Whether beginner or advanced, amateur or professional, young or old – warming up is part of a successful ski day for everyone! Even if you would like to get out on the slopes straight away, warming up should never be neglected. Veit Steger, ski instructor and trainer at the Falkensteiner Family Resort Lido, and Gaia Cavestro, social media manager at the Falkensteiner Resort Lido and trained ski instructor, reveal simple and effective warm-up exercises in four short videos before hitting the slopes:
LUNGE
The lunge is a multi-joint exercise that can help strengthen, warm up, and tone many muscles of the lower body. These include the quads (front of the thighs), hamstrings (back of the thighs), glutes, and calves (back of the lower legs).
The hip flexors are stretched during the lunge. This improves your flexibility and counteracts the shortening and cramping that can also occur when sitting for too long, and works the core muscles, which provide stability, maintain balance and prevent injuries.
LEG SWING FORWARD
This exercise is especially good for your hamstrings and hip flexors. Support yourself with your poles and simply look straight ahead. Swing one leg back and forth like a pendulum, keeping your posture upright and your core tense. Try not to swing the leg aggressively at first, but start with light swings and gradually increase your range of motion. Thanks to this exercise, your muscles will be supplied with blood and you will feel them slowly loosening up and becoming supple. Relax your hip joint as much as possible. Ideally, do 20 swings for each leg.
ARM circle
The arm circle is an exercise that specifically targets your shoulders and upper arms. It is often used as a warm-up and is often performed only until you feel a sufficient burn, rather than completing a set number of repetitions and sets. If you wish, you can consider ten-second movements as one set and each circle as one repetition.
This exercise is perfect for beginners. It requires very little equipment and can be done almost anywhere. Secondly, it warms up the elbows and shoulder joints and prepares the arm muscles for working with heavier weights. Thirdly, it trains the rotator cuffs, which are often neglected and can lead to frequent injuries, especially for athletes who use these areas heavily in everyday life.
SKIP
The skip is a popular and very effective exercise for toning the thighs, legs, and buttocks. The skip uses different muscle groups such as calves, quadriceps, glutes, abs, lower back, and more. To perform it well, one should push off with the front foot only and try to bring the knees to the chest without bending the upper body. Among other things, it is used to warm up before skiing, improve physical endurance and technique, tone the thighs and buttocks, and burn calories. It strengthens the thigh muscles and improves coordination.
Warmed up, you can now start your adventure on the slopes. But don’t forget: even after skiing, it is very important to do a few minutes of relaxing stretching exercises that loosen up all your muscles to counteract sore muscles. You can use the same exercises that you did BEFORE skiing! 🙂
On the slopes, ready and GOOOOO!
