Strength training for skiers: what the trials in skiers measured, the lifts, and a pre-season week

Strength training for skiers, in the research, is lifting added to a skier's regular training before and during the season. This page covers adults. The lifting trials cited here are in cross-country skiers, so most of what they measured is cross-country skiing, and what carries over to downhill is stated as practical.

The two kinds of skiing ask different things. A 2009 review of the physiology of alpine ski racing, covering more than 30 years of research, found it appears to involve a complex mix of physiological systems, none of which may matter more than the others, and that technical ability appears to be the greatest influence on performance.¹ A 2018 paper describing how Olympic alpine racers from four nations train, based on interviews with their coaches, notes that improved snow preparation has made surfaces harder, with the technical disciplines requiring more pronounced loading and unloading and greater ground reaction forces.² Among 48 members of a national alpine team (20 women and 28 men, averaging 25.2 and 27.6 years), the authors concluded success was not related to any single physiological variable, and named two crucial factors: high levels of aerobic power and of muscle strength.³ That's a snapshot of racers, not a trial of training.

What the trials in skiers found

• Across 12 trials. A 2022 systematic review of randomized controlled trials of strength and power training in competitive cross-country skiers covered 263 skiers, 65% of them men. The abstract doesn't give the skiers' ages. The programs averaged 8.8 weeks (6 to 12) with 2.7 strength sessions a week (2 to 3). Every strength, power or speed intervention improved one-repetition max, the interventions had a moderate effect on skiing-specific performance compared with controls (mean effect size 0.56), work economy was enhanced by most, and none changed anaerobic capacity. The review rated the studies' methodological quality as mostly poor-to-fair, with good quality in only two, called the pattern of performance effects not consistent, and called the evidence on work economy and maximal oxygen uptake inconclusive.⁴
• Twelve weeks, with a comparison group. 19 elite cross-country skiers, 11 men aged 18 to 26 and 8 women aged 18 to 27, were assigned to a strength group (9) or a control group (10). The strength group trained twice a week for 12 weeks on top of their usual endurance training. Their one-repetition max rose 19% in the seated pull-down and 12% in the half squat; their maximal oxygen uptake during skate roller-skiing rose 7%, while it was unchanged in running; and double-poling performance improved more than in the controls. A roller-ski time trial improved about equally in both groups.⁵

In these studies, lifting made skiers stronger, and the longer trial found it helped the poling that uses the arms and trunk; the review's quality and consistency caveats are why this page is cautious. The week below keeps lifting beside skiing, not instead of it.

What about downhill skiing?

The alpine papers cited here describe what racing demands and which measures went with ranking; they don't report what a lifting block does to a downhill skier. The 2009 review said more research was needed on muscle function in particular.¹ So for downhill, the lifts below are a practical choice built on the demands above: strong legs and a trunk that can hold position, plus the aerobic base the team study named.³

The lifts for skiers

The pull-down and the half squat come from the long cross-country trial; the rest of the list is practical.

New to the barbell? How to get stronger covers building up to heavy sets. For the endurance side, zone 2 cardio covers the slow, long work, and cardio and lifting covers how to fit it around the lifts.

A pre-season and an in-season week

A practical layout, not a protocol from a trial. Two or three lifting days in pre-season match the 2 to 3 sessions the reviewed programs used, and the 12-week trial used two.^4,5 If the first snow is about 8 to 12 weeks away, that's the block: the reviewed programs averaged 8.8 weeks and the long trial ran 12.^4,5

Keep the heaviest leg day a couple of days from a long ski day. The trials cited here don't test in-season lifting, so the in-season column is practical: fewer lifts, kept early in the week.

Ski training without a gym

Practical, and without the barbell: step-ups on a stair or chair, split squats and lateral lunges holding a loaded backpack, single-leg Romanian deadlifts, calf raises on a step, planks and side planks, and jumps. The bodyweight workout lays out a full session and the resistance band workout adds a band for pulls. The pull-down has no exact home match; band pull-downs or inverted rows stand in for it.

Common questions

Does lifting help cross-country skiing?

In the studies cited here, mostly yes for strength: every intervention reviewed improved one-repetition max and had a moderate effect on skiing-specific performance, though the review rated the studies' quality as mostly poor-to-fair and the pattern of performance effects as not consistent.⁴ In 19 elite skiers, 12 weeks of heavy lifting improved double-poling performance more than endurance training alone.⁵ Lifting didn't change anaerobic capacity in any of the reviewed trials, and the review called the evidence on work economy and maximal oxygen uptake inconclusive.⁴

Does it help downhill skiing?

The papers cited here on alpine skiing don't report a lifting trial, so I can't say how much. They do name muscle strength, with aerobic power, as a crucial factor in a team of professional racers.³

How many days a week should skiers lift?

Two or three: the reviewed programs averaged 2.7 sessions a week,⁴ and the 12-week trial used two.⁵

How early should I start before the season?

The reviewed programs lasted 6 to 12 weeks, 8.8 on average,⁴ so starting about 12 weeks out is a practical way to fit the longest of them.

Training for another endurance or leg-heavy sport? Runners, cyclists and climbers each have a page.

If you'd rather have the week planned

Fitting lifts between a work week and a season that depends on weekends is a scheduling problem as much as a training one. Coaching here is general strength and fitness coaching, not ski coaching: your workouts are built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one around what's coming. How coaching works explains it, and apply is the first step. Otherwise: put a lift on Monday and Wednesday next week and keep it there until the snow.