6 Dryland Bodyweight Exercises That Will Improve Your Skiing Experience

Most gym programs for skiers lean heavily into complex, advanced movements and forget that the fundamentals are where real gains happen. Alecia from WILDR Fitness put together a list of six exercises that cover exactly what your body needs before you hit the slopes, and they work for any fitness level.

She starts with single-leg balance, which sounds almost too simple but does a tremendous job waking up the intrinsic muscles of your feet, ankles, and hips. Three sets of 10 to 60 seconds, and you can close your eyes or add a resistance band to make it genuinely challenging. Rear foot elevated split squats come next, targeting the fact that your inside and outside ski legs are doing completely different jobs on every turn. Four to eight reps, heavy, fully recovered between sets.

Front lever Cossack squats address the lateral demands of skiing that most gym programs ignore entirely. Keep a light weight at shoulder height and sink sideways, not back. Single leg lateral jumps are pulled from ACL injury prevention protocols used with ski racers. Ten sets of two, stick every landing, and film yourself to catch any knee or hip alignment issues.

Lateral skater jumps train you to load that outside ski on every turn. Start conservative before chasing height or distance. Finally, wall lean leg lifts are the most ski-specific move on the list. Lean into a wall or pole, keep your hips parallel, push through the outside leg, and lift the inner foot. Quality over quantity here.

• Categories:  
• Skiing