We know that this year hasn’t exactly gone to plan – but there’s one thing that’s remained a constant; the health benefits that you can get from a skiing holiday! A trip to the snowy mountains can help to boost your health and wellbeing in no time at all. Here are some of the top reasons why a skiing holiday could be just what the doctor ordered.
Keeps Joints Healthy
When you ski, you are constantly adjusting your body position, using different muscle combinations that you wouldn’t need to use when doing other sports. The actions that are involved in carving, skidding and jumping might feel really weird at first, but these ski-specific movements can help to strengthen and the further support the smaller muscles around your joints – this is great news for your lower-body as it will improve your stability and it can help to prevent joint and repetitive-motion injuries.
Great for Your Heart
Skiing is a great form of cardio (much more exciting than running on a treadmill!), which means it increases your heart rate. As your muscles work harder, your heart pumps faster to keep them supplied with oxygen-rich blood. It is important to give your heart a regular workout, as pumping all that extra blood around the body keeps your cardiovascular system nice and healthy.
Better Balance & Coordination
To ski safely, and to not look like a complete wally, you’ll need to stay aware of even the slightest changes in your body position. This ability to connect properly with your body and know how to move them is called proprioception. The skill does weaken the older you get, but the more you do activities like skiing, the less it will diminish.
Improve Your Mood
Lots of research has been conducted which shows that being outdoors in a natural environment can drastically improve people’s mental wellbeing. Doing sports like skiing also helps to release lots of endorphins or “feel-good chemicals”, which will leave the participant feeling happy and satisfied. After a day out in the fresh air, you’ll probably sleep soundly too – which is another win for your mental health and mood.
Strengthens Muscles
A session on the snowy slopes will exercise muscles you didn’t even realise you had. Your thighs will take the brunt of the work, but you’ll also find that your hamstrings and glutes tone up too. It’s not just limited to toning your leg muscles either – in order to stay balanced, you’ll need to properly engage your core as well. Having a strong core can also help with your posture and breathing.
Just Like Interval Training
Pushing your body on the rundown and then getting a welcome break while you ride the lift back up is a familiar pattern for any skier. It is also similar to the on-off training style used by athletes. Studies have shown that limiting hard exercise to a few minutes and then giving yourself a rest can help maintain your health into old age, as well as improving overall fitness.
Burning Calories
We all know that working out can be a bit of a chore sometimes, but if you want a fun workout, skiing is hard to beat. An hour spent on the slopes can burn around 400 calories for women and 600 calories for men. However, you do need to keep your energy levels topped up during the day; it’s important to fuel up properly with the right food. Have a breakfast like porridge, it will fill you up for longer, and snacking on things like seeds and nuts won’t give you a sugar crash that you’d experience from having chocolate for example.
