Every year, millions of people around the world hit the slopes for skiing and snowboarding fun. These activities are some of the most physically demanding of all sports; and in addition, skiing and snowboarding are only done at certain times of the year. So if you combine these two elements, you can see the dangers and risk that can be had without some form of physical preparation. Every year, individuals get injured while on the slopes, when many of these injuries could have been prevented with a sound, pre-season fitness program.

Before getting into certain exercises, the first thing you must realize is that in order to prepare properly you need to build sure strength and flexibility. Your muscles, ligaments and tendons must be ready. Many of these parts are rarely used outside of the ski season. You cannot practice skiing or snowboarding before the snow hits. For some, they may ski only a few times a year. As you can see there is not enough consistency to keep our bodies conditioned to this type of activity.

Core training is one of the most important aspects of having a strong body. The core relates to your abdominal muscles. And a strong core is what will give you stability while skiing and/or snowboarding. To build a strong core, you would need to do a multitude of crunches, such as the reverse and bicycle crunch. However, to get started, start with the traditional crunch by lying on your back and bending your knees with your feet planted firmly on the ground. Take your hands and put them on the side of your head, while raising your head toward the knees. Hold that position for about one second and then slowly lower yourself back to the starting position. You want to eventually build up to two sets of 50 crunches.

As you know, skiing and snowboarding requires an ample amount of legwork. To get your lower body prepared you need to work on your glutes, quads and hamstrings. The absolute best exercise for the ski and snowboard season is the lunge. The exercise is really simple too. Place one foot away from your body and bend the knee at a 90° angle. With your other leg, be sure that the heel of your foot is off the ground and that you're pushing on the ball of your foot. Keep your upper body straight and hold the position to the count of 10. Then move on to the next leg and repeat the same exercise. The lunge will train your glutes, quads and hamstrings.

Finally, you need to work in your arms. For the arms be sure to do push-ups in three sets of 10. Then do simple curls using 2 to 10 lbs weights. Building strong arms is important as you would need your triceps and biceps while on the mountain.