This Spring Stability Workout Will Keep You Strong for the Mountains

A spring-ski workout helps athletes transition from late-season skiing to summer mountain objectives. The session targets deceleration control, muscular endurance and loading, and stability and power. It begins with a dynamic warm-up including leg swings, high knee hugs, walking lunges with trunk rotation, side shuffles, and overhead squats. A core and loading circuit uses single-leg isometric tracers and banded anti-rotation walkouts, emphasizing knee alignment to prevent inward collapse. Plyometrics and eccentric strength follow with single-leg hop-downs for impact absorption and neural readiness for long descents. Curtsy lunges build hip stability, and multiplanar step-ups and single-leg RDLs add strength. A squat-to-chop finisher develops rotational core power, using simple equipment with optional bands and a Bosu ball.

"Trainer Mikey Bell, filming from southern Oregon in the middle of a winter storm warning, walks athletes through a workout centered on three key areas that translate directly to mountain pursuits. Those areas are deceleration control, muscular endurance and loading, and stability and power."

"The session opens with a dynamic warm-up featuring leg swings, high knee hugs, walking lunges with a trunk rotation, side shuffles, and overhead squats. From there, the workout moves into a core and loading circuit built around single-leg isometric tracers and banded anti-rotation walkouts. Bell emphasizes keeping the knee from collapsing inward throughout, noting that valgus movement is one of the most common culprits behind ACL injuries for skiers."

"The second phase focuses on plyometrics and eccentric strength. Single-leg hop-downs off a small step train the body to absorb impact and build the neural pathways needed for long descents. Curtsy lunges target the gluteus medius and challenge hip stability across multiple planes of motion. A multiplanar step-up and single-leg RDL round out the strength work before a squat-to-chop finisher ties the whole session together with rotational core power."

"Equipment needed includes a box or step in the 12 to 16 inch range, a smaller step or stair, dumbbells or a kettlebell, and optionally a resistance band and a Bosu ball. Modifications are available throughout for those without specialty equipment."

Read at Unofficial Networks