Ski Exercise 1 - Flexibility Hips and Ankles

Flexibility: many of us want it but only some of us have it. Working on your flexibility is the key to progressing in terms of strength and skill and very importantly staying injury free throughout the ski season and beyond! From an evolutionary point of view we never would have had to “work” on our flexibility, our environment would train our bodies to be flexible and strong through our everyday movement. Unfortunately, it is no longer that simple as most of us spend day in, day out slouched over computers or steering wheels giving very little thought to our posture or flexibility. Often we find that trying to rectify this by going to the gym yields little result, possibly because we are putting our efforts into the wrong kinds of exercises when actually we need to be focusing on some rather basic movement patterns.  So, let's get started getting warmed up, flexible and strong ready for the ski season!

Feet and ankles: 

- bend your toes back and forth putting some body weight into it 

- roll your ankle joint around clockwise, then anti clockwise, both legs

- go down onto your knees and tuck your toes under you behind you, now sit back so your weight goes through into your toes (this can be a painful one – but it's good pain, honest!)  

- lastly use a tennis/golf ball to roll out the bottom of your foot – this will help release the fascial tension which can hold your muscles in the wrong position no matter how much stretching of the calf and upper leg you do.

Hips: the hip joint is designed to move in many directions, ensuring this joint is flexible is priority to good health (not just skiing). 

- Start by taking a big lunge forward so the front knee is in a right ankle position and your hands are to the inside of that foot and all 3 points are in line (ball of the foot and 2 hands), bring your body weight forward into those 3 points and gently “bounce” up and down, keeping your back knee off the floor. Do this on both sides.

- Another good exercise for the hips and lower back is (for those yogi’s out there) the upward and downward dog. On all fours put your bottom in the air and then without touching the ground, push your hips forward towards the floor and look up to the sky, creating a scooping kind of motion with your body, backwards and forwards.  As you come back ensure that you push through the hands to push the bottom up to the sky!

Shoulders: This is an area where many people suffer when it comes to flexibility, unfortunately this is a product of our modern environment.

- A very simple exercise you can do to make a start on rectifying poor shoulder flexibility is to take a broomstick above your head, and take it down behind your back to your buttocks and then back up. First ,with bent arms and then progressing to straight arms.

There are an abundance of flexibility and mobility exercises that one can do to help with skiing. Using a trained professional who is skilled in functional and natural movement who can provide you with appropriate and specific exercises is always of benefit.

Flexibility really is the core of good movement! First become flexible, then become strong. Many of the exercise to follow will assist in building up with your flexibility and strength together to help make this your best ski season yet!

PuraVida Health offers functional movement training and tension releasing massage in London to help you prepare for (and recover from!) your next ski holiday. PuraVida has partnered with Hidden Dragon offering Luxury Fitness Escapes in the summer when all the snow has melted away! www.puravidahealth.co.uk