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17.07.2007 |
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Aerobic conditioning as well as strength building exercises is required for snowboarding. Aerobic conditioning increases the endurance and the breathing. Strength building burns more calories and helps increase the muscle strength.
Pre and post exercise routine
Flexibility is important to avoid injury as well as to avoid the ‘next day soreness’ that is very common. A proper warm up and cool down is quintessential to avoid injuries.
Squats
Squats exercise the calf muscles and the thigh muscles. A proper squat puts the weight on the knees and one should always see the toes when doing squats. Bending the knee too forward makes the exercise ineffective.
Skipping
This exercise can be done in either quick anaerobic fashion or the slow cardio exercise fashion. For a person without any health issues, the ideal speed is 500 in 5 minutes. This is reached over a few weeks and NOT overnight.
Push ups
Push ups exercises the abdomen and the upper body muscles. Ideally the arms should be separated by a little more than the arm’s width and we should maintain a horizontal posture when the entire body moves down and then up.
An ideal number of pushups should be equal to the age of the person (for those under 40) at a rate of at least 1 pushup every 2 seconds.
Calf Raise
This is done on the steps with the toes at the edge of the step and the heels in air. Then slowly rise up to the tip of the toes and come back to initial position. This is a great exercise for the calf muscles and also helps do the toe traverse more efficiently.
Duck Walk
Squat fully with hands behind the head. Move forward in the same position. This is a great exercise for the entire lower limb.
Tricep excercise
This exercise helps get up from snow. It is the same movement. Find a strong fixed bench and place the hands at the edge of the bench. Straighten the legs with heels on the floor. We should now slowly drop down towards the ground by bending at the elbow to 90 degrees and then lift up again. This should be repeated. Afterwards
- Strength training and aerobics should be done at least thrice a week.
- Aerobic workouts should be performed for at least 25 to 45 minutes at a time, to get the most out of them.
- Weight training usually starts with 2-3 sets of 10 repetitions, and progresses to 4-5 sets of 10 reps.
These are not strict rules and can be modified by experience or by the advice of fitness experts. Before starting any physical training and workout it is advisable to consult a physician.
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