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Kick-off your season like a pro with these 5 tips on how to prepare for snowboarding season that’ll get your body in the best shape.
So the winter season is just around the corner, you are all excited and expecting massive snowfalls any day now.
Your mind is already set to go and shred the slopes, let alone your poor snowboard is becoming all dusty and rusty in the closet. Can you count the times you’ve put on your snowboard gear and stood before the mirror in the offseason? 🙂
But what about your body?
As everything in nature tends to harmony, your mind and body also have to be in balance. So it’s a good idea to prepare for snowboarding season. After all, you don’t want your body to start playing tricks on you on your first run.
But have no worries, there are ways you can prepare for the snowboarding season and impress your friends.
1. Regular exercising
The first tip is the most trivial. But none the less, even though it is obvious, it is the most important. Proper physical training is the key to becoming ready for the snowboarding season (and improvement).
Not only that, but your overall health will also improve and you’ll feel better.
There are tons of exercises for snowboarders. But among the vast variety of exercises, you have to focus most on your core muscles, legs, and balance.
Core
Core muscles are what keeps you up straight, they uphold your whole body. To prevent back injuries, it is crucial to keep your core muscles in shape.
Legs
When you are going down the mountain on a snowboard, your legs experience huge tension. Also, if you are doing freestyle, leg strength is the key to the high pop. This is why you shouldn’t underestimate leg exercises.
Balance
Balance, of course, is the cornerstone of standing and riding on a snowboard. Whether you have just decided to start snowboarding or you already are a progressing rider with a good feel of balance and coordination will hugely affect your riding skill.
There are quite a few ways you can improve your balance and coordination skills that I’ll cover in just a moment.
2. Stretching
People tend to underestimate stretching exercises and end up at a local therapist with sprained muscles after performing physical activities. There are several reasons why you should stretch, especially if you are a snowboarder.
Regular stretching will make your muscles more flexible, thus increasing the range of motion. This can greatly improve the way you snowboard, like adding more style to your tricks, for example extending back leg on that sweet method grab.
Stiff muscles are more likely to get sprained during extensive movements. So this is another major reason why you should stretch, it will help reduce the risk of injury.
3. Balance training
Now we have come to the most fun part of how to prepare for the snowboarding season. Just like I have explained before – balance and coordination are the keys to stand and ride on a snowboard, and every other board sport for that matter (surfing, skateboarding, wakeboarding…).
I would like to begin by saying that it is preferable not to skip the first two tips that I described above. So let’s get to it!
Some time ago riders noticed that it’s a good idea to train and practice in the offseason or until the weather improves. So they came up with a balance board.
Basically, that is a piece of wooden board and a cylinder-shaped roller. The rider had to stand with both feet on a piece of board, which in turn was placed on a roller and tried to hold his/her balance and not to touch the ground.
However that’s not always the case, there are several different types of balance boards out there.
The main concept of this exercise is to imitate the feeling of standing/riding on board, it could apply to almost any board sport there is, like surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, etc.
These days balance boards are widely used by professional athletes and amateurs all over the globe for balance training. Not only that, but balance boards also have a wide implementation in fitness, workout, recreation, and therapy.
As for the riders, the balance board is a simple, yet very effective tool for practicing:
- balance;
- coordination;
- muscle memory.
There are dozens of different exercises for snowboarding, each of them is targeting different difficulty levels, skill levels, and even unique features of each board sport. Of course, there are even balance boards for snowboarding.
Having said that, the balance board is an awesome invention that can definitely help you improve balance and get you prepared for the snowboarding season along with exercising and stretching.
4. Trampoline
Trampoline training can definitely challenge your overall level of preparation. Practicing on a trampoline involves physical preparation, stretching and balance combined. Also, it is tons of fun.
Many professional snowboarders use a trampoline for honing known tricks and practicing new ones.
Practicing on a trampoline will give you an idea of how our body behaves while in the air. If you’re planning to hit the jumps, there’s no safer environment than the trampoline to get prepared for that.
Practice higher jumps, timing and learning new tricks – all of this can be achieved on a trampoline.
Trampoline practice drains a lot of energy, so it’s a good idea to train physical strength and stamina. Make sure to have a good warmup before you go on a trampoline!
Other than that, a trampoline is another gnarly method to get you ready for the season.
5. Cardio
Yes, you read this right. Cardiovascular endurance is a handy add-on to your overall preparation for the shred season. You need those lungs to breathe air, especially in the higher altitudes.
You don’t want that dog tongue hanging on your shoulder when you’re having a rail or a kicker session with your friends, do you?
There are simple and easy ways you can get your endurance up quickly. I’ll mention the most popular ways on how to achieve that:
Jogging
What more can be said about this, jogging is the basic endurance exercise in almost any sports there is. It
- raises your heartbeat;
- helps blood circulation;
- and get your lungs working.
Jump rope
You’ve probably seen the movie, Rocky. If you haven’t then you should, because it shows you a lot of awesome cardio training methods, add epic Rocky theme music to that and you’ll get goosebumps all over your back.
Jump rope is another great cardiovascular exercise, why do you think boxers do it all the time? Besides cardio, jump rope has many other benefits as well as improves coordination and it decreases foot injuries.
Bike riding
Combine the pleasure of your favorite activity with an exercise that will train your lungs, heart, and legs. Believe me, you won’t regret that when the season arrives.
Conclusion
Preparing for the snowboarding season can be challenging at first. Self-motivation, self-improvement is always hard work. But you know what they say:
“no pain, no gain”
Believe me, knowing that you’ve been working hard preparing for the season will pay off in the end. You’ll feel more confident and will be stoked when you buckle that first binding up and take that first run. Good luck and take care.
