Assessment & Preparation: Health and fitness play a key role in maximizing performance and preventing injury in snowboarding. To help you achieve your goals this winter you should start by assessing your own fitness and determining areas that need improvement. Before beginning any physical training you must ensure that you are not dealing with any injuries that may be made worse through exercise, if you are unsure about your condition you should check with a doctor or physiotherapist first.

To evaluate your current fitness for snowboarding ask yourself the following questions:

How often are you physically active? What type of activities do you usually do? Was there anything that held you back last winter?

The Canadian Society Society for Exercise Physiology suggest that "adults aged 18-64 years should accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity per week, in bouts of ten minutes or more. It is also beneficial to add muscle and bone strengthening activities using major muscle groups, at least 2 days per week."

If you are not currently achieving those guidelines working towards them is a good to start. If you're already active then try adding something new to your routine.

Get active outside and enjoy the last few days before the snow flies, go for a jog, ride a bike or play a pick-up game with some friends. If you've never done any resistance training start with the basics, push-ups, squats, and lunges. Aim to do 10-20 repetitions of each exercise and repeat for a total of 2-5 sets depending on your current level of fitness.

For explanations/demonstrations of the exercises see the following links:
http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/pushups
http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/bodyweight-squat
http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercises/detail/view/name/bodyweight-walking-lunge

Physical training can be complex and intimidating but it doesn't need to be. In the next few weeks I'll try to provide you with insight to help you train better and get more out of your riding this upcoming winter. With that in mind I leave you with one simple rule for training.

Make sure you sweat and work hard. If it doesn't challenge you it doesn't change you!

John Smits
CASI Level 4
CSEP-Certified Personal Trainer
Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan TEC Committee Rep
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.