Snowboarding is one of the most physically demanding off all winter sports. Even the most elementary of snowboarding maneuvers will engage the various muscles of your legs. To see any substantial loss in body weight, you'll need to spend a few hours on the slopes each day of the snowboarding season.
Burn Calories
As opposed to spending countless hours in the gym, you can use snowboarding as an effective aerobic exercise. Riding for extended periods will allow you to increase your heart rate and get your blood flowing. According to Fit Day, due to the physical demands of turns and maneuvers, the average recreational snowboarder burns around 450 calories an hour. More rigorous forms of snowboarding, including backcountry and freestyle, allow you to burn around twice as many calories per hour.
Tone Muscles
Even the most basic of snowboarding techniques will work most of your major muscle groups and even some muscles that you might not use that often. Transferring your body weight between the edges of the snowboard will help to strengthen and tone the muscles in your ankles and feet. According to the "Aspen Post," snowboarding also will target some of your larger muscles, including the quads, calves and hamstrings. Performing snowboarding maneuvers on a regular basis will help decrease the amount of fatty tissue that has accumulated around your muscles.
Backcountry Snowboarding
Backcountry riders prefer to venture outside the confines of the snowboarding resort to search for natural mountain slopes. While recreational snowboarding slopes allow you to easily glide across the snow, a backcountry terrain poses more of a challenge. As these off-piste slopes are covered with deep mounds of powdered snow, navigating your way across a backcountry terrain will cause you to expend more energy. Riding in the backcountry on a regular basis will allow you to burn calories quickly and decrease your weight.
Freestyle Snowboarding
Freestyle snowboarding is one of the more challenging riding disciplines because your body is constantly in motion. Freestyle riders, also referred to as slope stylers, spend their time in the terrain park practicing aerial jumps off inclined ramps. Performing the jumping techniques will allow you to strengthen and tone your core muscles. Balancing on boxes and rails will engage various upper and lower leg muscles. Linking together a series of freestyle tricks will allow you to expend calories at a high rate of speed.
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