Snowboarding is the ultimate fun activity in winters; however it is something which requires high fitness levels, continuous training to go with proper equipment.

It is an activity which involves nearly every muscle in your body, but the main focus should always be on the leg and arm muscles. There are a lot of exercises which can help a person in developing strong leg muscles. Some of the best ones are squats and lunges.

Squats develop your thigh muscles, which take most of the strain while you are trying to twist around the obstacles. This exercise requires you to bend your knees to an extent that the upper part of the leg becomes parallel to the ground, taking weight on the heels all the while. The arms can be in multiple positions – cross bow to on the back of your neck. Do a set of 20 squats per day to start with and gradually start using weights.

Lunges also help a lot in keep your legs toned and in shape. To do this, take your left foot forward and bend your right knee towards the ground. The body should be in an upright position during the motion. There are many variations of this exercise but the workout should be started with stationary lunges.

To shape up the arms, pushups and triceps should be a regular part of your routine.

Pushups are pretty self explanatory. You just have to place both hands on the floor and then push your chest as close to the ground as possible. The pushups are normally done is sets, and the number in each set should gradually increase.

To develop the triceps, dip is an effective exercise. To do this you need a chair. Sit in an upright position and place your hands on the two edges. Now push your body down with your hands still up on the chair, and then rise. The exercise should be performed with care, and the workload should not be increased all of a sudden.

Balance is also very important for snowboarder. There are many exercises which can help you control your body weight, for e.g., sitting on a large rubber ball, standing on cylindrical rollers.

In addition to all these exercises, developing a good stamina is paramount to maintaining fitness throughout the snowboarding season. Do a lot of aerobic exercise, like running, hiking and swimming. These exercise help a lot in increasing the strength of the body, and will complement the enhanced training which you require to prepare the body for snowboarding action.

– Image courtesy: shape.com