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Snowboarding season is almost upon us! Are you ready? Mentally I am sure we are all there. How about physically? We do tend to stay pretty active during the summer but is your body strengthened where it should be for those first turns on the snow?
Fitness is key to snowboarding, especially in terms of endurance, strength and balance. Today, I would like to show you some quick and simple moves you can incorporate into your workout regimen or use on their own to help build up your endurance,strength and balance for snowboarding season.
Let’s start with my favorite. Plyometric Jumping. Now these moves are friends of mine! They really prepare you for leaps and jumps on the hill.
When doing a jump squat your feet should be a bit wider than shoulder-width apart. Squat down with the intention of using all your energy to drive you vertical or “up”. As you jump up you will pull your knees with you and bring your hands to your knees and tap. When you land, you should land softly. Try to land lightly using the method of landing first with your toes, then with the ball of your foot, and lastly heel. Toe, Ball, Heel as they call it.
Jumping squats will give you an intense workout and really strengthen those legs. *IF you find them to difficult to avoid injury you can start with regular stationary squats. Then move up a level to just jumping up out of the squat and sticking your landing without the knees and hands.
You can do these with added weight (dumbells) or alone by themselves. If you are using weights make sure your body is warm before adding more weight. You don’t want to pull anything!
While keeping your back straight, step forward with your lead leg. Once lead leg hits your visual marker, inhale and allow knee to bend until it reaches a 90 degree angle. Exhale and forcefully push through the heel of the lead leg until you’ve reached the starting position once again.
Keeping that core of yours strong is important in snowboarding. It supports your spine and helps with things like balance! In this regimen I will have you use Medicine Ball Crunches.
For these you will . Elevate your upper body, begin on the floor extend your legs (creating a V shape). Then while gripping your hands on a medicine ball, kettlebell, or dumbbell- begin to twist from right to left, holding the position on each side for a couple of seconds. All while keeping your core tight or “engaged”.
Another essential muscle you must build for you use these muscles to help you stop and turn a snowboard! For these use weights. Hold a dumbbell in each hand. It's always a good rule of thumb to start with lighter weights, and work your way up to heavier ones. Get two dumbbells of the same weight, and stand with your feet about shoulder width apart.
Have yourself positioned an arms length away from something to keep you stable such as a chair or wall.Let your arms hang along the sides of your body. Make sure that your arms are below your shoulders, and keep a firm grip on the dumbbells.
Lift your heels up. Shift your weight onto the balls of your feet while keeping your legs straight. Continue to keep your arms alongside your body.. There is no arm movement involved, as the weights are meant to train your calf muscles.While your legs should be straight, it's a good idea to keep a micro bend in your knees to avoid locking them up.
For a beginner snowboarder you may find yourself on the snow a lot picking yourself up! pushups will strengthen your chest, arms and shoulders. Straighten your body behind you. Keep your feet as close together as possible, and always keep your hips low. Imagine that your body is a board. Tightening your abs and glutes will help you keep proper form. If you are struggling or unable to do more than one or two push-ups this way, try one of the following to build strength:
Because why work the other parts of your arm but not the Tri’s!? After that first day back on the hill my triceps generally burn. So condition those too!
Sit on the edge of the chair and slowly walk your feet forward, lowering your body toward the floor. Don’t allow your buttocks to touch the floor. Keep your hands clasped to the chair and bend your elbows behind you at a 90-degree angle. Exhale and straighten your arms, slowly pressing your body up. Inhale and return to the starting position.
I recommend beginners to start with 2 sets of 15 reps of each exercise 3 times a week. Those of you more advanced in fitness 4 sets of 15- 3 times a week.
I also have found in my fitness journey that a great overall workout program for conditioning for snowboarding season and just LIFE in general is Insanity Max 30! Insanity uses a variety of plyometric drills combined with interval training - which is all of the moves I have shown you above and MUCH MORE! Insanity isn’t just for conditioned athletes. They show you modification on all moves incase you haven’t built up that range of motion quite yet. Which is great! We are all on different fitness levels.
You perform each of the exercises for a 30-60 seconds depending on the workout for that day, including exercises such as squat jacks and power jumps. Then in the Plyometric Cardio Circuit, Shaun T (the mastermind behind this program) runs you through fat-burning plyometrics and intervals of high-speed cardio exercises.
It is a great overall program that will condition any and everyone- and for all sorts of athletes and sports. Want to take your fitness to the next level and get shredded results? Try this. Available through me as your free fitness coach.
Contact me for more info! www.facebook.com/healthyfitandfocused. Or sign up directly at www.beachbodycoach.com/juliecastillon or email me directly at healthyfitandfocused@gmail.com.
Special THANK YOU goes out to Julie Ann for this great fitness routine and breakdown for the SheShreds Crew and fans. Shred On Sister!
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