Deadlifts: The One Exercise Every Alpine Skier Should Do
Few exercises will work so many important ski muscles in one move as a proper deadlift. If you do them right, deadlifts will prepare your back for a pounding session in the moguls.
Deadlifts are King!
When most people think of training for skiing, they think of leg exercises that target the quads. If you want to ski hard and fast, you need big pistons in your thighs right? Yeah, sure, but like I said in the previous article about core training, if your upper body can't hang on, those legs won't do you any good. The Austrians say that one of the reasons that World Cup racers get better as they mature is because they build body "thickness". That is, not that their legs get huge—most of these guys have huge legs already when they're young—but their torso lays on slabs of muscle.
Of course, we recreational skiers aren't looking to win World Cup races, we're looking to have fun, ski hard, and not wake up the next morning with an aching back. I mentioned before that building strong stabilizing muscles in your core is essential for skiing well and injury-free. If you've been doing those basic core exercises, you're ready to move on to the one exercise that rules them all and in lightness binds them (gratuitous Lord of the Rings reference) — my absolute favorite strength training exercise—deadlifts.
We'll get into more detail, but for those unfamiliar with it, the deadlift is one of the most straight forward strength exercises in the world: you squat down, reach in front of you, grab the bar and stand up while screaming your head off (if you're lifting heavy).
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