Lift-assisted skiing has very specific fitness demands. The first is eccentric leg strength. In Alpine and Telemark skiing, gravity “bounces” you down the hill. From a strength perspective, your legs first fight gravity from being forced into the mountain, and then pop up, out of the hole. This workout trains both eccentric and concentric strength. Be careful, the athlete in the video below, Pip Hunt is a pro skier and hammers through full leg blasters. Start slowly and learn the movements. If this workout gets too easy, you can add a 10 or 20 lb dumbell in each hand.

Mini Leg Blaster

10x Air Squats

5x In-Place Lunges (5x each leg, 10x total)

5x Jumping Lunges (5x each leg, 10x total)

5x Jump Squats

Repeat 5 times with 30 second rest between sets

Full Leg Blaster

20x Air Squats

10x In-Place Lunges (10x each leg, 20x total)

10x Jumping Lunges (10x each leg, 20x total)

10x Jump Squats

Repeat 5 times with 30 second rest between sets

Work up to 5x Full Leg Blasters, with 30 seconds rest between each effort for your dry land ski training. Be careful, Leg Blasters train eccentric leg strength and will make you sore, so don’t start at the end. Instead, perform Leg Blasters 3x/week, with at least a day’s rest between training sessions, for the 4 weeks before the season starts. This means 12 total training sessions.