Six Week Ski Prep (No Equipment)

Here it is, Jake Hutchinson's (practically) world-famous "prep for the ski season" workout. Jake has edited his original gym workout for the home-fitness-enthusiast, but it is just as dynamic as the original. Good luck, and see you on the slopes!  

A couple years ago I wrote a 6 week ski-prep program that required basic gym gear or access. But not everyone has access to a gym, or time to make it as often as you'd like.

This program is designed to be fun and scalable to personal fitness level and performed 3 days a week for no more than an hour a day. Rather than a steady diet and progression of the same old exercises and set/rep schemes, I’ve tried to provide some variety along with plenty of challenge.

I’m going to rehash some things from my article a few years ago because they are still important to understand (or maybe you missed the first one). Lets break down the complexities of skiing into some major muscle groups, their function in skiing and the primary movements we will employ to target them:

Legs
I know, everyone just wants bigger, stronger, more efficient quads, because for most of us, this is where we feel the burn and therefore make the incorrect assumption it’s the most important muscle to build for skiing.  The reality is, the quads are one part of a very complex set of muscle groups that allow us to do the amazing things we do with our legs.  Many knee injuries are a result of our quads over-powering or being out of balance with the other major muscle groups in our legs.  The reality is that our societal habits of sitting all day have led to lazy glutes, lazy hamstrings and bad posture, which directly contributes to imbalance in the legs which leads to increased stress on the knee joint, primarily the ACL which is so crucial to knee stability and skiing strength. 

Core
A strong, stable core dictates everything else we do. You can have the strongest legs in the world but if they are attached to a bowl of Jell-O you will be unable to utilize all of that strength.  When we talk about the core, with often think of our abdomen, but just like the legs, most of the muscles of the back play an equally important role in our core strength.  The core provides front to back stability as we move, bounce and rotate around in our daily lives, a strong core increases balance and the ability to counter rotation and maintain control of the body.

Cardio
If you can’t breathe everything else grinds to a halt real quickly.  The more efficiently your body moves oxygen to your muscles, the longer those muscles can perform under stress.  A solid cardio base is also what will carry you through those last few turns at the end of a long day, it will also help you stay fresh longer and avoid those end of day bonks when injuries become more likely.

Upper Body
Most of us probably don’t think much about how much or how little we use our arms and shoulders skiing, but no one wants to be that guy screaming down the slope with arms wildly flailing around like a flag in a hurricane.  Think about good skiing technique and form, where do we generally want our hands?  Out front right?  Ready to plant a pole and pointing the direction for the rest of our body.  I just remember a lesson my dad taught me at a young age, as soon as my hands get lazy, it’s a invite for everything else to do the same and before I realize it, I’m in the back seat and trying to recover.   So, we won’t neglect the upper body, but will mostly keep it ready to go with supplemental and complimentary exercises.

STRUCTURE

For this series, we will get away from the previous workout structure and focus on three things: warm-up, workout, and cool-down.

And to simplify it even more, I will make a few suggestions about appropriate warm up/cool downs and you should do as much or as little as you think is required.

WARM UP 
The warm-up here is simple.  Get moving so that you can safely get to work.  I like a 5-10 minute brisk walk or slow, easy jog.  Prime the pump and get the heart ready to work and the muscles ready to move.  We don’t have time or space to get into the current science behind the pros and cons of stretching, but I like to use my warm up for mobility work.  I think mobility (the ability to move a joint or joints through an entire range of motion with strength and stability and without pain) is far more important than flexibility.  In fact, over stretching muscles can greatly reduce their ability to fully contract and do their job.  So I like to add a few simple primal movements and/or yoga poses to keep my focus on mobility rather than strength.

WORK OUT 
These will be list 1-18 below (3x week for 6 weeks – second three weeks will mirror first three with increased intensity) and theoretically should be done in order.  I recommend a “day off” in between, but nothing here should be so catastrophic that you can’t do two days in a row.  I have tried to link videos and descriptions to anything that may not make sense.  Some days will be high intensity and shorter, others will focus on strength and be slower and longer duration.

COOL DOWN
I believe the cool down to be one of the most essential first steps in the recovery process (more on that at the end)  The easiest cool down is just to take a walk, or jump on a bike and spin at an easy pace.  The idea is to begin the process of flushing toxins from the muscles and reduce or minimize soreness.

RECOVERY

There are a ton of cliché’s out there about how important recovery is.  In the end, you can’t do more work than you can recover from so take care of your body, massage, walking, ice baths, foams rollers and anything else that promotes healing and rest are valid here.  If you’re feeling strong or wanting more, running, hiking, walking and cycling are all excellent compliments on your days off, but most importantly listen to your body.  More work is great if it’s quality, but at some point you get garbage in and garbage out.  Don't break the machine trying to prep it for the long season ahead.

The 6-Week Ski Prep Program

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Article by Jake Hutchinson

This article was written for the Wagner Journal by Jake Hutchinson. Jake has spent more than 25 years working as an avalanche professional. He is currently a lead instructor for the American Avalanche Institute, an avalanche dog handler and trainer and an avalanche safety consultant to the resort and rescue communities. Off the snow, Hutchinson is a Certified Instructor and former Head of Instructor and Seminar Development for Gym Jones in Salt Lake City. He is currently involved in private personal training with an emphasis on high level functional fitness for mountain and military athletes.