I am not a doctor, exercise physiologist or personal trainer but you don’t need to be an expert to know that the fitter you are the more you will enjoy snowboarding, and the less likely you are to injure yourself. So what have you been doing to get yourself fit?
Long gone are the days, when I was younger, that I could jump on a snowboard without a backward glance to my physical preparation. I have found that if I have been away snowboarding and not trained beforehand I now pay the price. I have sore and achy muscles, I am out of puff much quicker and I sometimes have to finish the day earlier as I am so tired. When you pay for an expensive snow holiday you want to maximise the fun and your time on the slopes doing what you love.
As a busy mum with work, childcare and a husband to juggle it’s hard to find time for fitness, but at the beginning of last season I realised I needed to concentrate on getting fit if I wanted to up-my-game snowboarding. Fitness for snowboarding can be categorised into the following:
- Mobility
- Strength
- Core stability
- Cardiovascular
And all of the above need attention to ensure you are at your physical best. With this in mind a friend and fellow mum, Georgie, who has more than a passing knowledge of fitness and nutrition, took me under her wing. With her help I strengthened my core and became physically stronger using various exercises involving kettle bells and attending a boot camp. Sadly for me Georgie has emigrated to Australia and, although I miss her as a friend and my fitness guru, I have remained faithful to her kettle bell routine and I now attend Metafit classes.
One of the keys to getting fit is finding something which fits into your lifestyle and family. What works for me might not necessarily work for you. I find exercise first thing in the morning hard and I hate the gym! You will need to find something that slots easily into your daily and weekly routine and satisfies the four elements outlined above. For me Metafit ticks all the categories above and although physically hard is over in 20 minutes. And the kettle bell routine, which helps with strength and core stability, can be done at home in 30 minutes so even in bad weather I can still exercise. For some snowboard-specific exercises you can do at beginner, intermediate and advanced level as well as stretches checkout Pro Ride’s website here. And for those of you who live in the North East of England and prefer someone to take you through a specific programme Smart Fitness, based in Newcastle, has an eight week ski and snowboard specific programme aiming to get you fit for the slopes.
So what are you waiting for? Don’t procrastinate as your holiday will be here before you know it. Plan and prepare for fitness and you will be less prone to injury, enjoy snowboarding much more and be able to shred all day. Have fun!
Until next time, TTFN.
Kate.
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