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Snowboarding Fitness Tips
Extreme sports, such as snowboarding, skiing, hand gliding and wave jumping, are the ultimate adrenaline rush. In a nutshell, enthusiasts from all over the world participate in these dangerous and exciting sports in order to feel alive. That is, truly alive. Not the kind of alive that exists for eight hours a day in front of a computer monitor or reads a book at bedtime, but the sort that clearly defines the limits of what humans can achieve and pushes those boundaries to the brink of mortality. In reality, however, extreme sports are not always that extreme in practice, but they are nevertheless all about experiencing that adrenaline rush, which is essentially the body`s way of taking us to our limits.
However, whilst extreme sports are accessible to most healthy adults, they do require a high level of physical fitness. It would be a rather unwise idea, for example, to get up one morning after years of couch potato living and decide to climb the steepest, most dangerous rock face nearby without any ropes. Indeed, that would be so far beyond extreme it would be suicidal. Thus, anybody who wishes to enjoy an extreme sport must put in some hard training first.
Snowboarding, for instance, demands good balance under loading at high speed and altitude. Therefore, snowboarders must have good core strength and excellent cardiovascular fitness. Furthermore, they must be able to sustain high performance for a considerable time, so endurance training exercises are a must. In this respect, bike riding is a perfect exercise for building stamina, so it would be advisable to ditch the car in favour of a bike for travelling to and from work each day. After four to eight weeks of intensive cycling, assuming a reasonable level of starting fitness, the leg muscles will have developed sufficiently to make a noticeable difference on the slopes.
Cycling, however, does not build core strength to the extent required by extreme snowboarding. Indeed, for this it is essential that the abdominal muscles are isolated during training, so it would be worth performing exercises such as oblique twists using a medicine ball. Furthermore, weight lifting can significantly improve upper and lower body strength and there is also plenty of research to suggest that, over time, this helps to improve bone density (which, incidentally, may be reduced slightly through cycling). Weight training exercises may comprise either power lifts, which are based on a heavy weight at few repetitions, or lighter weights at higher repetitions, which typically service to increase muscular endurance.
Flexibility is also crucial for snowboarders, so it is essential that endurance and weight training is complemented by stretching exercises such as those incorporated into yoga or various martial arts. Nutrition is also important, as snowboarders require a fairly large amount of carbohydrates and protein whilst on the slopes. Finally, it is also important to look the part when back at the lodge. For this, quiksilver clothes are fashionable and comfortable whilst ensuring that the snowboarder look is maintained.
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