Skiing can be a whole lot of fun when the snow starts flying. But your body can take a beating on the slopes if it’s not properly prepared.
Advertisement
Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. Advertising on our site helps support our mission. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. Policy
Sports medicine specialist Molly McDermott, DO, shares how to get ready for ski season with some workouts and strategies.
Ski training routine
Some elite skiers start training at the tail end of spring — about six months before they ever hit the slopes. Others may need less time. In general, Dr. McDermott recommends training at least six to eight weeks before your first outdoor adventure.
Advertisement
As part of your routine, you’ll want to focus on ski workouts that build:
Strength
Endurance
Flexibility
Neuromuscular control (also known as muscular coordination)
Trying to jump into a sport when you haven’t intentionally trained is difficult and challenging, says Dr. McDermott. That’s especially true given the physical demands that come with skiing.
“You want to train your brain, nerves and muscles to really build stability and balance so you can have more control over how you jump and land,” she notes.
Ski exercises
Ski-focused training puts a strong emphasis on lower-body exercises, targeting everything from your glutes to your ankles. But you’ll want to take a full-body approach to ski exercises, which means working on your core and upper body as well.
“You’re going to have to make real-time decisions when you’re out on the slopes,” stresses Dr. McDermott. “You’ll need to strengthen your whole body to be able to do things like pivot or change direction, keep your balance, propel yourself forward and withstand the impact of skiing.”
Dr. McDermott recommends starting with just bodyweight exercises if this is your first go at it. More experienced athletes can focus on higher weights or machines. In general, she recommends doing three sets of 10 to 15 reps each. Then, as you work through your training, you can progressively load your weight, sets, reps or how long you exercise to continue building strength and endurance.
Advertisement
Here are some workouts that lend themselves to skiing.
Dynamic warm-up
Warming up before any workout is key, especially right before you hit the slopes. The International Ski and Snowboard Federation agrees. Dynamic warm-ups and cool-downs are highly effective for preventing injury and improving performance.
Consider starting and ending your ski workout with five to 10 minutes of:
Jogging
Using an elliptical
Walking on a treadmill
“You’re warming up your muscles and then stretching them, as opposed to static, cold stretching,” explains Dr. McDermott.
Squats
“Squat maneuvers help make sure you have the coordination of your nerves and your muscles working together so your muscles are strong and keep your body aligned — in particular, keeping your knees from turning in,” says Dr. McDermott. “As squats become easier, you can progress to squat jumps.”
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart with your toes pointed slightly outward.
Hinge at your hips, bend your knees and slowly lower your body (as if sinking into a chair).
Lower until your thighs are parallel to the ground, keeping your knees in line with your toes and your weight on your heels.
Hold the position for three to five seconds.
Shoot up quickly to your starting position by pushing through your heels.
Repeat this process for 10 to 15 reps.
Side-lying hip abductors
Hip abductor exercises help with skiing because they focus on balance, control and building strength in your hips, glutes and thighs.
Lie down on your side with your legs extended straight. Your right leg should be on top of the other and you should rest your head on your left arm.
Keeping your hips steady, lift your right leg so your knees are no longer touching. You should feel a stretch in your upper thigh and hip.
Slowly lower your right leg.
Repeat for 10 to 15 reps, then switch sides and continue.
Calf raises
Calf raises help improve ankle mobility and calf strength — all needed for those quick turns while skiing.
Stand with your feet hip-width apart, with your arms hanging at your sides.
Slowly lift the back of your heels until you’re standing on the balls of your feet.
Hold this position for one to two seconds before lowering back down.
Repeat for 10 to 15 reps.
Skater hops
“Skater hops are single-leg hops from side-to-side,” describes Dr. McDermott. “These are really going to help you in certain ski maneuvers.”
Stand with your feet hip-width apart and your hips and knees bent at a 45-degree angle.
Push off the floor with your left leg so that you jump to the side, landing on your right leg.
Keep your knees bent and your left leg crossed behind your right (as if you’re skating).
Then, jump back to the opposite side, crossing your right leg behind your left.
Repeat this process in quick succession for 10 to 15 reps, jumping as fast and far as you’re able.
To maintain momentum, it helps to swing your left arm forward as you’re pushing off with your left leg and vice versa.
Shoulder shrugs
“Shoulder shrugs are a good ski exercise because they help build the upper trapezius muscles that connect with your neck,” says Dr. McDermott. “They really work on your posture.”
Start by standing tall, feet hip-width apart.
While looking straight ahead, lift both of your shoulders and slowly roll them backward in a circle for 10 seconds.
Repeat the process by circling your shoulders in the opposite direction for 10 seconds.
Chin tucks
Chin tucks involve a gentle range of motion to improve posture and strengthen neck muscles.
While sitting or standing in a relaxed position, look straight ahead and lightly touch the bottom of your chin with your index finger.
Gently pull your head and neck back so your chin moves away from your finger.
Hold this tucked-chin position for up to 10 seconds before slowly extending your head and neck forward to the starting chin position.
Repeat this process for 10 to 15 reps.
Push-ups
“Push-ups are good for strengthening your shoulders, chest and core, which helps with balance and stability when you’re skiing,” says Dr. McDermott.
Kneel on all fours with your palms flat on the floor in front of you and your fingers facing forward. Hands should be shoulder-width apart and directly below your shoulders.
Lift your knees off the floor and straighten your legs.
Bend your elbows and tuck them to your sides as you slowly lower your chest and chin to the floor.
Push through your palms until your arms are fully extended. Don’t let your hips or back dip to the ground — your head, spine and butt should all be aligned.
Repeat this process for 10 to 15 reps.
Planks
This exercise targets your wrists, forearms, core and upper body — all areas that promote stability and strength while skiing.
Get into a push-up position, with your legs extended and your elbows directly beneath your shoulders.
Hold this upright push-up position for 10 to 15 seconds, with your abs engaged and butt and back aligned.
For a modified challenge, you can lower your knees to the floor while holding this position.
For a deeper stretch, you can rock your hips back and forth, or lower down to your elbows for a low plank.
Bridges
Bridges help strengthen your glutes, which help guide and direct your skis.
Lie on your back with your knees bent, feet on the floor and arms at your sides.
Squeezing your butt and abdominal muscles, push through your heels to slowly lift your hips toward the ceiling.
Keep your back straight and your arms pressed into the floor at your sides.
Hold this position for a few seconds, before slowly lowering your hips to the floor.
Repeat this process for 10 to 15 reps.
Oblique twists
Also known as a Russian twist, this exercise focuses on your abdominal muscles and core strength. It helps with skiing because it supports your ability to rotate, turn and move quickly.
Sit on the floor with your knees bent and your feet flat.
Lean back at a 45-degree angle and squeeze your abdominal muscles.
Extend your arms out straight in front of you and clasp your hands together.
Engage your core as you twist slowly to the right as far as you feel comfortable, moving your arms in the direction you’re turning.
Return back to center, pause and then twist to the left side.
Repeat this process for 10 to 15 reps.
Cardio exercises
Skiers can also benefit from cardio exercises that get their blood flowing and build aerobic endurance, like:
Cycling
Running
Swimming
Rowing
“Build cardiovascular and low-impact activities into your training routine to help improve your performance and increase your endurance,” advises Dr. McDermott. “Some days you can break it up into sets or you can do 30 minutes straight.”
A note before hitting the slopes
A big part of ski training is getting your body acclimated to cold-weather exercises. For athletes who live in areas where winter runs strong, it helps to train early and get that outdoor exposure as temperatures begin to drop during the fall.
Advertisement
Others who live in warmer climates might benefit from taking cold showers, ice baths or lowering indoor temperatures weeks before heading out on a ski trip.
Once ski season begins, make sure you warm up before heading outdoors, stay hydrated and keep moving to keep your body warm.
“When you’re skiing, a lot of unexpected things happen,” cautions Dr. McDermott. “The weather changes and things happen really fast. So, you want to be physically and mentally prepared before you hit the slopes, making sure you’ve got the right equipment, the right clothing and you’re prepared in case of injury.”
Short, no-equipment workouts are racking up billions of views as consumers ditch traditional gym routines for fast, accessible fitness that fits into everyday life
Gym membership might be at an all-time high, but there’s a whole population of people going after their workout goals without a a traditional location or routine.
Just as people are drawn to short-form content on social media, they’re also gravitating toward short-form fitness — also known as “exercise snacks.”
Data from AI-powered analytics platform Virlo scoured more than 1,000 online videos with more than 2.2 billion views, finding that 5–15 minute routines on social media are outperforming traditional gym content, achieving higher engagement as they lower friction and make fitness feel immediately achievable.
Over three-quarters (76%) of trending fitness content across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube was no-equipment workouts that catered to audiences short on time, the report found.
Within that content, videos pushing specific body part targeting and transformation — especially abs, glutes and arms — had three to five times more engagement, while phrases like “no equipment,” “home workout” and “do anywhere” amplified shares. Videos that promised results within a certain number of days or expressed urgency (“lose fat fast” or “10 days to abs”) also saw higher views, especially repeat visits.
Advertisement
The trend reflects a broader shift online toward low-commitment, accessible and quick-results fitness that can seamlessly fit into the confines of everyday life. The videos are typically being posted by “micro-creators” without huge followings who post relatively simple routines.
These mini workouts appeal to the ubiquitous desire for instant gratification, while reducing the intimidation of structured gym routines, potentially increasing the chance of people who might not work out at all engaging in some form of exercise.
While the credibility of these creators’ claims to transform body composition in short windows with these movements is up unknown, there is science backing the effectiveness of exercise snacks.
A meta-analysis from last year found that short, structured bouts of movement — about five minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise — significantly improved cardiovascular fitness in adults, and slightly improved endurance among older adults, supporting the idea that any movement is better than none, especially if it lowers the barrier to entry to exercise.
Elaine LaLanne is spending the days since her 100th birthday with the same healthy habits she’s been cultivating for decades: exercising every day and eating a nutritious diet.
She starts each morning with abdominal exercises, leg lifts and and pushups, noting she’s “very strong in the core.”
The widow of famed fitness guru Jack LaLanne credits her husband for turning her life around. He hosted the first TV exercise show starting in the 1950s and has been called the “father of the modern fitness movement.”
She recalls initially dismissing him as “this muscle man” when they first met in 1951 — LaLanne booked him to perform pushups during a TV program she was producing — but becoming intrigued by his healthy lifestyle.
At 100, Elaine LaLanne still works out every day. She was born on March 19, 1926.
“I wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t met Jack LaLanne. I was always eating chocolate donuts and smoking cigarettes and eating candy bars for lunch,” the centenarian, who lives in California, tells TODAY.com.
Advertisement
“He told me, ‘You should be eating apples and bananas and oranges.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding?’ Then I changed my tune, and I’ve been a convert ever since. I know that’s why I lived to be 100.”
She stopped smoking, started eating healthier and began exercising. The couple married in 1959. She says most women didn’t work out in those days, but the “The Jack LaLanne Show” got many female viewers interested in exercise.
Elaine LaLanne was a regular part of the program, and became an author and public speaker, touting the benefits of exercise and good nutrition and earning the nickname “The first lady of fitness.”
The LaLannes, aka “the father of modern fitness” and the “first lady of fitness.”
She was married to Jack LaLanne until his death at 96 in 2011.
The Health & Fitness Association inducted the couple into its Hall of Fame in March.
Here are Elaine LaLanne’s simple tips for living a long and healthy life:
Advertisement
Exercise Every Day
The centenarian has been exercising daily for most of her life.
At 100, before LaLanne gets out of bed, she still does 20 “jackknife” ab exercises every day, a routine she’s followed for years. The core workout involves starting in a lying position, then lifting the torso and legs at the same time, ending up in a V-shaped position.
She also does leg lifts and other leg exercises while lying down, then gets up to do pushups against a wall or sink.
When LaLanne was younger, she used to be able to do 50 full-body pushups. She also worked out with weights and used a treadmill. Her workout sessions usually lasted 30 minutes.
Swimming was another favorite form of exercise. “Jack said swimming is probably one of the best all over exercises one can do,” she notes. Swimming is one of the best sports for a long healthy life, studies confirm.
Advertisement
Elaine LaLanne in 2016.
Eat a Healthy Diet
LaLanne doesn’t follow any particular eating plan, like the Mediterranean diet or a low-carb diet. She calls her approach “just plain old watching what you want to put in your mouth.”
When you eat, ask yourself: “What is this going to do for me?” she advises.
Her typical breakfast might be yogurt mixed with protein powder and topped with blueberries, strawberries and other fruit. She’s never been a coffee drinker, so she prefers to have a cup of cocoa. Cocoa has antioxidant properties, enhances cognition and boosts positive mood, studies have found.
For dinner, she loves to eat salmon or chicken, but otherwise doesn’t consume a lot of meat. The rest of her plate is filled with a lot of vegetables, plus rice or potatoes.
“I love potatoes. I grew up in the Midwest, and I’m still a potato lover,” she says. “It’s just simple, simple things. I eat like most people.”
She eats just enough so that her stomach is full without overindulging.
Advertisement
Live Life in Moderation
Her husband was extremely disciplined and didn’t eat dessert, opting for fruit and figs to satisfy any sugar cravings.
She followed suit and didn’t have any cake or ice cream for decades, but then rebelled.
Elaine and Jack LaLanne.
“I said, ‘Jack, I’m 80 years old, and if I want a piece of cake, I want to have a piece of cake,’” she recalled.
“One candy bar is not going to kill you. … When you overindulge, that’s the downfall. And if you just have a little of this, a little of that, it’s not going to kill you. That’s what I believe.”
She has the same approach to alcohol, enjoying an occasional glass of wine.
Be Consistent
Jack LaLanne said, “It’s not what you do some of the time that counts. It’s what you do most of the time,” his wife points out.
Advertisement
She sums up her own philosophy as the acronym ARCH.
A for attitude.
R for resistance — “If you resist that muscle, it’s going to work for you. If you resist the food that’s undermining your health, you’re going to be healthier,” she says.
C for consistency.
H for harmony.
Mark Wahlberg has plans to make a documentary about the LaLannes.
Think Positive
“I’m a very positive person, and I don’t let anything bother me,” LaLanne says.
“If people could get rid of negativity, they would be a lot happier.”
Her husband encouraged that mindset, always reminding the family, “We do not talk negative in this house,” she recalls. He was also a believer in visualizing a positive outcome before it happened.
Accept and Persevere
When LaLanne’s 21-year-old daughter died in a car accident, she got through the tragedy by telling herself she couldn’t change things, so she had to accept what had happened.
“Just before I turned 100, I was thinking, how can I sum this whole thing up in all my life? I thought about my acceptance,” LaLanne says.
Advertisement
“Through my life, I’ve accepted what I’m handed, and then I persevere. … Those two things are my mantra.”
She’s still applying that mantra today as she deals with macular degeneration that’s caused her to lose sight in one eye. LaLanne accepts her worsening vision but looks for ways to work around it. She can still see her computer screen and keep writing, so she perseveres.
It’s not that Rachel Collins thinks dead bugs aren’t a good core exercise, it’s just that, for the majority of us, she thinks there might be a better alternative: weighted taps.
Below, the pelvic floor expert tells WH why she’s made the swap and how to nail your technique to get the most out of this exercise.
Benefits of weighted taps
‘The Dead Bug is a popular core exercise but maintaining proper form to ensure good core connection is also very difficult,’ says Collins, who focuses on abdominal strengthening in much of her work as a pelvic floor physical therapist. ‘When reaching an arm overhead and kicking a leg out, many women flare their ribs and arch their lower back. This makes it harder to activate the lower core and can cause lower back pain.’
‘I love performing weighted taps instead because adding a weight requires you to push up, which helps push those ribs back so you can maintain a better rib and pelvis position, keeping the lower core engaged,’ she adds. ‘It just feels so much better for me and helps many people maintain better core activation to get the most out of the exercise.’
How to do weighted taps with good form
Here, Collins outlines how to perform weighted taps with good technique.
Advertisement
Push the weight up towards the ceiling
Shoulder blades come off the floor
Inhale through the nose with your legs in the air
Exhale through your mouth to tap one foot down
Rachel Collins
Rachel Collins demonstrating her favourite core exercise: weighted taps
And a bonus tip? ‘It [can help] to use a towel roll under your back where you feel it is arched more to give your back something to press into during the exercise.’
Mistakes to avoid
Common mistakes to avoid when doing the exercise, adds Collins, include:
Lifting your head off the ground
Not using a heavy enough weight
Feeling increased tension in the neck
Why a strong core is so important
Maintaining your core strength as you age is crucial to staying strong, active and independent. By improving balance and stability, a strong core – which encompasses your back, abdominals, pelvic floor, diaphragm, hips and glutes – can help prevent falls, improving overall longevity. One recent study found that core training improved balance, plus throwing, hitting and jumping ability.
In other words, by adding regular core exercises – like weighted taps – to your routine, you’re getting a whole lot of bang for your buck.
Having a strong core is about far more than sporting a six-pack. Build functional mid-section strength – while also improving your power, posture, coordination and balance – with WH COLLECTIVE coach Izy George’s 4-week core challenge. Download the Women’s Health UK app to access the full training plan today.
Get the app
Advertisement
Hannah Bradfield is a Senior Health and Fitness Writer for Women’s Health UK. An NCTJ-accredited journalist, Hannah graduated from Loughborough University with a BA in English and Sport Science and an MA in Media and Cultural Analysis. She has been covering sports, health and fitness for the last five years and has created content for outlets including BBC Sport, BBC Sounds, Runner’s World and Stylist. She especially enjoys interviewing those working within the community to improve access to sport, exercise and wellness. Hannah is a 2024 John Schofield Trust Fellow and was also named a 2022 Rising Star in Journalism by The Printing Charity. A keen runner, Hannah was firmly a sprinter growing up (also dabbling in long jump) but has since transitioned to longer-distance running. While 10K is her favoured race distance, she loves running or volunteering at parkrun every Saturday, followed, of course, by pastries. She’s always looking for fun new runs and races to do and brunch spots to try.
