If you’ve ever been skiing, you’ll know how fun it really is. However, if you’re one of those who have never been skiing but would love to, your time will come, but you must go at least once in your lifetime. The glistening peaks, the sun beaming down on your face and sometimes leaving you with the most attractive goggle marks, skiing is not to be missed. Not only a super fun activity, skiing is super great for your health and we’re here to tell you why.
Top 5 reasons why skiing is great for your health
We’ve compiled a list of our top reasons why skiing is great for your health. From mental health to physical benefits, skiing is not only super fun, but offers the below benefits:
- Burns a shed load of calories
- Improves core muscles
- Provides mental health benefits
- Gets you fit and healthy without even realising it
- Improves flexibility
Burns a shed load of calories
Hiit, running, swimming, tabata… these are all cardio activities that aim to burn fat and increase lung capacity. However, skiing is also a fantastic type of cardio exercise and apparently according to Harvard Medical School, someone who is 186 pounds which roughly equates to 13 stone, can burn 260+ calories in the space of half an hour, so you can imagine how many calories a full day on the slopes will burn!
Not only does the exercise burn a shed load of calories, but as it is much colder out on the snow your body actually works harder to increase your body temperature, which also helps you burn more calories. As a great calorie burner exercise, they are even incorporating skiing into dry side exercise classes! There are many online exercise classes out there now that incorporate ‘ski exercise’ that entails you going on your tiptoes and pulling two ropes down at the side of you.
Improves core muscles
Anyone into exercise or fitness will know core muscles are crucial! Core muscles help keep you upright and perform exercises that you didn’t even know involved your core. As skiing requires the body to stay balanced, this forces your core muscles to engage.
Move over running, or planks, skiing can do the job just the same!
Provides mental health benefits
Doing any form of exercise is a great way to switch off from the outside world, focus on you and not the endless amount of jobs or house tasks you need to do. Most often than not, when you go skiing you go on a ski holiday, this holiday not only makes the perfect break, but doing a load of exercise on the holiday will enable you to switch off from all of your stresses and focus on the thing that really matters, which is you and your health.
Doing even the tiniest bit of exercise releases endorphins to leave you feeling fantastic. After you have participated in skiing you’ll be more than ready to devour a good, hearty meal and you’ll feel fantastic for hours on end, ready for whatever you are going to do, whether that is do some you time, or enjoy a couple of hours enjoying yourself on Après Ski (now I know that isn’t very healthy).
Gets you fit and healthy without even realising
The most spectacular thing about skiing is that it allows you to get fit and healthy without you even realising it. By visiting an indoor ski slope like the one at Chill Factore, Manchester for ski lessons allows you to week on week (or whenever your lesson is) to put your skills into practice and ski on the slopes for an hour, two hours or even more.
Not only will you feel great afterwards, but skiing is a great form of exercise and will leave you bounding with energy and you’ll be itching for the weeks or days to fly by before getting back onto the slopes.
Improves flexibility
Skiing is also a great way to improve your flexibility, if you aren’t so flexible you’ll probably realise that your body is more upright when going down the slopes, skiing encourages your body to bend in ways it is probably not normally used to so it is a great way to improve your flexibility.
To really improve your flexibility, make sure you stretch prior and post skiing session as this will help the body maneuver well down the slopes.
There’s no excuse not to ski
Offering a huge amount of health benefits and an activity that is also fun – skiing is definitely a no brainer. We recommend learning to ski with lessons from a local indoor ski slope prior to venturing off on a ski holiday, just so you become accustomed to your skis and the slope and also you’ll be burning all those calories from skiing as you’ll be on your skis more regularly.