The Ultimate Fitness Guide to Level Up Your Snowboarding
- Brainz Magazine
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
Written by Jon Addison, Performance Coach
Jon Addison is a specialist in surf and snow sports performance. As the founder of Mtnwave Fitness, he provides tailored online fitness coaching for ocean and mountain sports, in addition to organizing adventure coaching tours that integrate his rider-focused training with incredible surf and snow experiences.
Snowboarding progression often comes down to one thing, time on your feet. The more quality runs you ride with power, flow, and control, the faster you improve. But here is the catch. If your legs are burning halfway through the first run, or you are too sore to ride back-to-back days, you are holding yourself back.
The truth is, most snowboarders are not limited by their skills alone. It is often their fitness that lets them down. Snowboarding rewards strength, stamina, mobility, and agility every bit as much as technique. With the right preparation, you can ride longer, recover faster, and progress quicker.
In this article, we will break down exactly how to tackle your fitness for the entire season. If you are heading to the mountains for a short trip and want some quick practical tips to get ready, check out my Snowboard Trip Fitness Blueprint. If you are ready for a complete roadmap to set yourself up for your best winter yet, this guide is for you.
Why fitness became non-negotiable for me
I have been riding for more than twenty-five years, so simply getting down the mountain has never been the issue. The problems arise when I neglect my fitness. On powder days, my legs tire quickly, and the old injury in my foot flares up after long sessions, forcing me to hold back on runs I should be charging. The biggest change I notice is how much harder it becomes to take falls. Impacts that I used to brush off now rattle my body and leave me tense and sore for days.
However, when I train well in the lead-up to the season and train smart during, the story changes completely. By looking after my strength, mobility, cardio, rehab, and recovery, I am able to keep up the pace, ride progressively, and bounce back quickly when I do take a slam. The difference is night and day. Training does not just help me ride better. It keeps me resilient enough to enjoy the whole season, push my riding further, and keep progressing year after year.
Pre-season preparation and training phase
The months leading up to winter are your chance to lay the foundation. This is when you build the strength, endurance, and mobility that will carry you through the whole season. If you do the hard work now, you will ride harder, recover quicker, and avoid the fatigue and injuries that creep in when you start the season unprepared.
Strength and stability for power and control
Strength is the foundation for snowboarding. Without it, your legs fatigue quickly, your turns lose bite, and your landings feel shaky. Snowboarding is dominated by lower-body and core demand, but stability through your entire body is what allows you to absorb impacts, hold edges, and stay balanced on varied terrain.
Lower body training
Your legs and hips drive you through every carve. Goblet squats and weighted Romanian deadlifts should be your staples. Back them up with single-leg strength work to help you shift weight smoothly when riding. Split squats, lunge variations, hamstring curls, glute bridges, and single-leg RDLs all build balance and control that transfer directly to your riding.
Core stability
Your core ties everything together. A strong trunk lets you absorb and transfer force, brace against heavy impacts, and recover quickly when you get thrown off balance. Strict planks, side planks, adductor planks, and glute medius exercises will keep you rooted to your board. Anti-rotation holds, rotational band lifts, and chops will train your core to deliver stability under pressure.
Upper body training
While snowboarding is leg dominant, your upper body still plays a vital role in balance, control, and injury prevention. Strong shoulders and back muscles protect you during falls, help absorb impact when bracing with your arms, and improve posture so your riding stays efficient all day long. Push-ups, rows, and lat pulldowns develop balanced pulling and pushing strength. Band Y, T, and W pulls, overhead presses, and scapular stability drills build durability through the shoulders and upper back, keeping them healthy and robust throughout the season.
When you build strength across these areas, your turns and airs become more powerful, your landings hold firmer, and your body stays resilient against the high impacts of snowboarding.
Endurance and power to last all day
Snowboarding demands both stamina and explosiveness. Without a solid aerobic base, your legs will give out halfway through long runs or deep powder days. Steady-state zone 2 cardio sessions of 30 to 60 minutes, such as running, rowing, cycling, or swimming at a moderate pace, build the engine that lets you ride back-to-back days without burning out.
On top of that base, you need power. High-intensity interval training with kettlebell cleans and swings, box jumps, and drop jumps trains your body to explode into and out of turns, pop into airs, and stay reactive when the terrain throws surprises at you.
By combining steady cardio with short, intense efforts, you create both the endurance to last all day and the snap to keep you riding powerfully and dynamically.
Movement and mobility to stay loose and agile
Mobility is the difference between riding with style and looking stiff and awkward on your board. Tight hips limit your ability to compress and extend, stiff ankles reduce edge control, and a locked spine makes it impossible to rotate smoothly through turns. By addressing your mobility before the season, you set yourself up to ride with freedom, reduce your risk of injury, and recover faster between days.
Functional Range Conditioning (FRC) – Controlled Articular Rotations (CARs)
Controlled joint circles, such as hip, ankle, knee, spine, and shoulder CARs, keep your joints healthy and moving through their full ranges. These drills are ideal for daily mobility prep, warm-ups, or cool-downs, helping your body stay loose and ready for dynamic riding.
Yoga and animal Flow
Yoga flows build flexibility, breath control, and body awareness, while Animal Flow drills like crawls and kick-throughs blend mobility with coordination and agility. Both styles improve your ability to move dynamically and translate that freedom directly onto your board.
Kettlebell training and plyometrics
Kettlebell training and plyometrics are key tools for developing functional power and dynamic strength. Swings, cleans, and rotational presses build explosive hip drive and core strength that carry over to your turns and pop. Pair them with plyometric work like box jumps, ice skaters, and broad jumps to develop the reactive power needed for landings, quick transitions, and carving control. These exercises train your body to handle the high-speed, high-impact nature of snowboarding.
Stretching and soft tissue
Long-hold stretches and foam rolling target tight areas like hips, quads, hamstrings, and the spine. Together, they help undo tension from both training and riding, improve flexibility, and leave your body fresh and ready for the next session.
When you move better, you ride with more flow and style, falls are easier to recover from, and your body stays stronger throughout the season.
Sample pre-season training week
Here is how to put the pieces together for a balanced week of snowboard prep.
1 upper body and core session, push, pull, and core stability work
1 to 2 lower body strength sessions, squats, hinges, and single-leg balance
1 long cardio session, 30 to 60 minutes steady-state (run, row, cycle, or swim)
1 to 2 HIIT and mobility flow sessions, kettlebells, plyos, and yoga or Animal Flow combined
Daily soft tissue release and stretching to stay loose and aid recovery
In-season maintenance and recovery phase
Once the lifts start spinning, snowboarding becomes your main workout. Long days on the mountain are already demanding, so your training needs to adapt. The focus shifts from building big gains in the gym to keeping your body healthy, staying resilient, and maintaining the base you built in the pre-season.
Mobility and recovery
Recovery sessions should be your main focus during the season. If you do not have time for anything else, do not skip here. Foam rolling, targeted stretching, and yoga flows loosen tight hips, quads, and spines, while swims or walking between riding days speeds recovery. These small habits keep you fresher for back-to-back sessions and reduce the risk of overuse injuries.
Movement training
On your off days or when you want more than recovery, focus on movement-based workouts that keep your body athletic without overloading it. Use kettlebells, Animal Flow, yoga, and sport-specific drills like box jumps or ice skaters. Structure them as circuits with 6 to 8 exercises, 45 seconds of work, 15 seconds of rest, for 3 to 4 rounds. Slow the tempo for a restorative day or speed it up for more of a workout. These sessions are the best way to stay sharp and athletic throughout the season.
Strength maintenance
Save your heavier work for bad weather days or weeks off the mountain. Use simple, focused exercises like goblet squats, hip hinges, push-ups, rows, planks, and bird dogs to keep your foundation topped up. Add in core work such as band rotations and anti-rotational holds to keep your power high through your turns and airs, along with shoulder stability drills to protect against falls. A little goes a long way. The goal is to preserve, not exhaust.
Sample in-season training week
2 to 3 mobility and recovery sessions (staples)
1 to 2 movement training days (during off days)
1 to 2 full-body strength days (during downtime or bad weather)
Include full rest days with spa and sauna if and when required
Why this two-phase approach works
Pre-season training is about building capacity, developing the strength, endurance, and mobility that raise your peak for performance. In-season training is about preserving those qualities while balancing the strain of long days on the mountain. When you combine the two, you create the fitness to ride harder, recover quicker, and avoid the crash-and-burn cycle that cuts so many days on the slopes short.
Take the next step this winter
Snowboarding strong all winter is not just about time on the hill. It is about preparing your body to handle the demands of your time on the slopes. With the right approach, you not only ride better but also ride for longer, with more confidence and less risk of injury. That is the payoff of doing the hard work before the season and then training smart once you are in it. Use this ultimate guide as your starting point and see how well your snowboarding levels up this season.
If you want a clear path to follow, our new 30DAYS/30WAYS Snow Fit Series is now available. No guesswork, just practical tips, proven strategies, and clear methods to help you ride stronger, recover faster, and unlock more progression this season.
Read more from Jon Addison
Jon Addison, Performance Coach
Jon Addison is a performance coach, surf and snowboard instructor, and former snowboard athlete specializing in fitness, rehab, and readiness for ocean and mountain sports. As the founder of Mtnwave Fitness, he helps athletes and enthusiasts overcome frustrations, plateaus, and pain through personalized coaching programs designed to elevate their performance. Jon’s own journey of injury recovery and sustainable fitness has fueled his commitment to helping others unlock their potential. With a focus on functional movement and sport-oriented fitness, he is dedicated to helping riders reclaim and enhance their abilities in surf and snow sports.
