If you love skiing or snow boarding then chances are that you’re something of an adrenaline junky who enjoys the sensation of rushing down the side of a mountain. For most of us, life mainly involves sitting indoors in an office and typing away at a computer. It’s a great way to bring in a stable income and to provide for our families but it’s hardly very exciting and sometimes you need something a bit more adrenaline fueled.
Still though, adrenaline is far from the only benefit of snowboarding or skiing and just as impressive are the incredible health benefits. Here we will look at some of the big pros of hitting the slopes in terms of your health and fitness.
Strength
You might not think of snowboarding as a particularly effective way to build muscle, but actually it’s very useful if you want to tone your abs and obliques and gives yourself a mean mid-section. The main reason for this is that you will be forced to use your core muscles in order to stabilize yourself at all times and this will be a brilliant way to train them. It’s kind of like being on a wobble board… but all day.
Another benefit in terms of muscle development when it comes to snowboarding and skiing is how it can affect your legs. The best stance will be a lower one in order to lower your center of gravity which means you’ll be in a slight ‘squat’ position for a long time. In Tai Chi this is called ‘horse stance’ and it’s a brilliant way to train your leg muscles – particularly your glutes, hamstrings and quadriceps. When you jump meanwhile you’ll be calling into action your fat twitch muscle fibres for explosive strength.
Endurance
What might surprise you after your first go either skiing or snowboarding is just how tired you are after it. You use your muscles to stabilize yourself while you head down the slopes, but doing this continuously for a long period of time means that it will also help you to burn energy and thus improve your endurance over many sessions.
This is also a great way to burn calories and thus lose weight. Better yet, as you’ll be building your leg muscles (which are the largest muscles in the body) this will cause them to then burn further calories and help you lose even more weight. Simply training your legs is a fantastic way to increase your metabolism.
The Air
You could get many of these benefits from being in the gym (though it wouldn’t be quite so exciting) but an additional bonus when you ski I that you will do it outside in the fresh mountain air. This is ideal for clearing the lungs and improving your general health and fitness, while the cold will also increase your heart rate thus burning more calories and improving your circulation.
If you want to start improving your health then, snap on some affordable used skis and head to your nearest ski centre!
Today’s guest post is courtesy Ashton Wade. He is a professional snow-boarder and has participated in many top notch events over the years. A true sports lover, he has listed the health benefits of snow sports in this article.
