some self myofascial release techniques on their ITB, glutes, piriformis, quads and hamstrings. I then performed some PNF stretches on the same muscles. It is important that you focus on the flexibility so that they can twist, turn and perform tricks without injuring themselves.
From this point, I developed the programme to end off with power and isometric exercises. Here I did a lot of plyometric exercises focusing on squat jumps with power bags, squat rotational jumps, one legged squat jumps, etc. I also included lots of medicine ball upper body throwing and catching exercises that incorporated core rotations. Kettlebells also feature in the phase of training. I still maintained the flexibility and self myofascial release programmes to ensure optimum length of muscle was developed and maintained.
It is important to note—you must focus on developing the hip and knee stability before developing onto power and isometric exercises. The knee is one of the joints that is most at risk when snowboarding, so you must ensure your clients have developed the Vastus Medialis; Vastus Latralis; hamstrings muscles to support the joint.
Shoulder dislocation is also common – so strengthen the rotator cuff and the surrounding shoulder muscles by doing stability work on them.
So now that I have given a very brief overview of the snowboarding programme and the key aims—think about developing your own personal trainer programmes to maximise your personal trainer skills and ultimately pick up more clients!!!