Best Exercises for Skiing

Winter may be months away but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be maintaining your strength, or even getting back into shape for the long days on the hill to come. There are many ways to get your muscles in shape for those first turns of the season, with the best exercises for skiing focusing on flexibility, balance, endurance, and core strength. Running, stretching, and strength conditioning can all be good ways to hit all these marks. 

Benefits of Yoga for Skiing

While yoga and skiing may seem like polar opposites, yoga can help you prep for ski season in a number of ways. Skiing demands a lot both mentally and physically, and yoga can help with both. Yoga can also help increase core strength, improve balance, increase flexibility, and promote strength to help prevent injury. 

Yoga Poses for Winter Sports 

Even inexperienced yogis can use yoga principles to get ready for ski season. Some basic poses that even beginners can master include: 

• Utkatasana (chair pose): Increase quad strength  
• Uttansana (standing forward bend): Loosen hamstrings, while lengthening spine and stretching calves 
• Anjaneyasana (forward kneeling lunge): Increase flexibility in hip flexors 
• Adho mukha svanasana (downward facing dog): Build core strength
• Vrksasana (tree pose); Improve balance

Those who want to try their hands at a wide array of different yoga styles should come to the first annual Breckenridge Yoga Festival going on over Labor Day weekend (Saturday, August 31st – Sunday, September 1). Beaver Run Resort is hosting the event and is offering special room rates for those who wish to stay close to the fun!