By Dr. Bo Heris PT, DPT, PSIA, AASI, WSI
Hi! My name is Dr. Bo Heris and I’m a board certified Doctor of Physical Therapy working at Evolution Physical Therapy’s Beverly Hills and Playa Vista locations in Los Angeles. Prior to joining the Evolution team, I was a professional skier, snowboarder and extreme sports athlete.Â
Today, my passion is working with athletes on injury prevention as well as returning to sports after injury. This blog post was inspired by my recent trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where I not only taught skiing, but also used my knowledge of the body and movement to help my students prevent injuries on the slopes while they learned to improve their ski and snowboarding practice.
If you are seeking to improve your snow sport performance and prevent injury on the snow while staying safe, I encourage you to use the following exercises so you can continue shredding this season and beyond!
For a quick overview, you will see descriptions and video tutorials of the following exercises:
- 90/90 Hip Rotation with Press
- Hip Functional Mobility Simulation for Skiers
- Lower Extremity and Core Stability Combined with Hip Functional Mobility
- Single Leg Squat on Bosu Ball with Oscillating Kinetic Energy
1) 90/90 Hip Rotation with Press
(3 sets x 10 reps, 30 sec rest between sets)
Sit on the floor with both legs in a 90 degree bend and maintain an upright spine as much as you can. Elongate yourself through the crown of your head and keep your head over your sit bone.
As you can see in the video above, you will rotate each femur in the hip socket and face the opposite direction for the first few rounds. As you get the hang of the motion, press by driving your front knee into the ground and elevating your body. Simply lower slowly and alternate between sides.
Perform this exercise 3 sets of 10 repetitions with thirty seconds rest in between. To further advance the same exercise, you can hold a kettlebell at your chest.
2) Hip Functional Mobility Simulation for Skiers
(3 sets x 20 reps, less than 30 sec rest between sets)
In skiing, it’s crucial to be able to move each leg into external and internal rotations to steer your skis safely and effectively. This motion at your hip socket is a prerequisite for upper body lower body separation .
You can simulate this exercise in your gym and master the motion to transfer it to your skiing on the mountains using any type of upper extremity support. I use TRX straps for this in my tutorial. Keep your feet hip-width apart and parallel as you lower your body to each side. Hips turn to internal and external rotation simultaneously with you bending the ankle, knee and hip.
You will reverse this motion as you drive through your legs while extending at your hip, knee and ankle. Keep your trunk facing the anchor as your legs turn from side to side. As you are descending, gradually tilt your feet on the inner and outer edges while keeping the feet parallel.
Perform 3 sets of 20 repetitions with less than thirty seconds rest and gradually get less help from the upper body.
3) Lower Extremity and Core Stability Combined with Hip Functional Mobility
Level 1:
To begin, stand with your feet a hip-width apart. Make sure that your core is engaged and keep your trunk straight. Next, take a large step out and forward with one leg and then drop down into a lunge position using opposite arm motion, making sure that your hips stay steady. Now bring the back leg out and forward into a lunge position and then move forward the same way slow and steady.
Perform walking lunges from 50 to 100 feet with good alignment.
Level 2:
Stand with feet hip-width apart holding a medicine ball in your hands. Make sure that your core is engaged and keep your trunk straight. Take a large step out and forward with one leg and then drop down into a lunge position. Next, slowly rotate your trunk towards the front leg while chopping with the medicine ball with arms extended. Make sure that your hips stay steady. Now bring the back leg out and forward into a lunge position and then repeat the trunk rotation with arms extended holding the medicine ball towards the opposite leg that’s in the front.
Perform walking lunges with cross body chops from 50 to 100 feet while holding a light to moderate medicine ball.
4) Single Leg Squat on Bosu Ball with Oscillating Kinetic Energy
(3 sets x 8 reps, more than 1 min rest between sets)
Prerequisite for this exercise is the ability to perform a single leg squat with good alignment.
To further improve your single leg stability for skiing, stand on a bosu ball with one leg and have the other leg flexed in front of you from the hip. Use an earthquake bar with kettlebells attached with a resistance band to both ends to provide oscillating kinetic energy. Simply have the bar on your shoulder.
Make sure to lower your hip and knee at the same time. If you draw a line through the shoulder and hip, it should be parallel with a line from the knee to the ankle of the stabilizing limb. In addition, the pelvis needs to stay level. Both the front and side views are shown in the video.
Perform 3 sets of 8 repetitions of this exercise and take more than a minute rest in between sets.
Please reach out if you feel any pain or discomfort performing any of these exercises, or if you simply want to expand your skiing or snowboarding injury prevention program.
For other great tips to increase your winter performance and core stability, check out our post on Ankle Strength and Stability for the Skier or read about working on your balance, here.
