Snowboard-and-ski season is fast upon us. And while your mind may be ready for the powder, chances are your body isn’t. That’s because skiing and snowboarding are sports that require a specific type of lower-body muscle strength, which you don’t typically get from summer activities. Fail to build up the right muscles -- primarily supporting the knees and lower back -- and you leave yourself open to some nasty injuries.

Think about your body when you ski: Your knees are absorbing all the impact from the terrain up through the body. “The knee gets tremendous overuse due to the forces placed on it,” says Mike Wunsch, CSCS, director of fitness at Results Fitness in Santa Clarita, Calif. “And it has to take the slack from the now locked-in ankle.”

Weak quads and hamstrings can make the knee joint vulnerable to a ligament injury, such as an LCL or ACL tear, either from a fall or from ski tips running in opposite ways.

“The lower back is the other area that absorbs a lot of impact,” adds Courtenay Schurman, MS, CSCA, co-owner of Body Results Fitness in Seattle and author of The Outdoor Athlete. “Since a downhill skier spends so much time in a crouch position, if he or she has a weak core, like the weakest link in any chain, that area runs the risk of injury.”

For a safe and successful winter-sports season, Wunsch recommends the following workout. Do two to three sets of eight to 12 reps of each exercise twice a week.

SNOW STRENGTH

Box step-down: Stand on a box 12 to 24 inches high and step off, working on controlling your body’s downward movement and nailing the landing. Alternate the lead leg throughout the set.

Lateral hops: Keeping feet directly underneath you, quickly hop sideways without pausing during landing phases. After several hops one way, reverse direction. Keep chest up, and maintain good posture throughout.

Pause squats: Simply pause in the bottom squat position, keeping your muscles flexed, before coming up. You can use a light load (a bar or dumbbells held at the sides) and pause several seconds or go heavier and pause for just two seconds.

Single-leg balance: Snowboarders need to work on balance and building up endurance in the foot-stabilizing musculature. Work up to several minutes (as that’s how long a run can last) standing on one foot with the other lifted off the ground, knee up.

Lateral lunge: Step to the right with the right foot, keeping toes forward and your feet flat. Squat through the right hip while keeping the left leg straight. Squat as low as possible, holding this position for two seconds. Push back to the starting position and repeat to the opposite side.

Diagonal wood chops: Keep legs shoulder-width apart, knees soft. Using both hands, hold a dumbbell alongside your right ear, with elbows slightly bent. (Picture yourself holding up an ax, ready to chop wood.) Flex abs and do a slight squat as you rotate and bring arms down to the side of your left knee. Slowly bring arms back up to starting position. Switch sides after each set.

The Pallof press: Standing with the side of your body next to a cable machine, hold the cable handle with both hands (one on top of the other) right in front of your chest. The cable pulley should be in the same horizontal plane as your abs, and the cable should be taut. Brace your abs and “press” the handle straight out in front of you. Then return the handle back to your chest. Keep moving the handle back and forth while trying to keep it in a straight line (indicating that you are stabilizing your torso well). Switch sides.

SNOW CARDIO
Cardio at the end of your workout should be in a similar ratio to the work/rest ratio for your sport. If your slope runs are short and sweet (like for rails, jumps, etc.), do several short, super-intense bursts followed by short rest periods (such as 15-second sprints followed by 30 seconds of rest). If you expect to do long runs, surfing and carving the mountain, do longer periods of medium-to-high intensity with longer rest periods (three-minute bouts on the elliptical, for example, and two-minute rests).

Photo Credit: Meghan Holmes

Fall sports season is kicking into gear, but you’ve committed to doing more than just watching sports on TV. You want to play ’em. Moreover, you want to participate in the ones that will actually be good for you. So which fall sports offer the best cardio workout?

There are countless pastimes to choose from -- everything from archery to wallyball. For our purposes, though, we’ve narrowed down the field (pun intended) to three top contenders, and from there, we’ll declare the best.

Contender No. 1: Soccer
While many red, white and blue-blooded Americans used this year’s World Cup as an excuse to go out and celebrate, most still don’t accept soccer as a real sport beyond the youth level. But the 6.39 billion people outside the U.S. do take the game seriously. Very seriously.

One of the great things about soccer is that it requires next to no equipment to play -- all you need is a ball and a couple of sticks to mark the perimeters of the goal. It also requires very little skill to get a good workout.

Now, before all you Cristiano Ronaldo fans start sending hate mail, we’re not saying soccer requires no skill. We’re saying anyone can run around for 90 minutes on a soccer field for the sake of a good workout -- and possibly have a little fun in the process!

As for the workout, soccer demands an hour and a half of starting, stopping, direction changing, sliding and jumping in the middle of an open field, all while you maneuver a ball with your feet (or at least try to). The near constant movement of soccer challenges your aerobic system, but the occasional bursts of speed can really push your anaerobic threshold to the max.

Note: If there’s one position you don’t want to play when a good cardio workout is your goal, it’s goalie. Sure, your heart rate will occasionally spike when you’re trying to stop a 1-pound, 70-mph bullet coming at you and the net. But you can get the same heart-pounding effect when you realize you just accidentally tipped over your friend’s 50-inch plasma TV.

Contender No. 2: Football
A typical game consists of approximately 125 plays, each lasting an average of seven seconds and distributed over four 15-minute quarters. Even if you play on both sides of the ball, you’ll still only get about 14 minutes of work before the final second ticks off the clock.

So why, then, is football such a good cardio workout?

For starters, wearing a helmet and shoulder pads adds close to 30 pounds to your weight load. Throw in highly intense, short blasts of activity requiring power and quick reaction time while simultaneously trying to avoid being tossed aside by one or more of the 11 adrenaline- and testosterone-fueled opponents, and you’ve got yourself some cardio!

Contender No. 3: Basketball
Take a constant action sport like soccer, make the playing field a lot smaller, toss in some aggressive physical contact like football, add a small steel rim at each end of the playing court, and what do you get?

Well, yeah, basketball obviously. But more important, you get a nice blend of the types of cardio workouts you’d get from soccer or football. Additionally, basketball can be played indoors or out, any time of year.

Even if you don’t boast the kind of ball-handling skills worthy of an hour-long circus-like ESPN press conference (cough ... LeBron ... cough), you can still get your cardio workout in by being Johnny Hustle and setting picks, going after rebounds and boxing out your opponent in the paint.

The Winner: Football
Basketball and soccer fans might be surprised when we say football is best for your heart. While the plays are relatively short, the sheer intensity of the game requires you to work your muscle fibers to the max -- all of which require oxygen. How does that oxygen get to your muscles? Via your cardiovascular system, of course!

With only 30 seconds or so of rest between each play, a gridiron workout may just be the ultimate in interval training.

Looking to achieve tremendous gains in strength, speed and agility … like an Olympian? Try Olympic lifts, weight training techniques sure to chisel you into a gym warrior.

Just because you're not ski-jumping, speed skating, luging or curling like a 2010 Winter Olympian, doesn't mean you can't train like one (or like a summer Olympian, for that matter). We're talking weighlifting techniques called Olympic lifts -- a routine that well-respected exercise physiologists and personal trainers swear by for everyday gym warriors. Just a few of these classic moves go a long way to build strength, speed and agility.

The Olympic lifts can form the crux of a strength training program. Says certified exercise physiologist Greg Haff, PhD, the program can burn tons of calories and boost -- sometimes significantly -- your performance level in any sport (particularly those that require explosive movement, such as basketball, football, baseball or even tennis).

By now, you're probably thinking, "Okay, just show me the moves and I'll get going." Not so fast. Haff, an assistant professor at West Virginia University in the School of Medicine, encourages you to find a National Strength & Conditioning Association-Certified Personal Trainer or Certified Sports and Conditioning Specialist to teach you how to do Olympic lifts. Treat this like a new sport, for that's what it is -- particularly in contrast to a relatively basic gym routine. The reason: Olympic lift technique is key and very specific for each move. Plus, keep in mind that you must be free of joint problems and already possess a good strength base (you will already need to have built some strength via the standard bench/shoulder/triceps/leg presses).

If you're not ready to get a weightlifting coach or start on a full weightlifting program, here are three Olympic lift exercises that you should consider adding into your normal strength program: The Back Squat, Romanian Deadlift and Power Clean. All will build great power and strength, guaranteed.

3 Olympic Lifts to Try

Olympic Lift 1: Back Squat

• Hold straight bar (with a moderate amount of weight -- such as two 25-pound plates -- in the beginning) behind base of neck.

• Keep torso upright.

• Bend knees and hips until thighs are parallel to ground.

• Keep weight centered on heels (rather than toes) throughout the move.

• Returning to the upright position.

Olympic Lift 2: Power Clean

This Olympic lift consists of 2 motions:

1st Pull

: Slowly haul the barbell (in the beginning, do with bar only, then progress by adding 10-pound plates) from the floor to your knees.

 

2nd Pull

: Hike the barbell from your mid-thighs to your shoulders by extending your hips in one explosive movement.

 

Olympic Lift 3: Romanian Deadlift

• Grasp barbell (begin with two 10-pound plates, then progress from there) with wide overhand grip.

• Deadlift so you're standing with shoulder-width stance.

• Lower bar to top of feet by bending hips.

• Bend knees during descent and keep waist straight so back is parallel to floor at lowest position.

• Keep head up and in line with your spine throughout the move.

• Lift bar by extending at hips and knees until standing upright.

• Pull shoulders back slightly if rounded.

• Repeat.

The Olympic Lift Regimen

Repeat the three Olympic lifts listed above twice a week.

And when you're ready for more, there are other Olympic lifts you can add: the Power Snatch, Overhead Squats, Snatch Grip Behind Neck Press, the Clean Pull From Floor, and 3-Way Shoulder. Ask your trainer to show you how to incorporate these moves into the rest of your routine, or visit http://www.georgiadogs.com for more Olympics lift how-tos.

Here’s the only article you need to read to be fit and healthy in the new year -- and beyond.

News flash: We regret to inform you that any unrequested email offering ways to lose pounds and gain muscle as you sleep -- for only $19.99! -- is a scam (which rhymes with “spam.” Coincidence? Not!).

Fortunately, making good on that new year’s resolution to tone your body and prime your health doesn’t have to involve an expensive gym membership and a crazy amount of free time. Simply modify a few habits and add some simple exercises -- even if they’re at your desk -- into your busy day, and you’ll notice a major difference.

These 25 realistic fitness and health tips, put together by a pair of nationally respected physical trainers, are aimed at busy people on a budget. Consider it your own personal health care reform for 2010.

Preparation:

1. Look in the mirror. Assess your fitness and health goals. Decide how much you want to exercise, and commit. Exercise is more easily managed when it’s divided into smaller chunks throughout the day, says Pete McCall, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise.

Morning:

2. Get up and get moving. “Do yoga for five or 10 minutes. Or walk your dog for two quick laps around your building or block,” says Gregory Florez, CEO of Fit Advisor health coaching services. “This wakes you up much like the way caffeine does -- and you won’t have the drop in energy later. It also gets blood flowing.”

3. Don’t give up. Studies have shown that you need to repeat a routine (like morning exercising) for three weeks before it becomes a habit. “Most people start a routine and fall off. Give it those three weeks,” says Florez.

4. Start modestly. If you commit to running 5 miles a day five days a week, you’re bound to quit. Begin with, say, 15 minutes on the stair-climber, two or three days a week. “Once you start achieving smaller goals, it’s easier to work your way to bigger goals. Committing to do something a couple times a week is attainable,” says McCall.

5. Eat breakfast daily (as per mom). Breakfast flips on your metabolism like a furnace switch, so your body fires up and starts burning calories. McCall recommends a carbohydrates-protein combo. On Sunday nights, he premixes yogurt, granola and berries, and stores them in a container for five days’ worth of quick breakfasts.

At the Office:

6. Stretch. Especially if you’re tired, stretching will help you stay awake and limber. McCall recommends simply standing up, reaching your left hand above your right shoulder and slowly twisting your torso left as far as you can, then right. Repeat with right hand, left shoulder.

7. Breathe. Make an appointment every hour to stand up at your desk and take a few deep breaths. “You’ve got to schedule it with the same rigor you schedule any business meeting,” says Florez. “It’s important to re-oxygenate your body.”

8. Pack snacks. “I bring fruit and nuts and seeds with me, and keep them in my desk all week. Foods from fresh, whole sources have a lower glycemic index than sugary foods so you don’t get that high energy spike, then a big crash,” says McCall.

9. Go the distance. Use the bathroom farthest from your desk to get in some extra walking.

10. Drink water all day. Before lunch, down 12 ounces. “We often feel hungry when we’re just dehydrated,” says Florez. “Be that nerdy guy with the reusable water bottle at the desk.”

11. Walk it off. After lunch, take a few laps around the building.

12. Walk and talk. Got a Bluetooth headset? Then head outside and make a phone call while taking a stroll. “You’re cheating your body into really small chunks of exercise throughout the day when you otherwise won’t make the time,” says Florez.

13. Accessorize with exercise. Stash a set of rubber exercise tubes at your office so you can do chest presses, rows or squats right at your desk -- two or three times a day. “That way you get your strength training in, in an accumulated way, throughout the day,” says Florez.

Evening:

14. Get these: A medicine ball, balance ball and the TRX Suspension System (Fitness Anywhere Web site). With them, says McCall, your aerobic and strength options are almost limitless. (Many books and Web sites offer workout instructions for medicine balls and balance balls, and a personal trainer can also create a personal plan for you. The TRX system comes with its own instructional DVD.)

15. Befriend the TV. Either take advantage of the on-demand workout videos offered by many cable providers or get a workout DVD for living room workouts, urges Florez.

16. Don’t just sit there. If you’re watching TV, get off the couch during commercials. “Knock out two to three exercises at each break. By the end of the hour, you’ve hit every muscle group,” says Florez.

17. Do the balance ball pike exercise. First, in case you’re wondering, a “pike” is an exercise that works the abs and shoulders. Now on to this one: Facing the floor, rest your thighs on the ball and put the palms of your hands on the ground, arms extended (like you’re at the top of a push-up). Raise your rear in the air, allowing the ball to roll toward your feet, and keep your legs straight, says McCall. Do three sets of five. Feel the burn.

18. Do the medicine ball wood chop. Squat down, legs spread shoulder-width apart. Hold the ball between your knees; as you stand up, grasp the ball with your hands, swinging it overhead, says McCall. Do one to three sets of 15.

19. Exercise intervals. Intervals are essential for strength work or a cardio workout. “Go hard for an exercise for two to three minutes, dial back, then up the exertion again,” says Florez. Do this two or three times a week. It not only breaks up the monotony of always exercising at the same pace but also benefits your cardiovascular system.

Sleep

20. Set a consistent sleep schedule. Your body will thank you for it, and you’ll have more energy to exercise. Yes, eight hours a night is important, and no, you can’t make up for lost sleep during the weekends, says McCall.

21. Close the fridge by 8 p.m. “Don’t go to bed on a full stomach. It’ll interrupt your sleep cycle,” says Florez.

22. Wind down. “[Stretching before bed] becomes a signal to your body that it’s time to wind down,” says Florez. (He recommends enlisting a personal trainer to create a stretching routine.)

23. Get the TV out of your bedroom. Too much visual stimulation will make for lousy sleep.

24. Set bedroom boundaries. Don’t bring work into your chambers. “Your bedroom should only be for sleeping, having sex or relaxing,” says Florez.

25. Create a nightly routine. That’s how your parents used to get you to sleep. “Sometimes it’s a really hot shower. Sometimes it’s reading fiction -- something that will calm the body down,” says Florez.

Want to be fit enough to conquer Tibet’s highest mountains? Or maybe “just” pass a fireman’s fitness test? All you have to do is master this exercise regimen.

Rock climbing Mount McKinley. Tossing a 60-yard spiral. Qualifying for a fire department fitness test. Competing in your local 200-mile bicycle race. Athletic challenges both big and small.

Few of us do workouts that can adequately prepare us for, literally, anything. But what if you could prepare your body to complete all the challenges above by practicing just one routine? If such a workout is what you want, then Sean Burch and his regimens, which have helped men run marathons and climb Mount Everest for the first time, are the ticket. The author of Hyperfitness and a world-record-setting mountain climber, Burch has helped numerous clients achieve amazing athletic feats through his training system.

Warning: His workouts are tough -- really tough. But then, he says, people, including young guys, don’t exercise anywhere close to the level they’re capable of. “If you can do this workout, completely mapped out in the 14 exercises below, there’s nothing you can’t do in fitness,” he adds.

To illustrate the kind of shape his workouts put you in, Sean went on an expedition to a remote part of Tibet, where he hiked and rock climbed for 15 hours every day, 23 days straight. During that time, he ascended a mind-boggling 63 virgin peaks (as in, he was the first one ever to reach the top of those peaks), all between 16,000 and 19,000 feet.

“My drills are meant to change the way you perceive and enact fitness, and were created to get readers in the best conceivable shape in the shortest amount of time. People are still separating their strength and cardiovascular training. This is wrong! Readers must think of their mind/body training as one entity to maximize the total body experience.”

Adds Burch: “The following 14 drills I use to sharpen my body and mind for expeditions around the world.”

The idea is to improve with each session until you can do the exercises completely through as intended. For a 30-minute killer workout, complete these high-energy moves in the order shown without resting, and build up to three times for each session:  

1. Inverted-V Push-up
Start in modified push-up position, with your butt up in the air so your body forms an inverted V. Stay on your toes, legs straight, then bend elbows while lowering head and shoulders toward floor. Go down till forehead lightly touches floor, then push back up. (10 to 14 reps)

2. Squat Palms Touch to Spread-eagle Jump
Squat, touch your palms to the floor, then spring up and spread-eagle with legs and arms. (15 to 20 reps)

3. Scale the Whale
Place one hand on a towel on a hard, smooth surface -- like the basketball court floor -- and get into runner’s starting position, with one leg ahead of the other and knees bent. Sprint forward the length of whatever surface you’re using, with your hand remaining on the towel that slides ahead of you. Then, assume the starting position and sprint back. Switch hands after 45 seconds and continue for another 45 seconds. Essentially, this drill elongates the hardest part of the sprint: the explosive start. (one minute, 30 seconds)

4. Riverdance
While hopping from one foot to the other, alternately tap your fingers on the inside of your raised ankle. (When you hop on your right foot, you’ll tap your left ankle and vice versa.) Increase the height of each hop as you develop more leg strength, and aim to maintain balance while increasing speed. (five sets of six reps; one rep is four touches)

5. Pop-up to Side Jump
Kneeling with legs and hands on ground, pop your body up quickly, bringing feet underneath your hips and arms by sides. Next, jump side to side, aiming for height rather than lateral distance. Return to kneeling and repeat. One rep is one pop-up and one jump to each side. (12 to 16 reps)

6. The Hyper Bound
Squat, jump forward or in place, then bring knees and palms down to touch the floor. Repeat. (20 reps)

7. Mountain Climbers
Get into push-up position. Keep upper body fixed, then bring right knee under body to chest then straight again, left knee to chest then straight again, right foot out to 3 o’clock and back again, and left foot to 9 o’clock and back again. Do in staccato, bouncy rhythm. (20 reps)

8. Staggered Hand Push-ups
Place one hand in normal push-up position and the other about a foot lower than normal so it’s opposite the rib cage. Execute push-up. Do eight reps before switching hand position, then do eight more reps. Repeat series for two minutes.

9. Rollup, Tuck, Rear Jump
Lie supine with arms stretched overhead, legs bent and feet on the floor. Bring arms forward while you roll up your body one vertebra at a time and stand. Jump, bringing heels to glutes. Then roll back down and repeat, in a fluid fashion. (15 reps)

10. 3-point Push-up With Jump-feet Switch
Get into 3-point push-up position (with both hands and only one foot on ground, other foot remaining elevated) and jump and switch feet after each push-up. (11 reps)

11. Triangle T to Full J-jack
Start in push-up position with feet together. Thrust them under your chest, then back to push-up position, over to right side, back to push-up position, over to left side and back to push-up position. Then bring them under chest and spring up for a full jumping jack. (15 reps)

12. Frog Jump Variation No. 4
Frog jump forward, beginning with feet wide and palms on the floor between them. Jump forward while switching hand and foot positions so feet go together and hands move outside feet. (25 reps)

13. Tricep Push-up Clap to Pop-up Squat Jump
Kneel and place hands in diamond shape on ground, directly below sternum. Form a straight line from knees to shoulders to top of head, and drop body down until arms are bent at a 90-degree angle at the elbows, then push back up and clap as you balance on your knees. Next, pop your feet under your chest and squat jump upward. (12 to 15 reps)

14. Flashdance
High-step forward with feet barely touching ground, as if ground was scalding hot. Clap under front leg throughout exercise. (aim for 50 claps)