A Complete Guide to Snowboard Workouts

The main theme of snowboard-oriented workouts is balance. I have developed these workouts from personal trainer advice and my own expertise as a professional snowboarder. Do the exercises AT YOUR OWN RISK! I like having someone to spot my form; I'd recommend working out with a partner to make sure you're not hurting yourself.

The focus of these workouts is to develop strength while always engaging your core. I do high reps with lower weight in order to produce lean muscle. I'm not focused on building "big" muscles per say because this can throw off your balance. Rather, I focus on toning your muscles, reducing fat and always always ALWAYS keeping the core at the center of your workout. I can guarantee that if this is followed you will notice significantly stronger abs.

Make sure you start out with low weights and always use your less dominant hand/leg first to establish your base weight. Form is more important than weight. So, don't push the weight until you're confident your form is good.

Cardio
Stair workout: Find a small stair set or hill. I like to focus on explosion with a full rest. Sprint up as fast as you can and then walk down. Wait at the bottom until your heart rate has calmed down. Repeat 10 to 15 times.

Long Run: At least once a week you want to get one of these in. I like to aim for 5 to 10 miles. Try to pick a trail that's slightly challenging; it's good to practice visualization before winter. With rocky trails, we can work on this by visualizing a few steps ahead while running. Time your runs and log them so that you can have something to improve upon. If it's hard for you to beat your previous time, change it up; maybe run less miles at a faster pace or longer at a slower pace or just an easier/more difficult trail. You want to keep changing things if you feel like you're in a slump. It will give you confidence and keep you working towards something.

Plyometrics
Plyometrics (Plyos) is another biggie to prepare you for the winter season. This workout encourages overall athleticism, balance and cardio. Here is a good blog that shows some examples of plyos workouts: Plyometric Exercises. I like to combine a few plyo exercises in order to simulate the cardio we experience from a snowboard run. I try to go hard for 1-2 minutes with a circuit of exercises and then I take a full break. Repeat this 5-8 times.

Legs
We can easily do squats, leg raises and calf raises which will help with our leg strength. However, their are some specific tweaks on these standard lifts that encourage balance.

First, I actually do squats, leg raises and calf raises on a machine, but I always do each leg individually. When we use both legs, we tend to favor our dominant leg. We want balance between both of our legs so make sure you lift each leg individually with the same weight on each side.

Some other leg workouts I encourage involve a Bosu Ball. Here are five good one's to focus on: 5 Quick Bosu Ball Leg Exercises. Finally, I use one of these: HemingWeigh Inflated Stability Wobble Cushion | Exercise Fitness Core Balance Disc and do Single-Leg Squats. That last exercise is fairly advanced, but something good to work up to.

Arms
While we use our arms minimally with snowboarding, it's good to have some arm strength in order to prevent injury. I do the following exercises with TRX because it encourages arm stability.

1. Chest Press/Fly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXtN0dQp6L4
2. Back Row/Fly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueKutBiW8b4
3. Bicepts: http://afblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/trx-bicep-curls.jpg
4. Tricepts: http://afblog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/trx-triceps-extension.jpg

Also, I do dumbbell chest press and fly on a yoga ball. Again, this encourages stability. Finally, I do dumbbell bent over rows and flys for my back muscles. I like to do the final two workouts on a bosu ball as well to engage the core.

Cross Training

This is the most important workout! It's nearly impossible to fully imitate snowboarding without snow. The best we can do is give ourselves a diverse palet of activities to progress our overall athleticism. Some activities I would recommend is swimming, soccer, ultimate frisbee and biking. There are probably many more things you can do, but I encourage everyone to play as many different sports as possible.

Stretch
How do you expect to tweak that method out like Terje without flexibility !! Ideally, you stretch twice a day. Try to hold your stretches for 30 seconds. Focus on the quads, groin, hips and hamstrings. Yoga is an awesome alternative to accomplish some stretching and cross training!  Try to work into and hold yoga poses such as pigeon, triangle and warrior two.

BONUS: ShouldersThese extra exercises are especially important to me as I have undergone 3 shoulder surgeries. If you have labrum, rotator cuff or collarbone problems, I would highly recommend adding this into your workout!

1. Internal Rotation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owd5a8HNl0w
2. External Rotation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEDJ1tEVEP0
3. Downs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJSkLGRckr0
4. Raises: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTY8hePeS5I

These should prepare you for the season! Once the snow starts falling, you gotta get out there because snowboarding is the best way to get in shape for snowboarding. Try to keep the workouts up as well to give you an extra edge on the rest of your crew.