How To Do Skiers

By: Chris Freytag, CPT

Chris Demonstrating a skier exercise. this for later

If you’ve ever been skiing, you know what a workout it is! The skiers exercise mimics ski moguls in the movement of the hips going from side to side.

When doing skiers, your feet are together, and your knees are bent. Much like jump squats, they work your cardiovascular system and strengthen your lower body and core muscles for stabilization.

The CDC recommends that healthy adults get 150 minutes of aerobic activity per week, but we know how mind-numbing cardio exercises can be! That’s why it’s important to switch up your routines so you never get bored.

Learning how to do skiers and adding them to your routine for an extra cardio boost helps keep your workouts interesting! They are a great way to lose weight and improve lower body and core strength.

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    Table of contents

    Benefits of Skiers

    Skiers are a plyometric exercise that strengthens your legs, glutes, and core and increases your heart rate for major fat burning. Here are some other great benefits of skiers:

    Improves Your Cardiovascular System

    Skiing is a move that gets your heart rate up, causing your cardiovascular system to work hard and become more efficient! 

    Skiers are also considered a plyometric exercise, which works your body harder than other cardio moves. High-intensity moves like this are the best way to get conditioned!

    Strengthens the Muscles in Your Lower Body

    Doing skiers is an awesome lower-body move that strengthens multiple muscles, including your glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. Plyometric moves, like skiers, use body weight as the tool of strength.

    A fit woman at the gym in red shorts showing her abs.

    Burns Major Calories

    We are always looking for ways to shed those extra few pounds!

    By taking on high-intensity moves like skiers, you can push your body to work harder and burn more calories. Burning more calories is one of the key aspects of losing more weight.

    Skiers also help you build bone mass, spike your heart rate, and boost your metabolism.

    Related: 20-Minute Cardio Workout For People Who Hate Running

    How To Do Skiers

    Here are the steps to performing skiers:

    Chris Freytag demonstrating a skiers exercise.
    1. Stand with your feet together and knees bent, holding bent elbows next to your side.
    2. Keep your feet together and jump to one side, turning so hips and toes point right.
    3. Now jump your feet together to the other side and turn so hips and toes point left.
    4. Continue to switch, jumping from right to left, keeping legs tightly together and arms and waist turning as if you are holding ski poles.

    How Many Calories Do Skiers Burn?

    Most exercises will generally burn about 100 calories for every 10 minutes you are working at a higher intensity. Bottom line? The harder you work, the more calories you burn. Skiers will get the job done!

    Incorporating Skiers Into Your Workouts

    Skiers are great to use any time on their own. However, you could also incorporate skiers into other workouts to mix them up!

    Here are some ideas to make that happen:

    Add Skiers to Your HIIT Workout

    High-Intensity Interval Training—or HIIT—is the true power force when it comes to getting in shape. Using plyometrics like skiers and other high-intensity moves cuts your workout time in half while keeping you panting, sweating, and torching calories. Try this one for fun!

    HIIT Fun Workout

    After a brief warm-up, do each of the following moves for 20 seconds with 10 seconds in between exercises.  Repeat each set 3 times:

    Set 1:

    1. Split Jumps
    2. Plank Jacks
    3. Jumping Jacks
    4. Skiers

    Set 2:

    1. Surfer Squat
    2. Push Up Jacks
    3. Front Kicks
    4. Upper Cuts

    Add Skiers to Your Strength/ Cardio Workout

    Why not get your strength and cardio done in one workout? This is the perfect solution—some lower body, upper body, and cardio in each set to get your strong and fit with balance! (No equipment needed.)

    Bodyweight Strength & Cardio Mixer

    Warm up for about 2-3 minutes, followed by 12 to 16 reps of each of the following moves:

    1. Squats
    2. Push-Ups
    3. Skiers
    4. Backward Lunges
    5. Tricep Dips
    6. Jumping Jacks
    7. Side Lunges
    8. Bend Extend Ab Tuck
    9. Squat Jumps

    Add Skiers to A Walk

    Walking doesn’t have to be low-intensity—a good walk just needs a few things to shake up the body and get your metabolism rockin’!

    Try this out next time you head out for a walk:

    20-Minute Interval Walk

    • Walk for 5 minutes, then stop and do 16 squat jumps.
    • Walk for 3 minutes, then stop and do 16 skiers.
    • Walk for 3 minutes, then stop and do 10 burpees.
    • Walk for 3 minutes, then stop and do 16 power skips.
    • Walk for 3 minutes, then be sure to stretch!

    Looking for something different? Here are a few more workouts that incorporate skiers:

    Exercises Similar to Skiers

    If you like skiers and their results, here are a few more exercises you might want to try:

    READ THIS NEXT: Plyometrics: What Are They And Why Should You Do Them?

    (This will help us personalize your experience so that you can get the best advice possible from us!)
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