How to stay fit and healthy to ski

Get some sleep!

Our immune systems don’t work at full capacity if we’re exhausted, making us more susceptible to winter colds. On top of this, getting enough sleep is crucial for recovery. You’ll be able to ride longer and harder if you’re well rested.

Take days off

This can be really hard, especially when you’re spending the season at Breck. It’s tempting to just keep going and going. You can’t bare to miss that pow day, you HAVE to learn a new trick on that rail. But none of us are robots. When our bodies

are tired, the risk of injury massively increases. On top of this, our bodies function better when they’re fresh, meaning that we can ski/ride better and improve at a faster pace.

Eat well

It can be hard to eat healthy in the depths of winter. Cold weather equals cravings for sugary and greasy comfort food. However, I spend the majority of my year in winter and if I spent all this time eating comfort food you’d have to roll me down the slopes. To keep my snack attacks at a minimum I try to eat three good meals a day with lots of protein, veggies and low GI grains such as quinoa and brown rice. I also make sure I have lots of healthy snacks in my jacket pocket, my favorite of these being raw almonds.

Winter Breakfast recipe: Anna’s breakfast scramble
Ingredients:

• 2 rice or corn cakes
•  2 eggs
• 1/2 tomato (chopped)
• Hummus or Avocado (or both)
• Kale (chopped)
• 1/4 lemon
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Spread the hummus/avocado onto the rice cakes and set aside. Heat up a non-stick pan and fry the tomato pieces for one minute. Then crack eggs into the pan and scramble to desired consistency. When ready, scoop onto prepared rice cakes. After this, add kale and lemon juice into the pan. Saute kale until soft, then add on top of the eggs.

This recipe has all you need for a great morning on the hill; protein, veggies and some carbs to keep you going. For best results, add a side of steaming hot coffee and you have a yummy, healthy pre-ski breakfast.

Stretch out

Even after 22 years of skiing, my body still gets sore from a long day on the hill. When I arrive home from a fun day at Breck, the couch is always calling my name. I would like nothing better than to collapse upon it, but past experience luckily over powers this instinct. I know that if I succumb to the couch, I will wake up the next day feeling stiff and sore.

To avoid this, I try force myself into work-out gear before I get distracted by Facebook, and then get myself back out the door. I’ll either head to Breck Rec Center for a mellow bike and stretch or head to Meta Yoga Studio on Ridge street, to be motivated by one of their amazing yoga instructors. No matter how tired I feel before these sessions, I always feel 10 times better afterwards.

Work out 

Skiing and snowboarding is a great workout in itself, but I try to maintain the strength that I’ve built up pre-season by getting a couple of harder training sessions in at the gym. These usually include weighted squats, deadlifts, lunges, pull ups, balance and core exercises. If you’re heading to the gym in Breck for the first time, remember that you’re training at extremely high altitude. Don’t feel guilty for backing off on the weight or reps that you’re doing. Give your body time to adjust.

— Anna Segal