These exciting, functional, sport-specific, and fun exercise ball exercises for skiing will help keep you strong in all three dimensions.

These exercise ball exercises for skiing are for you if you're looking to hit the slopes with reduced risk of injury and want to get more runs in this year. Give yourself 4 to 6 weeks to train before heading out. I recommend focusing on balance, core strength, and power. Lunges, leg presses, and jumps are just a few ways to begin conditioning your legs for skiing. Building core strength, specifically abdominals, allows for the easy transfer of energy from the upper body to the lower body.

Skiing requires stability, power, co-ordination, and agility in all three planes of movement to protect the entire back. These exciting, functional, sport-specific, and fun exercises using an exercise ball will help keep you strong in all three dimensions.

The fact that skiing takes place on a nearly frictionless surface makes exercise ball exercises for skiing particularly helpful. All movement must originate from the core and without a stable core you will lack the strength necessary in your legs to make turns. Building core strength, specifically abdominal and lower back muscles, will help a skier or snowboarder avoid the overuse of leg muscles as the body starts to fatigue.

Good technique requires proper weight shift and balance. Balance is the ability to maintain our center of  mass over our base of support.  Working on balance helps a skier or snowboarder develop specific muscles and a sense of body awareness necessary for the dynamic movements on the slopes


Goals

  • Improve balance - exercise ball exercises, yoga, one legged exercises
  • Improve core strength - exercise ball exercises, crunches, leg raises, pilates
  • Increase power - running, spinning, lunges, leg press, and squats

Exercise Ball Exercises for Skiing

Click on each picture to get a full description and method of progression

The best skiing exercise routine includes cardiovascular components to train the appropriate energy systems, technical training, strength and endurance training as well as exercise ball exercises for skiing. (also known as the swiss ball, ab ball, balance ball, fit ball, gymnic ball, fitness ball, therapy ball, physio ball, etc.)