How Pilates Can Prepare Your Ski Legs This Winter
Skiing is a sport enjoyed by millions of people worldwide. This dynamic and flowing sport is one that requires both physical strength and balance. Coordination is a necessary point of interest as well. This has lead many individuals to actively pursue exercise regimens that specifically tone their core, legs, and balancing support muscles. One of the best overall exercise regimens to work with in this regard is Pilates.
Pilates is a type of holistic exercise regimen that drastically improves an individual’s core strength. The body in its entirety will become fitter and more dynamic. This increase in body dynamics is important for skiers for many reasons. One of the most important ones is for the prevention of accrued injuries.
Injuries due to skiing and ski related mishaps are a constant occurrence. One of the most prolific types of injury is knee injury. Whether it is an ACL tear, a damaged meniscus, or MCL does not matter in the short term. Either can cause it to be difficult to walk much less run or ski.
Several of the Pilates style exercises focus on closed chain exercise. This type of exercise focuses on the usage of a foot connection to a solid surface such as a bar, strap, floor, or a board. Either of these types of items can be used to simulate the type of movements an individual needs to undertake during skiing. Elongated usage of these types of movements can provide improved reaction time and increase the strength of tendons, ligaments, and stabilizer muscles such as the quadriceps. With improved strength all around in this regard the possibility of a new injury will be reduced.
Pilates can help every part of the body become better prepared for the rigorous fun of skiing. The best benefit of using Pilates to improve skiing form is the improved sense of balance and body awareness. This helps the individual utilize less energy and improves their capacity to perform the quick turns and shifts necessary to safely ski down a mountain or jump. Stabilizer muscles such as the hip flexors and abdominal core are important for keeping an individual upright in a strong position rather than leaning back frantically flailing. Pilates is best known for improving an individual’s core. As such, pilates becomes a crucial component of preparing an individual’s body for the rigors of skiing.
Preparing the legs for skiing is not just about working the leg muscles. The whole body needs to alignment properly and proportionally for it to work properly. Pilates regimens are the answer to this need.
This article is sponsored by the Intermediate Pilates DVD
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