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Ultimate Snowboarding Work Out Plan

Sure, sliding down on a board sounds like it doesn’t require much effort, but don’t be fooled. There are only two reasons why you don’t feel exhausted at the end of snowboarding day: 1. You’re already in good shape as it is as a result of your person gym sessions, treadmill sessions, healthy lifestyle, 2. You’re one of those people that buy the gear, spend 30 minutes on the slopes and chill by the fireplace the rest of the day. To have a kick ass time riding, you need to be in good shape and this guide is my personal plan to keeping fit. It’s simple but does the trick!

Basic Facts

• Freeride/all-mountain snowboarding is roughly 90% lower body and 10% upper body.
• Freestyle snowboarding is roughly 70% lower body and 30% upper body (the tricks involved require upper body muscles).
• The most used muscle is the Quadriceps (your thighs), followed by the Tibialis Anterior (side of the leg), followed by the Calves.
• This plan is not designed to give you ripped and big muscles, but rather to train your muscles and get them toned and fit (there will be more focus on repetition than on strength building).
• You can burn anywhere between 250-600 calories/hour of snowboarding (No, this doesn’t include the time you spend waiting in line, on the lift, or knocking back a few beers).

1. Stretch (do this every time before you work out – I can’t stress enough how important this is)

Hamstring Stretch: Lie on floor with knees bent. Straighten one leg and slowly pull it towards you, clasping the thigh, calf or ankle. Keep knee slightly bent. Switch legs.

Inner Thigh Stretch: Sit on floor with feet pressed together (butterfly). Keeping abs in, lean forward until you feel a gentle stretch in your inner thighs.

Calf Stretch: On hands and knees, straighten your legs, but keep them slightly bent. Gently press one or both feet towards the floor, keeping back flat and abs in.

Spine Twist (my personal favorite): Lying on the floor, place right foot on the left knee. Using your left hand, gently pull your right knee towards the floor, twisting your spine and keeping left arm straight out, hips and shoulders on the floor. Switch sides.

Quad Stretch: Lie down on your side using elbow for balance. Using other arm, slowly pull your foot towards your glutes, keeping both knees together and bent knee pointing down. Switch legs.

2. Exercise (3 sets of 20 repetitions per exercise & increase the weight between each set)

Lunges: This movement is great for working the quads, hamstrings, and glutes. This exercise also works many smaller stabilizer muscles because it requires a lot of balance.

Leg Extensions: This movement isolates the quadriceps. This exercise is good for developing muscle detail between the individual segments of your quadriceps muscles.

Squat Resistance: This one is great for building stamina in your in Quadriceps, the most used muscle in snowboarding.

Lying Leg Curls: This exercise is great for the hamstring muscle.

Calf Raises: Like the name points out, this exercise will help you build stronger calves.

Compilation of the Best Snowboarding Videos

There are some serious shots in this compilation… definitely very motivational stuff. The only thing I’d change is replace every rider featured with myself!

Snowboarding Stance 101

You might find yourself “asking what makes them better riders than me?” A lot of factors affect your snowboarding abilities and skill level. One that is commonly overlooked is your stance. Stance can make a world of a difference to your riding, and making sure that you’re properly setup for YOUR style of riding will make your life much easier. For those wondering, stance is the angle at which your bindings are set to.

What To Do
1. Figure out whether you are a regular (left foot forward) or goofy (right foot forward) rider. My favorite method (also the funnest one) is to run across a smooth floor with socks on and try stopping yourself. The foot that creeps its way in front of the other will be the foot you place at the tip of your board.

2. Angle the front binding outwards a bit and set the back one at zero.

3. After you’re no longer falling on your ass every few meters, start testing out different stances. Two things to focus on are stance width and angle.

Stance Width
Stance width affects your ease of turning and board control as you go down a hill. Riding too narrow or to wide will just make you uncomfortable and you’ll feel the pain in the side of your legs (one too many friends have complained about it, so I feel I must point this out). A good starting point is roughly an inch wider than your shoulder width and then feel free to adjust if you need. Theoretically, go wider for more stability.

Stance Angle
There are two main variances in stance direction that are used:

• Forward stance – this is where the front food is angled forward and the back is just slightly angled forward or not at all (this is most popular with free riding where the board is primarily facing one direction).
• Duck-footed – this is where your front food points outwards towards your tip (similar to forward stance) AND your back foot points out towards the tail of the board, thus forming a crude V (this is most popular with freestyle riders).

Tip – Center yourself on the board, put your feet where they feel the most comfortable and squat and stand up like you would if you were turning down the mountain (at this point your bindings should not be mounted on your board). This will give you a good idea of what is a good width and angle for you, but feel free to change it up as your riding gets better.

Feel Good Freestyle Video for the Holidays

Completely slipped my mind to post this earlier, but the bHappy crew put this video together. Look at how much fun that looks… flex snowboards are the best! If you’re thinking about hitting up the slopes, make sure you watch this first for a confidence boost.