Skiscapes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZS6qWy1I4I

Pure Powder Ski Fitness - Stretch Get fit for skiing with Pure Powder's 2-part fitness videos. This is Part 2 which covers stretching exercises to help your body prepare for skiing and boardi...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrFsKVIhuZc

Pure Powder Ski Fitness - Strengthen Get fit for skiing with Pure Powder's 2-part fitness videos. This is Part 1 which covers strengthening exercises to help your body prepare for skiing and boa...

Fitness for Skiing.

Skiing and boarding are physical sports. The fitter you are the more you will enjoy and progress at these sports. Being fit also helps avoid injuries. I'm not talking about anything too radical – just a general fitness programme with a bias towards what's needed for winter sports.

For skiing your legs and your core are the key areas from a fitness perspective. The fitness of these areas should concentrate on flexibility, strength and endurance. Below I set out a few basic exercise types for these areas and I will also post 2 video workouts that I use myself to keep my general ski fitness up. None of these require a gym. Always remember any new fitness programme should be checked out with your doctor to ensure its suitability.

Legs
For the legs a mix of squats and lunges are very good for building muscle strength and endurance. There are many variations of each and any programme should involve a nice mixture. I recommend building up slowly over time - say start with 10 of each type and add 5-10 each day until you reach fairly high numbers.

Core
A mix of leg raises, sit-ups, crunchs and planks are very good for building core strength. Again start with small numbers and build up over time.

Flexibility
So important for skiing as the 3 leg joints (ankle, knee and hip) are used extensively as well as the lower back. One of the videos that I will post is dedicated to this area and is the programme I follow.

Endurance and Cardio
Skiing in most cases is a low intensity cardio activity. Given the extensive use of legs in both cycling and swimming, these are excellent crossover sports and really help to build endurance. Running is also very good but is a more high intensity cardio workout.

Does the early bird get the worm?

Just like sun holidays a key question when it comes to ski holidays is when is the best time to book?

The earlier you book your ski holiday the better chance there is of getting more value for money. This is particularly the case for families as in the main they are restricted to going during school holidays. The consensus within the industry is for families to have booked by the end of August at the latest for the following winter season. Leaving it later than that can lead to limited and more costly choices.

There are a number of reasons for this such as the following:

By the end of any current winter season many people have booked forward to next winter. In some cases accommodation can be up to 50% booked by the end of April for the following year.

Add to that the scramble for 'children friendly times' ie Christmas, New Year and Mid-Term, by this time of the year some accommodation is fully booked for these periods. In a number of popular locations Accommodation Only Providers are fully booked by now.

So the later you leave it the less chance there is of getting a good value for money deal.

Like sun holidays, there can be 'last minute' deals but in order for these to work all other aspects of a ski holiday would have to be fully arranged and cost effective. These deals are usually outside of peak periods which may not suit families. Easter – depending on when it falls – can represent better value than other school holiday periods but conditions on the slopes may not be ideal. Easter Sunday is on the 16th April in 2017, which is very late – the mountain where I worked in 2016 closed on the 10th April and snow conditions were quite poor by that stage.

So my advice, particularly to families, is to have booked your ski holiday accommodation no later than the end of August.

Shane

Hi, I am launching Skiscapes today (7th July).

Skiscapes is all about helping people to make going on a ski holiday more affordable and less hassle.

To find out more about Skiscapes, and me, visit www.ski-scapes.com

Welcome to Skiscapes page.


Please visit Skiscapes website www.ski-scapes.com

Skiscapes - winter escapes made affordable Love to go skiing but cannot afford too? Feel you are paying too much for your dream winter escape? At Skiscapes I can show you how to pay less.