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A warm-up on the slope is something you cannot miss. Regardless of whether you love skiing or snowboarding, are a beginner athlete, amateur, professional or long-time passionate about winter sports - you need to warm up. By skipping this stage, you are risking your own he alth. See what a warm-up on the slope should look like before skiing and snowboarding.

Skiing and snowboarding are the most popular winter sports in the snow. It's great that we are waiting for something all year round and rushing to the slope to enjoy the benefits of sport! However, this also has its way side - more and more often the so-called seasonal athletes return after the winter holidays with contusions and injuries, which exclude them not only from practicing their favorite discipline, but also from everyday life. A knee, hip or shoulder injury may turn out to be a very serious matter that will last for many years.

Skier and snowboarder - don't forget to warm up on the slope! Take advantage of our training plan and enjoy the long-awaited sport.

Warming up on the slope is important

Warming up on the slope depends on how you remember this year's skiing or snowboarding trip. If you do a good warm-up, the risk of injury and unpleasant pain will decrease, and you won't have to worry about your knees, hips or spine.

Warming up on the slope before skiing or snowboarding is designed to stimulate your nervous system to work, warm up muscles, moisturize joints, oxygenate the body and improve blood circulation. It is an effort for the whole organism and we have to prepare it for it.

Skiing and snowboarding are sports classified as extreme - due to the conditions of practicing and the physical effort to which our body is exposed. We cannot forget about it and skip the most important stage of practicing sports, i.e. ski warm-up.

Warming up on the slope - how long should it take

How long should your warm-up take? Long enough for you to really feel energized and warmed up. A good test of whether you are already warm is to remember the condition of your leg muscles before and after warming up. If they used to be leaden, heavy and sore before, and after warming up, you feel that they have become lighter, more agile andfaster reacting to stimuli - well done, the warm-up was successful!

The average warm-up for skier and snowboarder should be10-15 minutes- not less, because it will not be effective enough, and not more, because it will tire, not warm you up. In the end, we must remember that driving on the slope itself is quite a physical challenge for us.

Read also: Skiing injury - what to do after an accident on the slope?

Warming up on the slope - warming up the leg muscles

Warming up the leg muscles is the most important thing to ski safely! That is why we start warming up on the slope from this part of the body. After all, they are the ones who do the most work here - maintaining and controlling our body.

  1. Raise your knees. Stand up straight and place your legs hip-width apart. Wear your snowboard or ski boots already. Start alternately lifting the left and right leg once. Try to raise your knees as high as possible towards your chest. Remember that the upward movement should be slow and the downward movement a little faster. You can use ski poles at the beginning of this exercise, but try the more difficult variant later.
  2. Raises the legs. Stand up straight and start lifting your extended leg in front of you. Do it as slowly as possible. Come to the point where your foot is in line with your hips and come back to the starting position. Keep your foot held up all the time. Repetition alternately!
  3. Time for miles! You can do these exercises with or without poles (depending on how exercised you are). Stand up straight, tense your stomach and buttocks, and bring your leg back. Go as low as you can with your knee to the ground and return to the starting position. Make laps for one leg and one for the other.
  4. Now it's time for your knees to be strongly engaged. Stand up straight, tense your buttocks, and rest your hands on your hips. Push your knees in front of you as if you are just skiing or snowboarding. Try to get off your knees, not your hips - try to bend as little as possible at the hip joint. You don't have to come down low, just stop when your knees gently cross the lines of the toes. Once you've done your knee-thrust sets, you can include a right turn and a left turn - exactly the same technique you use for skiing or snowboarding. Remember to keep your abdomen tight at all times - to do this, imagine that you are bringing your ribs closer to your pelvis and shortening the distance between them. Also, don't let go of your buttocks! Imagine that you have to squeeze something between them so that no one takes it from you - this visualization should work.
  5. The last stage of warming up the legs is dynamic exercises. Find a piece of space for yourself and run one way and the other. Change directions frequently, make U-turns, run faster, and then brake sharply. In this exercise, the idea is to stimulate the nervous system to work and "wake up" your legs so that they are prepared even for the most extreme situations on the slope.

Warming up on the slope - warming up shoulders, hands, torso

Warming up your upper torso before skiing? The whole body works on the slope - the muscles of the arms and back as well. They allow us to maintain the correct posture, steer the poles and protect us from possible falls.

  1. Circulation of the arms back and forth. This exercise probably does not need to be explained to anyone. It is perfect to start warming up the upper body! Start with a forward circulation, then move on to a backward circulation.
  2. It's time for a more demanding version! That is, circling your hands forward and backward. Make circles as wide as possible and try to really engage your joints to work. Do laps alternately - one series forward, the second series backward.
  3. Grab the ski poles shoulder width apart and lift them up to your collarbone. Return to the starting position. In the next series of exercises, raise the poles above your head. Remember to keep an eye on the work of the shoulder blade - when you lower your arms down, bring your shoulder blades together and pull them down, and when you raise your arms, let go of the shoulder blade - do not "concrete" it.
  4. Now the whole torso will work! Stand slightly apart on slightly bent legs, grab the poles (set horizontally) and start twisting your torso one way and the other. Look your head far behind you.
  5. And the last warm-up exercise in this series - stand hip-width apart. Then, extend your left leg to the side and shift your weight to your right, adding to your left arm reaching behind your head - in the direction where you are shifting your weight. Do the exercise dynamically, changing sides.

Also remember to warm your wrists. Twist the wheels and move your fingers. If they are warmed up, they can save you from getting injured when you fall.

Read also: Diet of a skier and snowboarder, or what to eat on the slopes in winter

Warming up on the slope - stretching

The last point of warming up on the slope is dynamic stretching.

  1. Stand slightly apart and bend forward. Keep your back straight and only descend to the point where you are not beginning to compensate for the bend by slouching. Going back up, put your arms high above your head and stretch them out,as if you want to grab something and put it back on the ground.
  2. Adopt a bend position as in the previous exercise and shift your weight from one side to the other. You can grab your ankles or your knees - it depends on how you stretch.
  3. Stand slightly apart, bend your knee and bring it closer to the buttock as if you want to kick it. Perform kicks alternately. Try to tuck your pelvis and tighten your buttocks - this will stretch your quadriceps and hips, not just the tendons and tendons at the knee.

Read also:

  • Which skis should you choose? Rules for selecting skis, boots and ski poles
  • Skis: rent or buy? Which option is more profitable?
  • Ski outfit: how to dress for downhill skis?

Warming up on the slope - training plan

The warm-up should last about 10-15 minutes. Take no more than 10 seconds of break between sets - do not let your muscles and joints cool down!

ExerciseNumber of repetitions x seriesDuration x series
Knee Raise12 × 3; alternating
Raise legs12x3; alternating
Zakroki12x3; alternating
Leg bend20 seconds x 4
Runs30 seconds x 3
Circulation of the arms back and forth20 seconds x 2; series forward and series backward
Hand circling back and forth10x4; two sets forward, two sets backward
Raising the poles12x3
Torso turns16x3; alternating
Sideways swing of your arms with weight shifting10x3; alternating
Forward bends10x3
Leg bends12x3; alternating
Bringing feet to buttocks30 seconds x 2

Ski warm-up - group warm-up

Ski warm-up in a group or in pairs can bring us a lot of fun and successfully combine business with pleasure! Here are some sample exercises to do with company. They can be performed in pairs or in pairs in the company of a group, and then join the warm-up in a larger group.

  1. Stand facing each other, put your hands on your shoulders andtry to push yourself backwards.
  2. Stand facing each other holding your shoulders with one hand and your feet with the other. From this position, jump left and right once.
  3. Stand back to back and touch one leg with your heel to the heel. Then try to push them inside you and push your partner out.
  4. Face each other. Do a squat and on your way back up, give yourselves a high five. Roll to the side, do a squat, twist your torso, and high-five again. Then stand back to back, side to side again and come back to the starting position.
  5. Now it's time for group fun! Stand in a large circle with a ski pole. On the "hop" command, let go of the sticks and run clockwise to the person standing next to you and try to catch their stick. Whoever does not run up or knock over the stick - drops out and as a punishment, until the end of the game, he does warm-up exercises from the training plan on the slope
  6. Another group fun is berek-avalanche. You play tag, in which the chaser, after being "caught," grabs his friend's hand and chases others together. Another captured person joins them, forming a string and so … while supplies last.

Each exercise should last a few minutes.Do it until you feel a little breathless, burning in your muscles or just a more noticeable body heat.

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