Drills to get you ready for the hills.

By Anthony Findlay
Photography by Todd Duncan

Winter has arrived and that means a whole new playground. Endless options abound when the temperature drops, snow falls and ice replaces water.
Long-forgotten activities back on the books include skiing (in all its forms), snowshoeing, snowboarding, ice climbing, skating, snow running and mountaineering. To get the biggest bang for your workout buck, I have exercises that are athletic, challenging and practical.
To keep primed for this awesome season, these might be the missing ingredients to your routine.
It’s not a matter of doing these all at once or dropping your core, stability and balance training completely, but rather adding three to six  sets of your choice of the following sweet tricks into your workout mix.

Bench Hopping Push-Ups
Goal: Upper body and core power.
Good for: Chest, shoulder, core explosiveness and dynamic stabilization.
Activity: For fast-moving winter sports that include the impact you might incur when you hit the ice, boards, opponents or snow.
How to: Start in a push-up position between four benches. Explosively push your hands and toes into the ground. When your core is strong enough, you transfer the downward force throughout your body propelling you back into the air. Rapidly move hands and feet out to the side and land on all four benches. Hop back down to the ground immediately after you are stable and repeat.
Reps: Complete 3-6+ per set.
Common mistakes: Too much, too soon. Use four small boxes or step risers first, graduating to benches when your core does not break during the set.

Pulse Squats

Goal:Lower body strength — speed and speed endurance.
Goal:Good for: Lower body, power ,endurance, leg strength and lactic acid tolerance. Recruits your quads, hamstrings, adductors and gluteals. It is a great variation to the average squat guaranteed to get your legs pumped and heart pumping.
Activity: I use this with my national team snowboarders to prepare them for World Cups, mimicking the time under tension perfectly with the racecourse lengths. These are great for effective turns while alpine and freestyle skiing, and adding the juice powering up hills while cross-country skiing or snowshoeing.
How to: Place bar on back and engage core. Start from a quarter-squat position in a traditional squat. Lower yourself as low as possible and return to the start position. The movement should be repeated as rapidly as possible while maintaining perfect form.
Reps: Complete for 30 to 70 seconds.
Common mistakes: Do not perform this slowly. Keep your feet planted on the ground and don’t lean forward as you fatigue.

Stability Ball Lockouts
A starter option to four bench push-ups)
Goal: Upper body and core quickness.
Good for: Chest, shoulder, and core reactive power. A great exercise to enhance upper-body quickness and speed.
Activity: Provides your shoulder girdle with profitable stabilization patterns offsetting potentially dangerous falls.
How to: Start in an extended push-up position with hands on top of a stability ball. Drop towards the stability ball by spreading arms out to your sides, bounce upward, stab one arm into the ball and lockout your elbow. Drop down to the ball again and then stab the ball with other hand (begin catching on both arms, graduating to single arm as confidence allows).
Reps: Complete 5 or 10 each arm per set.
Common mistakes: Be patient and wait until you bounce before you lockout on the ball. Stabilize every joint in your body from your wrist to your ankle and your core to “stick it.”

Single-Arm Barbell Overhead Lunge
(Medicine ball as option)
Goal: Enhance balance through upper body, lower body and core stability.
Good for: Shoulder and hip stability, dynamic core strength and improving balance and body awareness.
Activity: Excellent for skating, cross-country, skate skiing, telemarking and snowshoeing. This move provides bonus stability for ski or snowboard jumps.
How to: Hold the barbell directly overhead, maintaining an erect posture. Lock your elbow joint and engage your core. Lunge forward in a straight line until your foot lands flat in front. Bend your back leg down until it almost touches the ground. Return to the starting position in the reverse motion.
Reps: Complete 5-10 on each leg.
Common mistakes:Never track forward knee in front of its plant foot, do not lean forward/backward/left/right.

Single-Leg Horizontal Cable Wood Chop
Goal: Core recruitment and lower body stability/balance.
Good for: Obliques, balance, multiple plane stabilization, rotational force production and rotational force resistance.
Activity: Any activity utilizing force production in individual legs (skiing, skating and snowshoeing), turning while on one or two legs against gravity (skiing, snowboarding, mountaineering) and transference of force in the ankle, hip and shoulder joints while trying to maintain posture. Every sport will benefit from these!
How to: Hold cable with straight arms at chest height or just below. Stand in a ¼ to ½ squat on one leg. Pull weight across torso 180 degrees, maintaining square shoulders perpendicular to the cable. As the weight travels across your frame, extend bent leg until reaching full extension at the end of the pull. Reverse movement, returning to the starting position. Do all reps on one leg, then the other, then turn and face the exact opposite direction, repeating the exercise on each leg to finish the set.
Reps: Complete 5 each leg facing one direction, 5 each leg facing the opposite direction.
Common mistakes:Using too heavy a weight — perfect execution through entire set required prior to increasing the load. Don’t bend your arms during the exercise.

Anthony Findlay, CSCS, NSCA, NSCA C-PT, owns Level 10 Fitness in Vancouver, and trains athletes in the NFL, NHL, CFL and MLB as well as snowboard, Tae Kwon Do, wrestling, and sailing.

November/December 2011