Free Snowboard Training Program

How this snowboard training program works

Every week has the same four days: lower body strength on Monday, upper body, rotation and intervals on Tuesday, ankles, hips, core and long easy cardio on Thursday, and jumps, landings, single-leg work and a "board legs" finisher on Saturday. What changes is how heavy you lift, how fast you move and how long the easy cardio goes.

Weeks 1 to 4: Foundation

Moderate weights with a slow 3-second lower on the leg lifts, 2-minute intervals and 30 to 40 minutes of easy cardio. You learn the lifts and build the base everything else stacks on.

Weeks 5 to 8: Strength and Control

Heavy sets of 3 to 5 reps, slow Bulgarian split squats (sorry in advance), jump turns that teach you to land facing a new direction, 4-minute intervals and up to 55 minutes of easy cardio.

Weeks 9 to 12: Power and Board Legs

Lifting for speed, lateral bounds, rotational med ball throws, 1-minute intervals and 60 to 90 second "board runs" for your legs. Week 12 is a taper, so you show up to opening day fresh instead of fried.

Why it's built this way

A snowboard day is hours in a low, bent-knee stance, steering with your ankles and hips, with hard bursts mixed in and a lot of getting up off the snow. Elite riders averaged around 75 to 80% of their max heart rate across a training session on snow, and freestyle riders hit about 92% during a halfpipe run. The research is small, but the picture is pretty clear. So the program builds four things: a big aerobic engine, legs that hold a low stance, ankles that work both edges, and the strength to land well when things go sideways.

You'll also see a lot of single-leg work, weaker side first. In one group of elite riders, the back leg was about 10% stronger than the front leg. Nobody knows yet whether that matters, but there's no reason to make the gap bigger.

Straight talk on injuries: getting stronger makes riding better, but nobody has proven that gym training prevents snowboard injuries. Wrists are the most common snowboard injury, and most of them happen in the first week of learning. The things with the best evidence happen outside the gym: take a lesson if you're new, and wear a helmet (in a big review, helmets cut the odds of a head injury by about 40%). The program covers how to fall too, and every source is listed in the back.

Who built this

I'm Anders Boyd, owner and head coach at Alpine Powerhouse in Reno. I came up as a college athlete and then worked on a wildland fire handcrew, where fitness isn't about how you look. It's about hiking all day under a load and still having legs at the end. Riding asks for a lot of the same stuff.

Last year I gave a talk on strength and conditioning for skiers at the Patagonia store in downtown Reno. This is the snowboard version of that plan, rebuilt around a sideways stance, ankles that do the steering, and a lot of getting up off the snow.

Free sample: Week 1, Day 4

Here's a full Saturday from Week 1 so you know what you're signing up for.

Warm-up, 2 rounds

• 2:00 easy bike

• 8 each leg swings, front to back and side to side

• 5 each Spiderman lunge with reach

• 10 pogo hops, quiet feet

Strength

• A1) 4x3 Box Jump, step down. Rest 1:30

• B1) 3x8 each Step-Up, 3 sec lower @ RIR 3

• B2) 3x8 each Single-Leg RDL @ RIR 3. Rest 1:30

• C1) 3x40 yd Offset Kettlebell Carry, switch halfway. Rest 1:00

Finisher: "Mount Pluto Legs," 5 rounds

• :40 riding stance hold

• 8 two-foot lateral hops over a line, feet together

• 1:00 rest

RIR 3 means you stop with about 3 good reps left in the tank. For the stance hold, set your feet a little wider than your shoulders and turned out like your bindings, then sit into it. Keep your feet together on the hops like you're still strapped in. It burns like the last few turns of a long top-to-bottom run. That's the point.

Questions people ask

Is it really free?

Yep. Your first name and email get you all 12 weeks as a PDF. No credit card, no trial that turns into a charge.

When should I start training for snowboard season?

About 12 weeks before your first day on snow. If the lifts open before you finish, keep going. Riding days count as conditioning, so skip that week's Thursday easy cardio.

How many days a week, and how long?

Four days, about an hour each. Thursday stretches to 60 to 90 minutes as the easy cardio gets longer. If a week only gives you three days, drop Tuesday.

What are the best exercises for snowboarding?

There isn't one magic lift. You want legs that can hold a low stance, ankles and hips that steer on both edges, control on one leg, and the ability to absorb a landing. That's why the program mixes squats, step-ups, single-leg RDLs, calf and shin work, jumps and rotation across the week instead of hammering one exercise.

Do I need a fancy gym?

Nope. A barbell, dumbbells, kettlebells, a box, a pull-up bar, a band, a med ball and a bike or rower. There's a swap for everything.

I don't live in Reno. Can I still use this?

Yes. It works in any normal gym, anywhere. Whether you ride Tahoe every weekend or take one big trip a year to Utah or Colorado, the plan is the same.

I splitboard. Does this work for me?

Yes. The splitboard add-on takes the long cardio day uphill with your pack and adds an easy weekend hike. It gets your legs ready, not your judgment, so take an avalanche course too.

Will this keep me from getting hurt?

Nobody can promise that, and you should be suspicious of anyone who does. Lessons and helmets have the best evidence. We also borrow the landing, single-leg and hamstring work that can cut ACL injuries by about half in field and court sports, because it trains you to absorb a bad landing. That's a reasonable bet for riding, not proof.

Can I do this with a coach?

Absolutely. Train it in our small-group classes in Reno (five people max), 1:1, or with online coaching from anywhere. We're at 903 E 4th St, a short drive from Mt. Rose and the rest of the Tahoe resorts.