For skiers, the off-season is a time to balance fun summer activities, rest, and training. (And, yes, this principle still applies even if ˛â´ÇłÜ’r±đ still hitting the slopes this August.)

When you’re off the snow, your training should focus on building body awareness, control, strength, coordination, and mobility. By doing so, you’ll develop a solid foundation that will help prevent pain and injuries on the slopes.

Here, I’ll break down how to assess your current strength and offer five exercises to add to your off-season ski workout to start next winter off at your strongest.

Test Your Strength for Ski Season With a Side Plank

may seem simple—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t helpful. By doing this exercise, you’ll observe the strength (or lack thereof) in your hips, trunk, and core. Your obliques and hips allow you to rotate and stabilize while moving through different types of terrain. Weakness in these areas can increase your risk of back, hip, and knee pain on (and off) the slopes.

How to Do the Side Plank Test

Lay on your side. Position your elbow under your shoulder. Stack your legs on top of each other. Lift your hips off the floor and push them forward. Your body should create a straight line from your head to your toes. Flex your top foot and lift it to hip height. Hold for a second. Slowly lower it back down.

Stop the test when your shoulder collapses, your hips sag toward the floor, or your body is no longer stacked. A skier is typically able to complete five lifts a side before losing their form. Your goal for this exercise is to complete 10 to 15 reps on each leg.

5 Exercises for an Effective Off-Season Ski Workout

1. Lateral Lunges

When it comes to lunges, this lateral variation is helpful for building robust hip strength, which is key if you want to ski pain-free and feel strong while charging down the mountain.

How to do it:

1. Take a wide step to the side with your left foot.
2. Push your hips back to lower toward the ground.
3. As you sit back, bend your right knee and drive it away from your body. Straighten your left leg. All of your toes should face forward.
4. Push away from the floor with power to return to the starting position.

You can either alternate sides or remain on one side for all of your reps before switching. Aim to complete eight to 12 reps on each side.

If you want to increase the difficulty of the exercise, hold a weight at your chest. Advanced practitioners can also move with a kettlebell in a front rack position.

2. Step-Ups

Step-ups strengthen your glutes, hamstrings, and quads. They also improve your single-leg stability, eliminate strength imbalances, and build explosive power. Adding this exercise into off-season workouts will make your turns on the hill even more powerful.

For this move, you’ll need a box, bench, or step at shin or knee height.

How to do it:

1. Plant your left foot on the box.
2. Drive through your left leg and step up with your right leg.
3. Hover your right knee in the air at a 90-degree angle. Squeeze your left glute. Hold this position for 3 to 5 seconds.
4. Slowly step back down.

Complete eight to 12 reps on one side before switching to the other leg. To advance this movement, hold a weight at your chest throughout the exercise.

3. Gorilla Row

When it comes to off-season ski workouts, I love integrating any type of row into my training. However, this variation, the Gorilla Row, is my current favorite. This movement targets your lower back, core, and erector spinae muscles. These latter muscles in your deep back absorb the impact of charging downhill or landing from jumps.

For this move, you’ll need a set of kettlebells.

How to do it:

1. Stand with your feet about hip-width apart with the kettlebells between your feet.
2. Hinge from your waist. Bend your knees to reach the kettlebell handles. Hold one in each hand.
3. Keep your back flat and your hips down. Contract your core, as you pull your elbows back toward your hips.
4. Lower the weight back to the starting position before beginning the next rep.

You can alternate kettlebells or row them at the same time for an added challenge. Complete eight to 12 reps on each side.

4. Suitcase March

This core exercise strengthens the deep stabilizer muscles that support side-to-side movements on the mountain. Add it into your off-season ski workout to be able to carve, drop, and charge down the mountain without back pain.

For this move, you’ll need one medium or heavy dumbbell.

How to do it:

1. Stand tall through your torso. Hold your dumbbell with your right hand, slightly off your right hip.
2. Raise your left knee to a 90-degree position. Squeeze your left glute. Lower the left leg back down.
3. Continue to lift and lower the left leg, marching in place. Look straight ahead.

Complete two to four sets of 30 to 60 seconds per side.

5. Plank Pull-Through

This plank variation will challenge your core stability. When ˛â´ÇłÜ’r±đ chasing powder, your abs help steady your body and respond to changing conditions.

For this move, you’ll need one medium or heavy dumbbell.

How to do it:

1. Set up in a high plank position with your wrists directly under your shoulders.
2. Contract your core. Actively push away from the floor with one hand. Pull your weight across your body with the other hand.
3. Alternate sides, moving the weight back and forth between your arms. Keep your hips stable throughout this movement. Try to avoid twisting or rotating.

Complete two to four sets of 30 to 50 seconds.

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Squats may be the most common movement in your training regime, but ˛â´ÇłÜ’r±đ likely doing them incorrectly. Sure, they can seem like an easy, straightforward exercise, but executing them well is difficult. This movement engages your glutes, quads, hamstrings, hips, and core. If even one muscle group isn’t activated correctly, your entire form could be off.

As a strength coach, I always recommend nailing the basics of a bodyweight squat before adding on weight or trying more complex variations. If you add on too much weight or perform too many reps without the proper training, you can become injured.

The first step to cleaning up your squat mechanics is to watch yourself doing them. Try squatting in front of a mirror or taking a video of yourself to reference as you go through these common mistakes.

1. You’re Not Creating Torque

You may be focused on your quads and glutes when you squat. And while ˛â´ÇłÜ’r±đ not wrong to do so, strong squat form starts from the ground up. Yes, I’m referring to your feet—the most important base of support in this movement.

The concept of torque refers to rotational force, a critical factor in your ability to create stability in your hips when you squat. To achieve this, think about screwing your feet into the floor. Turn your right foot clockwise and your left foot counterclockwise. When you do this, you should feel the arches in your feet lift.

This slight adjustment will ensure you are in the most stable position to squat. You’ll likely notice a huge increase in your power after learning how to create torque effectively through your feet.

2. You’re Not Maintaining a Neutral Pelvic Position

An excessive anterior or posterior pelvic tilt during a squat can significantly increase your risk of pain in your hips, knees, and back. If you find your lower back rounding or arching at the bottom of your squat, this is an indicator of pelvic tilt, which can make this exercise uncomfortable and even painful.

How to Prevent Pelvic Tilt When You Squat:

1. Stand in a neutral position with your tailbone slightly tucked. Squeeze your glutes. Make sure your head is stacked directly over your spine.
2. Keep your ribcage pinned down. Contract your core as you begin to load your hips.
3. As you hinge from your hips, drive your knees out laterally by pushing through your feet and lower into a squat position. Maintain a flat back.
4. As you stand back up, drive away from the floor and push your hips under your torso, squeezing your glutes at the top to set your pelvis in a neutral position.

3. Your Head’s in the Wrong Position

Proper head positioning during a squat can enhance your stability and power. If your head is out of neutral alignment, it can make it difficult to balance, cause excessive pelvic tilt, and prevent your core muscles from stabilizing your spine.

Think about slightly tucking your chin and focusing your gaze at a spot on the floor in front of you. Your eyes should stay focused straight ahead. Like your back, you don’t want your neck to be rounded or arched. Doing so can potentially cause pain and injury.

4. You’re Allowing Your Knees to Collapse Inward

As I explained in the first tip, creating torque will help prevent your knees from collapsing inwards as you squat.

As you screw your feet into the floor, the arches of your feet should lift. This will help your knees stay in alignment with your feet, ankles, and hips. If your ankles or knees continue to cave inwards in a low squat, you may have some mobility restrictions through your hips or ankles.

How to Perform a Squat with Proper Form

1. Your foot positioning will vary slightly depending on your individual body. However, a good rule is to distance your feet approximately shoulder-width apart. Your feet can be pointed straight ahead or turned slightly outwards.
2. Create torque by screwing your feet into the ground and driving them out toward your pinky toes. This will help create hip stability.
3. Squeeze your glutes. Make sure your ribcage is down, and your head is back. Everything should be stacked in alignment with your spine.
4. Keep your shins perpendicular to the floor as you lower down into a squat. Tighten your core and squeeze your shoulder blades toward your spine.
5. Maintain the torque through your feet, driving your knees out as you come up from the squat and push away from the floor.
6. Squeeze your glutes at the top to complete the rep. Find a neutral alignment before starting the next rep.

Taking the time to optimize your squat mechanics will improve strength and power outputs in training—and on the trails.

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Your knees are your powerhouses. They’re essential for supporting all of your outdoor (and indoor) activities. But, often, you forget how critical they are to all of that running, climbing, and biking until they’re in pain. And I’ll say this: Knee pain is real. My knee troubles have held me back from snowboarding, skiing, skateboarding, and trail running. It’s frustrating—especially when you feel like you don’t know how to wrestle back control over the pain. That’s where I hope to help: These five mobility exercises for knee pain will help bring your largest joints back to their prime state.

Why Does Mobility Work Reduce My Knee Pain?

In most cases, knee pain is caused by stiffness above and below the joint. When any joint becomes restricted by stiffness, your body will compensate elsewhere. The subsequent movements put more stress on your knee and the surrounding ligaments, resulting in, you guessed it, pain.

If you pair this stress with repetitive impact-based sports, such as running, hiking, or skiing, ˛â´ÇłÜ’r±đ at a much higher risk for prolonged knee pain or injury. However, you can manage this stiffness—and hopefully avoid those pangs—through targeted mobility work.

Mobility work improves blood flow to the targeted region and helps release tight tissue. After consistently practicing these types of exercises, you’ll likely find that your body no longer overcompensates for that stiffness in other areas. Without mobility work, ˛â´ÇłÜ’r±đ gambling with an endless adventure in potential pain.

It’s helpful to think of mobility as a “movement vitamin,” because just like the supplements, this type of work encourages your body to function as it should. If you want to reap the full benefits of mobility exercises, you should strive to practice daily.

It doesn’t have to be overwhelming or time-intensive. Rather, I encourage you to take small one- to five-minute movement breaks throughout your day instead of longer 15- to 30-minute sessions. Your knees will thank you.

5 Mobility Exercises for Knee Pain

1. Loaded Adductor Rock

What it does: are the inner thigh muscles that help stabilize your hips and knees. When your adductors are stiff, they pull the pelvis out of alignment, which can lead to knee, hip, and back pain.

How to do it: Set up in a half-kneeling position. Your front leg should make a 90-degree angle. Create a 90-degree angle with your back leg, shifting it out to the side so that it’s perpendicular to your front leg. Once your hips are open, tuck your tailbone, and squeeze your glutes as you shift sideways towards your front knee. Drive your knee over your toes while keeping the heel glued to the floor. Hold this position for 3 seconds before contracting your core and driving back up. Aim for 5 to 10 reps per side.

2. 90/90 Internal Rotation Lift-Off

What it does: You use your hip internal rotators when hiking, running, lifting, walking, and biking. As a result, when the deep hip internal rotators are stiff and weak, your pelvis cannot move properly, causing pain and dysfunction that can present as knee pain. The 90/90 lift-offs will help increase both strength and range of motion in your hips to help build healthy knees.

How to do it: Set up in a seated position with both legs at a 90-degree angle. Sit tall through your spine as you press your hands into the floor for support. Focus on driving your back knee into the ground as you lift the back heel. Flex your back toes toward your back shin. Drive your back ankle up for 3 to 5 seconds. Imagine that you are pushing it into a brick wall. Slowly lower it back down. Aim for 5 to 10 reps per side.

3. Loaded Ankle Rock

What it does: A common cause of knee pain is a lack of ankle mobility. This movement increases range of motion at your ankle joint. When the mobility of that joint is limited, excess force is placed on your knee, causing discomfort.

How to do it: Set up in a half-kneeling position. Keep your front heel down as you drive your knee forward over your toes. If you can’t extend your knee over your toes, move it within a pain-free range of motion that feels comfortable. Hold this position for 5 seconds. To take this exercise further, place a weight on your front quad as you rock forward for 5 seconds. Aim for 5 to 10 reps on each side.

4. Elevated Pigeon Rotation

What it does: The pigeon rotation is a great move to open up your hips and spine. Tight hips cause your pelvis to shift out of alignment, which can alter the way your knee functions, placing excess stress on your knee joints. This move will help increase the external range of motion in your hips and stabilize your pelvis.

How to do it: You can do this move on the floor or on a box, chair, or bench. Set up with your right leg at a 90-degree angle on top of a box. Extend upright through your spine. Grab onto the edge of your box with your left hand for leverage, as you rotate and reach your right arm long behind you. Contract the core as you rotate, allowing the eyes to follow the fingertips. Aim for 10-15 reps on each side.

5. Couch Stretch

What it does: This movement can help reduce stiffness through your hips and quads. Plus, it’s a good test of your knee flexion and hip extension. If you have trouble getting into this position, continue practicing this movement to build your mobility—or back your leg away from the wall to modify.

How to do it: You’ll need a box, couch, or wall to practice this exercise. Start in a half-kneeling position, with a cushion under your back knee for support. Slowly drive your back shin up toward your glutes. At the same time, push your knee back so it’s against the corner of the box, wall, or couch. Squeeze your black glute as you lift your chest and come into a high-kneeling position with your front ankle directly under your front knee. Hold in this position for 1 to 3 minutes. Repeat on each side.

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