The next time you ride the chairlift, look down and take notice of the best snowboarders on the mountain. Their entire bodies work as a unit, whose movement transitions occur as part of a long, fluid chain. This type of expert riding requires on-slope and off-slope training. Snowboard dry-land training incorporates movements that simulate the sport and simultaneously engage all of the body's muscles.
Dynamic Pattern Theory
The dynamic pattern theory explains how your nervous system plays a key role in athletic training. Your brain memorizes movement patterns. When you're riding your board, it recalls the full-body movements you learned during your last lesson. The isolated, leg-extension exercise you performed to strengthen your riding muscles remains fortunately obscure -- fortunate, because the seated-leg extension exercise bears no similarity to any snowboarding movement. Snowboarding is a closed-chain movement, meaning that your feet stay in contact with the ground. The leg extension is an open-chain exercise, because your legs bear weight while your feet lift from the ground. A squat, especially performed on a balance board, is more effective, because it resembles riding technique while using your hamstrings, quadriceps, gluteal and core muscles simultaneously.
Isolated vs. Integrated
Snowboarding requires balance. Radical strength differences between muscle groups impede balance. Muscle isolation exercises such as the leg extension emphasize your quadriceps, an already strong muscle group. Your riding technique suffers when you create an imbalance between your hamstrings and quadriceps. The snowboarder whose knees appear locked during the entire ride may have a hamstring/quadriceps muscle imbalance. The stability ball hamstring bridge corrects this problem, because it forces your hamstrings to work in a balance-challenged position. Lie supine with your knees bent and your feet on the ball. Lift each vertebra into a bridge position. Remain in the bridge as you straighten and bend your legs. The exercise works your core, hamstrings and gluteal muscles.
Fullbody Functional Exercising
Functional, snowboard-specific exercises use typical athletic stances, and engage all of your muscles in movement patterns typical of your sport, Vail exercise physiologist Mark Pitcher tells the "Vail Daily." While typical strength-training exercises usually incorporate linear movements, full-body functional snowboarding exercises move in different planes of motion. Sports conditioning specialist Peter Twist calls this "linked system strength training." He stresses the importance of developing exercises that use the same muscle-firing sequence used in the sport. Summer sports such as skateboarding and surfing therefore provide effective full-body functional training, because they use movement sequences similar to snowboarding.
Heel-Side/Toe-Side
The balance board rock exemplifies the muscle sequencing theory. Forward/back weight shifts initiate all snowboard moves. Smooth transitions between heel side and toe side of your board enhance the carved turn. Stand at the center of a balance board. Assume your typical snowboard stance. A regular stance keeps your left foot slightly forward, and a "goofy" stance keeps your right foot forward. Bend your knees, engage your core muscles and slowly shift your weight between the heel side and toe side, without letting the edge of the board touch the floor in either direction. Once you have mastered the basic balance skills, experiment with upper-body rotation by bringing your hand toward your opposite foot.
References
- "PT Journal"; Dynamic Pattern Theory-Some Implications for Therapeutics ; John P Scholz; December 1990
- "Vail Daily"; Functional Training Focuses on the Fundamentals; Mark Pitcher; March 2011
- IDEA Fitness; Extreme Measures; Peter Twist; May 2003
- "NSCA Performance Training Journal"; Strength and Conditioning for Snowboarding; Joshua Landis;
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