If your general fitness level isn’t as great as you’d like, here’s where to focus before your first ski trip of the winter.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably, like me, looking for a list of exercises you can cram in before your first ski trip of the season. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we’re already running behind—about seven months behind, if we’re honest.
Why? Because ski season training should begin “the moment the snow ends from the last season,” according to Dr. Kevin Stone, a former U.S. Ski team physician and an orthopedic surgeon who works with athletes of all stripes at The Stone Clinic in San Francisco.

Photo credit: (Getty Images) The Squat is still the gold standard.  

In other words, that quad strength that showed up in March should be maintained so you don’t have to start back at zero come November. But here’s the catch: You don’t have to do ski-specific exercises like lateral ski jumps and dynamic squats year-round. Rather, Stone recommends maintaining your ski-fitness by doing something you love—be it biking, running, or gym-going.
”The key to an off-season training program is 1) one you’ll do, 2) one you’ll find fun, 3) for most athletes it’s one that improves if they do it in a group or with other people,” says Stone. “We used to think of sports-specific training,” but now the thinking has changed and “We think about total body fitness toward skiing rather than specific ski related exercises.”

Hopefully this comes as good news for you, and you can feel reassured that you’re in better ski shape than you thought. But if your off-season wasn’t as physically productive as you’d intended and your general fitness level is lacking, there’s still hope, says Stone. He walks SKI through his recommendations, below.

Focus on dynamic movement

If your general fitness could use some work and your first ski trip is days away, focus on dynamic movement.
“For a dynamic sport like skiing, doing a dynamic squat from side to side really helps prepare the athlete for the terrain and variations in terrain they are going to be skiing,” says Stone. “If your goal is to be a dynamic skier, then exercises you do that reproduce the sport are a better use of your time.”
Love it or hate it, the squat remains the king of ski fitness: A dynamic squat is “the most efficient exercise any skier can do,” Stone recently shared on a September 2024 episode of The SnowBrains Podcast.

Don’t underestimate the power of your mind

“The most important thing you can do is put your mind in the game,” Stone says when asked about the best way to avoid injury on the slopes. He explains that almost every athlete he sees at The Stone Clinic reports that they had a sense of something being off right before they got hurt.
Injuries happen when you’re thinking about what you’ll eat for lunch or friend drama, rather than focusing on the act of sliding down snow.
“Muscle development alone won’t protect your joints,” said Stone, noting that “we know from our ski racers that it’s not a muscle power thing. The most common cause of sports related injuries we see are mental errors.”

Your ski gear matters

I was raised to believe that ski gear doesn’t really matter, but with ski and boot technology advancing so quickly, that’s just not true anymore.
“Your gear in skiing, more than in any other sport, is critical to your fun, your performance, and your safety,” says Stone. “Old boots and old bindings and old skis are nowhere near as safe as new gear.”

Another outdated way of thinking? That you have to suffer through stiff and uncomfortable ski boots to perform at your best.
“For 90 percent of skiers getting a softer boot is a safer, more fun way to ski than in the old rigid boots that we made people wear in order to load the front of the ski,” says Stone. “Well-fitting boots that flex well and permit you to use your ankles and knees to turn the skis make the sport safer and more enjoyable.”

Watch out for these common ski injuries in younger skiers

In young people, Stone says he sees mostly torn ACLs and torn meniscus cartilage, along with dislocated shoulders and torn rotator cuffs from unfortunate falls.
When you get injured, the secret is to get an accurate, full diagnosis early, Stone said. Including a full physical exam, x-ray, and MRI.
“If someone says, ‘Hey doc, I twisted my knee, I heard a pop, and my knee swelled.’  Those three things together have a 90 percent chance of tearing something in the knee,” said Stone.

If you have to get something replaced, like your ACL, Stone prefers to use donor tissue rather than pulling tissue from your patellar tendon or hamstrings, which will weaken the knee and affect your ability to flex and hold an edge.
It’s up to the preference of your doctor, but Stone says for the best results “I would really encourage people to find a doctor who does your sport and seek them out because they will understand what you’re talking about.”

Arthritic knees are a major culprit for older skiers—but there are solutions

In older skiers, arthritic knees tend to be a major problem. Luckily, Stone notes that “injections have gotten much much better in their ability to recruit the body’s own stem cells and lubricate joints.” In fact, he prefers to delay joint replacement or avoid it completely. (Although it is a viable solution for many.)
Injections of lubricants (hyaluronic acid) and growth factors (PRP) “have made an enormous difference for many people with worn-out joints. I have many patients who come in just before ski season—with x-rays revealing bone-on-bone in their knee, hip, and ankle joints—and say, ‘Doc, that injection got me through the ski season last year—let’s do it again.’’ ” Read more on this topic in Stone’s “Skiing to Your 90s” blog post.

If you do get injured, come back ‘fitter, faster,
 and stronger!’

“There are a lot of sports in life that no one would do if they understood how dangerous it is and skiing is one of them,” said Stone. But as a skier himself, he knows the draw (or addiction) of the sport.
Stone says an unfortunate injury can help skiers come back “fitter, faster, and stronger than they were before they got hurt.” How? Because getting back on the mountain is great motivation, and once you get injured due to a lapse in fitness or focus, chances are you won’t let it happen again.

Kim Mazik, PT is a graduate of Ohio State University with 25+ years experience as a physical therapist. She has had extensive training as an orthopedic therapist assuring accurate diagnosis and treatment of musculo-skeletal pain and dysfunction. Her approach is holistic and eclectic; blending joint manipulation, massage therapy, Functional Movement Assessment, yoga, Pilates as well as other therapeutic exercise with an emphasis on educating clients, thus empowering them to manage their symptoms outside the clinic.