Ski fitness one week before your trip: a 7-day plan

One week before a ski trip you cannot build much strength, but you can arrive fresh. Do two short leg sessions, one balance and mobility session, one easy walk and a rest day before travel. Skip new exercises, max tests and jumping you are not used to.

Updated: 2026-11-04

One week out, you cannot build much new fitness, but you can arrive in better shape than you would by doing nothing. Spend the week on three things: keep your legs active without tiring them, practise the stance and balance work you will use on snow, and look after sleep, kit and travel. Do not start a hard new programme now.

What can you change in 7 days?

Honestly, not much strength. Muscle and tendon adaptations take weeks. What you can do in a week is keep what you have, freshen up your legs, rehearse movement patterns and fix small things like stiff hips or a tight calf. Think of it as tuning, not building. If you have more than a week, read the full ski fitness plan and when to start ski training instead.

Sports science backs the idea of easing off before an event. A meta-analysis of tapering found that the best results came from a taper of around two weeks, with training volume cut by 41 to 60 percent while keeping intensity and frequency roughly the same^[1]. That research is about trained athletes preparing for competition, so apply it loosely. For a holiday skier, the sensible takeaway is similar: lower the volume, keep a little quality, arrive fresh, and do not try to cram.

Why a fresh start matters

Skiing is hard work. A 2026 study put alpine skiing at about 7.8 METs, with a mean heart rate of roughly 153 beats per minute^[2]. Even sedentary middle-aged men skiing for leisure averaged about 75 percent of their maximum heart rate, with 17.9 percent of readings above 85 percent on the first day^[3]. A body that arrives tired from a hard week of workouts has less in the tank for that first day. Our guide on the first day back on skis covers pacing once you are there.

The 7-day plan

Days 7 to 5: two short, sharp sessions

Do two sessions of 15 to 20 minutes with at least one rest day between them. Use exercises you already know, so you do not get surprise soreness. Squats to a comfortable depth, reverse lunges, wall sits, glute bridges and calf raises, three rounds of 30 to 40 seconds each. Stop each set with a couple of reps in reserve. Do not chase failure. If you are new to the moves, check squats for skiing and the wall sit.

Days 4 and 3: balance and mobility

One light session on balance and stability: single-leg balance (eyes open, then closed near a wall), skater steps, side planks. Then 10 minutes of mobility for ankles, hips and calves. Boots limit your ankles, and tight hips pull you into the back seat. See balance exercises, ankle mobility and hip mobility.

Day 2: easy movement only

A 20 to 30 minute walk or easy bike ride. Nothing that leaves your legs sore. If you want to do a stretching routine, keep it gentle, as in the ski stretching routine.

Day 1: rest and pack

Rest. Drink water, eat normally, pack, and sort your boots, goggles, gloves and passes. Go to bed on time.

Things not to do this week

• Do not test your max. Maximum wall sits or all-out jump circuits one or two days before travel buy you sore legs and no fitness.
• Do not add new exercises. New movements cause soreness a day or two later, right when you travel.
• Do not start plyometrics. Jumping you are not used to is a poor bet in the last week. If you want to learn it for next season, see plyometrics for skiing.
• Do not skip sleep. Travel, early lifts and new beds already cost you some.

Prepare for the cold and the altitude

Preparing for cold weather exercise also matters. A narrative review of cold-environment sport advises planning for the effects of cold on endurance and explosive power and for the health risks of cold exposure, with preparation strategies for winter sports^[4]. In practice: bring layers, plan food and drink for the day, and expect to tire faster at altitude. Ease into your first day.

Sleep, food and water

These matter more than one extra workout. Aim for regular sleep all week, eat enough carbohydrate and protein to refuel your sessions, and drink water through the day. Travel days often upset all three, so settle them early. Cut back on alcohol the night before your first day on snow, because a dry mouth and a foggy head make the opening runs harder than they need to be. Small things like this are within your control, and they add up when your legs have only had a week to prepare.

If you only have two or three sessions

1. One leg session: squats, lunges, wall sit, glute bridge, calf raise.
2. One balance and mobility session.
3. One easy walk.

That is enough. Showing up rested, with warm-up and mobility habits, will help more than one more hard workout. Try to learn a routine from warming up before skiing and use it every morning of the trip.

What the evidence says about training and injury

Be wary of anyone who promises a last-minute plan will prevent injury. A systematic review of injury-prevention recommendations for recreational skiing and snowboarding found 80 recommendations in 30 articles, none of which dealt with physical fitness or training^[5]. A week of preparation cannot make you injury-proof. It can make the first days more comfortable and help you ski more runs. If you have pain in a knee, hip or back during exercise this week, stop, rest, and have it checked before you travel. Do not push through.

On the trip

Start with easy runs, take a break before you are exhausted and stop when your legs shake. Late-day fatigue is when many mistakes happen, as covered in afternoon fatigue and injuries. If you are new, read your first ski trip.

Keep the habit with SnowStreak

SnowStreak is an iPhone app with a six-week pre-season plan, three sessions a week of 17 to 22 minutes, plus a countdown to your first ski day and a one-tap ski day log. It won't turn one week into six, but the free week 1 gives you a structured session to follow and it works offline. If you have six weeks to your next trip, start there.