Although I’ve been skiing/snowboarding for over 30 years, I really only go out once or twice a year for 2 - 5 days at a time, unfortunately in the last couple of years I haven’t had time to hit the slopes at all, so this was my first time out in 2 years!

Needless to say, I was a little worried.  I was out of practice and I was concerned about my ski/snowboard conditioning.  Whistler is no bunny hill…it’s a big mountain with lots of vertical and that means long runs with plenty of variable terrains.

Other than the specific skills required for skiing or snowboarding, the biggest limiting factor for most people is general conditioning.  Usually 2 - 3 hours on the slopes and your quads and calves are burning!  And once your muscle fatigue sets in, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep going…and usually that’s when you start catching edges, often ending up in a spectacular wipe out and garage sale of your equipment along the slope.

The good thing was, even though my ski/snowboarding skills were a bit rusty, my solid physical conditioning level kept me from Youtube worthy wipe outs…in fact I never experienced much soreness or fatigue at all through the entire trip.  And boy, was that a good a thing, because the people that we met up with on the trip were hardcore skiers…the type that gets up early (...no matter how little sleep you had the night before…) to hit the slopes for first run down the slopes.

Now, I’m all about being the first one on the slope to get that fresh untouched snow, but it also makes for a very long day and as expected we were out on the slopes an average of 5 - 6 hours a day…non stop!  Not to mention, amazingly out of the 5 days, there was only one day that we had to wait in line at the lifts…the rest of the days were wide open!  Which makes for an awesome day of uninterrupted skiing/snowboarding, but on the flip side, very little time for rest and recovery.  But I’m used to getting much less rest while doing much more strenuous exercises for my workouts, so the ride on the lift up the mountain was plenty of time to recover and keep going at which sometimes felt more like a competition of “How many runs can you get in a day” instead of just having fun…talk about a workout!

And even though I hadn’t done anything specifically related to skiing or snowboarding, when your training focuses on using full body functional exercises performed in a high intensity circuit and interval cardio training format, you end up getting in great overall shape which allows you to perform almost any activity.

I’m essentially talking about is improving your work capacity.

Increasing your work capacity allows you to do more work in less time OR work for a much longer period of time without bonking out.  Either way you’re increasing your ability to do more work.  It’s like putting a V8 engine in your Prius….not the prettiest picture I know…but you’ll be able to go non stop for a long time (if you go at a normal pace), plus you also have the ability to crank up your speed and hang with the big ole’ muscle cars as well…literally the best of both worlds.

Along with increasing your work capacity, performing functional exercises maximizes your potential to perform various activities.  Functional exercises include primary human movements such as squatting, twisting, flexing and extending from your hips, as well as vertical and horizontal pushing and pulling.  Incorporating these essential movements greatly enhances your muscular strength, endurance, joint health and flexibility…all of which produces a versatile, powerful and efficient body that has the greatest ability to execute physically challenging, demanding and strenuous activities.  

And even though I knew all of this in my head…it was still a pleasant surprise when I was able to ski and snowboard as much as I did, without any residual soreness or fatigue.  That being said, I did perform many of the muscle recovery protocols to help speed up my recovery as much as possible.

I rolled out (or foam rolled) my lower body (quads, hamstrings, ITB, glutes and calves) did some light stretches and I even did a little make shift contrast cold/heat therapy.  Alternate being outside in 0 degrees F (which is about -18 C) and for a minute followed by a plunge in the hot tube for 3 minutes…which wasn’t as bad as it sounds…besides who doesn’t like to hot tub in the snow!

So the next time you’re about to participate in an activity you haven’t done in a while, like skiing/snowboarding, keep in mind that you can get in great overall shape by training to increase your work capacity while performing functional exercises.  This way you can make the most out of actually doing the (fun) activity and not be hampered injury or slowed down by muscle soreness and fatigue.