Snow season means weekends away with family and friends, enjoying the warmth of a fireplace, hot cocoa and days out skiing or snowboarding. The best thing about skiing or snowboarding though is that it’s a fun and challenging activity to do that also acts as an incidental workout. Skiing and snowboarding are great workouts that gets your heart rate up, sweat on and muscles working. So you can play hard and work hard at the same time!

Why skiing and snowboarding are great workouts

Burns calories

When you ski or snowboard, most of the time, you’ll be on your feet and constantly moving. Whether you’re walking to get atop a hill or swerving left and right or even engaging in an impromptu snowball fight, you’ll burn plenty of calories during snow season.

According to Havard Health Publishing, a 125-pound person partaking in a 30-minute downhill ski session will burn 180 calories. A 155-pound person will burn 216 while someone weighing 185-pounds will burn approximately 252 calories.

If you’re more of a cross-country skier, then these numbers will increase to 198 calories burned for a 125-pound person, 246 calories for someone who is 155-pounds and 293 calories for those who are 185-pounds.

So you can definitely get in a good workout while doing snow activities, which is great to keep active when you’re enjoying a weekend away.

Engages the core

The snow season will work your core. With skiing and snowboarding, your core is one of the most vital muscles to engage as you need it to remain balanced and upright, even more so than when you’re walking or running.

It can be quite challenging to remain steady and upright when you’re sliding downhill on a slippery surface, maneuvering left and right to avoid obstacles, so expect your core strength to get quite a workout.

Works lower body

When you ski and snowboard, your lower body will bear most of the brunt.

Both these sports require a strong and steady foundation so your quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves will be on the entire time. You’ll be doing a lot of bending, turning and squatting. Not to mention, you’ll use your feet and ankles to steer in snowboarding.

It’ll assist in strengthening these muscles in a fun and challenging way that different to just doing squats in the gym. Plus, it’s a workout that won’t quite feel like a workout at the time, which will be great for those who don’t enjoy exercising as much.

Strengthens the heart

These winter sports work your cardiovascular endurance and hence strengthen the heart. It gets your heart rate up as they are both strenuous sports. This makes your heart pump blood around the body faster to provide the needed additional oxygen and nutritions.

As you continue to ski and snowboard, this repeated practice means that your cardiovascular system will become better and more efficient at doing this. You’ll find that your stamina and endurance will increase.

Strengthens bones and joints

Skiing and snowboarding strengthen your bones and joints. They need exercise to stay healthy and these winter sports give them plenty of that.

As a result, it’ll contribute to building and maintaining bone density and joint strength. Your bones will become stronger which will make your body stronger too. It’ll also allow for better joint mobility so you can move with more ease.

Improves proprioception

Proprioception is the body’s ability to sense things around you in relation to its own position. An example is when you close your eyes and touch your nose or when you walk without looking at your feet. It’s an important ability to have.

As we age, we can risk losing proprioception. However, skiing and snowboarding are excellent activities to improve it. It requires a lot of coordination and so when we are out on the snow, trying to avoid other people and obstacles while remaining upright and balanced, we’re exercising this part of the brain.

Boosts mood

We’ve mentioned it before but it’s an important point to make. Skiing and snowboarding is really fun! It’ll boost your mood and give you that runner’s high that you get after a workout as it produces endorphins.

When coming home after a day skiing or snowboarding, you’ll most likely feel tired but happy and calm. It assists in reducing stress and anxiety and get your mind off other things. Most people tend to stay home during winter as well, so it’s a great way to get out there and enjoy some fresh air which can help with boosting your mood as well and get you some vitamin D.