Skiing and snowboarding are sports that are open for typically one season a year (depending on your location) but it requires year-round work to maintain physical shape. Athletes all over the world have to train during summer months to stay in shape and maintain their skill-set for the winter season. Here’s how they do it!

Gym Time
This one may seem obvious but the exercises done inside of the gym is where things get interesting. Winter athletes need to engage specific muscles to maintain their shape for their sport of choice and utilize unique training methods such as ab wheels, rowing, high-intensity cardio training, and agility work. Look to your favorite pro’s and see if they put out the specific workouts they do to stay in shape.

Water Sports
The cool thing about skiing and snowboarding is that they can both essentially be done in the summer- just using a different medium (aka water). There are obviously differences in water and snow, however, wakeboarding or water-skiing is the closest you’re going to get to replicating the experience and engaging the muscles in a similar fashion.

Skating
Skating is both easy to pick up and fun! It also helps maintain balance and mental stamina (you don’t want to fall while snowboarding or skating). While your feet will be positioned differently on a skateboard than a snowboard it is still a fun way to get some good practice in and can still improve your snowboarding game.

Biking
Biking is hands down one of the best ways you can keep your legs in shape for snowboarding and skiing. You should be biking as much as you absolutely can be- take it to work, to the coffee shop, to the gym, for a casual ride, just make sure you do it! If you can take it up and down some hills or a mountain that’s even better.

There are many things winter athletes (and you) can do to stay in shape during the summer. Activities as simple as getting in the gym or taking it up a notch and learning other extreme sports like mountain biking or surfing will contribute to a better winter season ensuring that when you get back in the snow, you will be ready to pick up right where you left off!