Holly Price

Mar, 20 - 2025 - 7 mins

How Fit Do You Need to Be to Ski?

As with any sport, skiing demands a certain level of fitness. Despite gravity being a huge help (you are sliding down a mountain, after all) both skiing and snowboarding require the use of muscles and a good level of cardiovascular fitness. After your first day on the slopes, you’ll likely ache in places you didn’t think it was possible to. However, that doesn’t mean you need to be a professional athlete. To answer the question ‘do you have to be fit to ski?’ I would say not necessarily, but you will require good strength in your legs and a reasonable amount of cardiovascular endurance. Having that will ensure that you enjoy the experience, and don’t want to crash and burn before you’ve even reached the chairlift.

Taking up skiing as a hobby is likely to improve your fitness - you’ll be engaging several muscle groups at once, increasing your cardiovascular capabilities and boosting your endurance. All while enjoying stunning mountain views and looking forward to rewarding your efforts with hearty mountain cuisine. Below, we’ll consider how physically hard skiing really is, what benefits you’ll likely derive from it and how you can prepare.

_Don’t forget: Due to the high altitude of many ski resorts, there’s also less oxygen in the air, which makes it harder to deliver oxygen to your muscles. While there are lots of factors that go into how well you’re able to perform at high-altitude (defined as anything above 2500m,) having a good level of fitness and practising endurance and interval training have been shown to help increase a person’s VO2 max. Your VO2 max is the maximum or optimum rate at which the heart, lungs, and muscles can effectively use oxygen during exercise. In summary, the better your body can use oxygen, the better you’ll perform when there is less of it. _

How Physically Hard Is Skiing?

Skiing requires a strong core and powerful legs. While it might look simple, you’ll actually be required to coordinate your muscles in both the top and lower half of your body so that you can balance, steer and rotate all at once. The five muscle groups you’ll rely on are:

1. The core - Your core will be responsible for a lot of your balance while skiing, which is integral to the sport. Skiers with a weak core will be easily identifiable by their falls, wobbling torsos and flailing arms.
2. The glutes - Helping with stabilisation and some rotation, your glutes in the outer thigh in particular move your leg away from the body, which assists with the pushing motion skiers do to get started, or to ‘skate’ over flat sections.
3. The lower leg - The muscles in your lower leg are divided into three compartments: anterior, posterior and lateral. All three of these will be in use every time you put your ski on an edge, which helps you turn.
4. The ankle & foot - These are responsible for putting pressure on the edge of your ski, and the rotational movements required throughout.
5. The knee flexors & extensors - Bending and squatting is common with alpine skiing, which uses the knee flexors and extensors. However, your quads and hamstrings play a vital role in protecting your anterior cruciate ligament in these movements, which can snap under pressure. Having strong quadriceps and hamstrings is essential as a result.

With all of those muscle groups involved, you might be wondering ‘is skiing a full-body workout?’ and we can confirm, it definitely is. Just ask anyone who has ever nailed first to last lifts. Different styles of skiing will also place more of a demand on certain groups than others. For example, riding in deep powder, which requires an altered stance in order to keep your ski tips from getting buried, will work your leg and core muscles more than the others.

Do You Get Fit from Skiing?

Yes - regular skiing will not only strengthen the muscles of the groups mentioned above, but it will also boost cardiovascular fitness and endurance.

You’ll also burn a lot of calories during your trip. While many factors like weight, speed and activity will influence the final number, leisurely to moderate skiing burns around 300-400 calories per hour on average. Those hammering the slopes at top speed can expect to burn over 600 calories per hour. Make sure you refuel properly with plenty of stops for chocolat chaud and fondue.

On that note…is skiing a better exercise than running?

There are a few differences which set running and skiing apart. Running is a high-impact sport, putting pressure on your joints through the repetitive movements and footfall onto the ground - skiing can be much lower in impact, particularly if you do cross-country skiing. While running focuses almost entirely on the lower-body muscle groups, skiing engages your core, glutes and several lower-body muscle groups.

It would be much more challenging to go on a three-hour run than spend three hours skiing. A better way to look at skiing is as a series of short sprints. In terms of calorie burn, an hour of running burns around 700 - 800 calories, but this will again depend on factors like speed and weight. It’s also important to consider enjoyment here too - the views and thrills you get while skiing are likely going to be hard to beat, thus making it a more enjoyable form of exercise.

Is Skiing Good for Your Lungs?

Yes - skiing can actually improve your lung capacity. This is down to a couple of factors:

• Increased ventilation: As with any exercise or exertion, your lungs will work harder to process oxygen. You’ll take in and expel more air with each breath, increasing lung ventilation.
• Aerobic exercise: Skiing is a form of aerobic exercise, which is known to improve cardiovascular fitness and so strengthen the heart and lungs, leading to better respiratory capacity.

A study into the Potential Health Benefits of Downhill Skiing also suggests that skiing may contribute to healthy aging by its association with a healthier lifestyle, favorable health effects in the musculo-skeletal and postural control systems, and emotional and social benefits from outdoor recreation.” So, not only is skiing likely to make you healthier, but happier too. Need any more encouragement to book that trip?

How to Prepare Physically for Skiing

By knowing what muscle groups you’ll use when skiing, it is easy to improve your ski fitness by focusing on them. Look for workouts that boost your leg strength, core stability, and cardiovascular endurance, or even ski/snowboard-geared circuits like this viral Instagram workout. Cycling and spin classes are a great way to get fit for the slopes, as they are a low-impact choice for your joints and focus on keeping the lower-body muscles lean, limber and strong: the holy trifecta of ski fitness. Spin classes are similar to skiing also in the way that they require short bursts of intense activity - similar to how you’ll spend your day between cruisey gondola rides, speedy descents and leisurely lunch pit stops.

Another important part of ski fitness before and during your trip is your warm-up and recovery routine. Yoga and basic stretching routines are essential for staying limber and avoiding injury, while recovery habits like hot baths, sauna and rest will also help.

Ultimately, you don’t have to be fit to ski, but it will mean that you have a better experience when you do have a good level of cardiovascular fitness and muscle strength. To ensure a great ski trip, I’d recommend having a form of fitness plan in place so that you can boost your cardio levels and muscle strength and then keep shredding to your heart's content when the time comes for your trip. There’s also nothing worse than having to head back to the accommodation solo because you’re too sore to continue by lunch time - trust me, any fitness regime you’re able to commit to will stand you in good stead for your trip.

To further prepare, you can find the ideal resort for you based on your fitness level and skiing ability. Use our Ski Resort Finder tool to filter by things like Top Elevation, Beginner Friendliness and Groomed Runs, or take our Ski Resort Quiz to find the ideal destination for your group.