Snowboard Workout for Summer!

Nowadays it’s really hard to lump snowboarders into a group of “athletes” that spend their days training hard and staying in shape for competition.  There are probably hundreds of different kinds of snowboarders from the kids who can’t ride with out being intoxicated to the kids who go snowboarding and then straight to the gym to hit the heavy iron.  This article is for those of you who want to stay in some sort of shape for snowboarding this summer, and I’m happy to report that it really IS a thirty minute workout at most!

Lose the Iron

You can absolutely forget about lifting any weights.  I know a guy who was a bodybuilder and once he was hired to a local landscaping crew.  You figure that with all that strength he would have no problem digging and lifting all day.  By the end of his first day he couldn’t really do much work.  He could barely even pick up his shovel.  Why, with countless hours a day at the gym did this happen? Lifting weights might build muscle, but it is a completely useless kind of muscle… slow twitch. Slow twitch muscles are built due to continuous expansion and contraction of the muscle throughout the day… i.e. slow, controlled, repetitive motions.  Slow repetitive movements have no place in landscaping and absolutely no place in snowboarding.

You are a snowboarder… you aren’t looking to be moving nice and slow and controlled.  You want to build up the fast twitch muscles.  Fast twitch muscles contract quickly and explosively.  They are there when you make a quick switch from your snowboards heel edge to your toe edge.  They are helping out when you get to the lip and do that explosive pop into the sky!  They are especially there when you mess up and have to rely on quick reflexes to either fix your situation or brace for impact.

Snowboard Workout Routine

Absolutely no gym membership required folks! Besides, chances are you guys are at this snowboarding site because you snowboard, which also means you are probably broke like me and can’t afford a gym membership anyway.  So on to the workout.  It takes like I said less than thirty minutes and you can do it pretty much anywhere.  Do it every day cause it’s really not that hard.  You won’t need rest,

Pushups

I try and go for around about 100 a day.  You don’t have to do it all at once but shoot for finishing it up in three sets… so if you do three sets of 30 pushups a day then you should be in pretty good shape! 

Pushups serve two purposes in snowboarding.  One is to keep your upper body and wrists loose and limber.  The other is to brace you for impact.  I don’t know about you guys but when I fall snowboarding its usually towards my stomach and it’s nice to have a little bit of muscle built up to catch yourself.  Plus doing lots of pushups makes you look so Hott (with two ‘t’s).

Sit-ups/Crunches

It’s all in the core.  Again shoot for around 100 per day.  If you been snowboarding a lot before you found this guide, then doing three sets of 30 sit-ups will seem like bitch work.

One thing I want to say about sit-ups is that this is really about your spins and general movements.  Everything you do in snowboarding will be initiated from your core, so strengthening it up may produce a drastic difference in your riding.

If basic sit-ups are lame to you then put a twist in them at the end.  Now you are really working the muscles that are going to literally spin you in circles next season!

Standing 360s

Way better than squat jumps although those work too.  I would say 4 sets of 10 alternating frontside and backside.  You want to stand similar to your stance on your snowboard and concentrate on exploding high and fast.  The 360 should be done in the image of what you want them to look like on the snowboard slope.  In other words they should be really nice, floaty jumps with the full 360 degrees of rotation completed.

The benefits of this exercise should be pretty obvious.  It trains your quads for jumping nice and high and your core for quick, controlled rotations.  Not only that, it might help you out if you are having trouble getting yourself oriented during your spins (Where is the board? For that matter where is the landing?  Well hopefully after this exercise you’ll be able to figure it out better).

Think Snowboarding!

Snowboarding is so much more mental though than it is physical.  That is why these exercises are for the most part quick and painless.  Sure they will get you up to speed physically, but the mental aspects of the sport of snowboarding may still hold you back.

Since it is summer, now is the time to start putting last seasons’ hit videos on repeat in your DVD player.  Absorb every aspect of the tricks you see pro snowboarders do.  From how they prepare, to their drop, the set up, the pop, the rotation… it all matters.  Once you can practically replay these tricks in your head just replace that pro snowboarder with an image of you.  Really take the time to imagine how you would look making those same movements and trying that same trick.

If you see a nice, high ledge don’t be embarrassed to pretend you have a snowboard strapped to you and try a 270 or two.  Get on a trampoline and imagine you are staring at the transition to a jump, and then hit it!  The more you repeat and attempt these motions the more familiar they will become

The 08/09 season is just around the corner so get to work guys! See you on the slopes.