5 Best Balance Board Exercises For Snowboarding To Improve Your Riding

One of the ways to improve and maintain your snowboard riding skills is to get the use of a balance board as a training tool. In this article, I’ll cover 5 best balance board exercises for snowboarding with you.

Benefits of balance board exercises for snowboarding

There are several benefits you’ll get if you will train on a balance board:

• Improve your overall body balance ( duh 🙂 );
• Improve your overall agility;
• Improve muscle memory;
• Improve static endurance;
• Strengthen muscles and joints;
• Improve tricks;

Having said that the following exercises will focus on the above points and help you improve your riding and get better at snowboarding.

With a multitude of these benefits, you can carry-out a full-fledged training session at home or even make it an alternative to snowboard in the summertime.

What board to choose?

Depending on the goal you’re trying to achieve the type of the balance board may differ. There are two main balance board types you can go with when performing exercises for snowboarding:

• Roller type balance boards;
• Wobble type balance boards.

You can check out our article on the best balance boards for snowboarding to help you make a decision on what balance board best suits your needs.

Now let’s get to the fun part.

Warm-up

Before you proceed with an exercise session it’s important to loosen up your body and warm it up. This will help to reduce the risk of injury.

For the warm-up, you can do a simple stretching and joint rotation or perform some exercises like jumping jacks, squats, and stretches.

1. Rocking regular

The first exercise is the simplest, just to get you going and feel comfortable.

Stand on the balance board, level yourself, and slowly start rocking the board from side to side by shifting the weight from one foot to another.

This exercise will help you train overall body balance. To make it a little more challenging, hold your balance on one foot and then on another. As if you’re doing a tail or a nose press on a snowboard.

Benefit for riding: It will give an additional load to your leg muscles and you’ll become more comfortable with presses. Try increasing hold time from several seconds up to a minute.

2. Rocking parallel

Rotate your board 90 degrees, so it’s placed parallel to the roller. And then try to do essentially the same thing as in previous point. Try maintain the balance by rocking the board back and forth.

The amplitude will be much smaller, however, it will be much harder to maintain the balance.

Benefit for riding: This exercise is good for practicing the 50-50 trick as you’ll be in the same position when sliding down the rail. As well as improve your overall confidence and stability on a snowboard.

3. Balancing on one foot

While standing on a balance board, rotate yourself 90 degrees. Place your feet at a shoulder-width apart. Now slowly lift one foot and try to maintain the balance on another foot. Try to hold it for 10 seconds and then switch feet. Gradually increase the standing time.

Benefit for riding: You’ll greatly improve leg muscle strength, as well as overall balance and coordination. Skating on one foot or using tow lift will become piece of cake.

4. Squats

While standing on a balance board position yourself for a regular squat. Feet at a shoulder-width apart level the board to stand in the middle of the roller. Do a squat.

Benefit for riding: Squat is a great exercise for snowboarding on its own. You’ll strengthen leg muscles and will become more balanced in a low position.

5. Jumping on and off

This is a more complex exercise and will require some skill to do it. Level the board so it stands still in the middle of the roller. Stand parallel to the board facing it. Now jump on the board and try to maintain the balance.

When you’re comfortable jumping on the board, next step is to try jumping off of it. Try to do a set of 10 on and off jumps.

Benefit for riding: It will help you adjust your body balance while performing a motion. This could be similar when you’re landing a jump or landing on a rail.

Conclusion

These balance board exercises for snowboarding are quite easy to do and are suited for all levels of difficulty. The best part is that exercising on a balance board provides much more fun than regular training.

Remember, training on a balance board is a great way to stay in shape and maintain your snowboarding skills and balance. Especially in the offseason.

Once you’ve mastered these 5 exercises, you can try more complex ones or you can get creative and just experiment with them.

Lastly, if you feel like those exercises are complex to execute, check our article on the best balance boards for beginners. There you can find balance boards that are well suited for beginners and are easy to start with.