The Problem with Both Approaches
The skier who trained hard all summer and fall, then stopped completely once the season started, loses 30-40% of their strength gains by February. Their legs feel better on snow the first few weeks, but by mid-season they’re weaker than they were at opening day.
The skier who keeps training at pre-season intensity is too sore to ski well on the weekend. Their legs are heavy. Their recovery between runs is blunt. By January they’re burnt out.
Neither approach works.
There’s a third way: in-season strength training that maintains what you built during the off-season without interfering with your time on snow. It requires a deliberate reduction in training volume, a shift in how you think about training sessions, and a clear hierarchy of which movements matter most when your primary sport is skiing.
This is not theoretical. Masters skiers who follow this framework ski stronger in March than they do in December, even though they’re training half as much.
What In-Season Training Actually Needs to Accomplish
Stop thinking of in-season training as a continuation of your pre-season program. It has a different job.
Pre-season training is about building strength, power, and movement capacity. In-season training is about maintenance. Your primary training stimulus is skiing itself. Strength training becomes a support structure—something that keeps your neuromuscular system ready without creating a recovery debt.
The best in-season training serves three specific functions:
1. Maintain the strength qualities you built in the off-season. A skier who stops training completely will lose 30-40% of their gains over 8-10 weeks. A skier who trains at a reduced frequency and volume—but the same intensity (load)—can maintain that strength indefinitely. The stimulus required to maintain is roughly 50-60% of the stimulus required to build it.
2. Provide a movement pattern anchor during ski season. In-season training ensures that all the major lower-body movement patterns—squatting, hinging, single-leg stability, and loaded carries—stay sharp.
3. Create a recovery active-motion window between ski days. Carefully structured light mobility and activation work on rest days accelerates recovery and preps your nervous system for the next ski day.
The Math: How Much Training Is Enough
Volume reduction: 40-60% of pre-season volume. If you were running three full-body sessions per week at pre-season, you drop to two sessions per week at 6-9 working sets per session.
Load stays the same. This is non-negotiable. If you were lifting at 85% of 1RM or higher pre-season, you stay at 85%+.
Frequency: 2 sessions per week. This is the minimum effective dose for strength maintenance.
Session 1 (typically Monday): Lower-body focus
- 1 primary bilateral movement (trap bar deadlift or squat variant): 3-4 sets of 2-4 reps
- 1 single-leg movement: 2-3 sets of 3-5 reps per leg
- 1-2 accessory movements (carries, core): 2 sets of moderate volume
- Total work time: 35-45 minutes
Session 2 (typically Thursday): Lower-body with upper-body support
- 1 primary lower-body hinge or squat: 3-4 sets of 2-4 reps (different from Monday)
- 1 upper-body or core movement: 2-3 sets
- 1 single-leg or balance movement: 2 sets
- Total work time: 30-40 minutes
The Keep List: The Movements That Matter Most
1. Trap Bar Deadlift (or Squat Variant)
In-season approach: 3-4 sets of 2-4 reps at 85%+ of your 1RM. These are strength maintenance sets. The bar speed should be fast even though the load is heavy.
2. Goblet Squat
In-season approach: 3 sets of 5-6 reps with a load that feels moderate-to-heavy.
3. Single-Leg RDL (Dumbbell or Kettlebell)
In-season approach: 2-3 sets of 4-5 reps per leg with load that requires stability.
4. Loaded Carries (Farmer’s Walk, Suitcase Carry, or Waiter’s Walk)
In-season approach: 2 sets of 30-50 meters or 30-60 seconds per side. Medium load.
5. One Balance Exercise
In-season approach: 2 sets of 5-8 reps per side or 20-30 seconds. Low-load, high-control work.
The Cut List: What to Drop
Plyometrics: Cut completely during ski season. Your sport provides the power stimulus.
High-volume accessory work: Leg extensions, hamstring curls, isolation movements—drop them.
New movement patterns: In-season is not the time to learn a new exercise.
The In-Season Week
| Day | Work |
|---|---|
| Monday | Strength Session A: Trap Bar Deadlift, Goblet Squat, Farmer’s Carry, Single-Leg RDL (45 min) |
| Tuesday | Rest day with 15-20 min mobility/activation (optional) |
| Wednesday | Ski day + 15-20 min ski-day micro session |
| Thursday | Strength Session B: Trap Bar Deadlift (variation), Single-Leg RDL, Landmine Press, Suitcase Carry (40 min) |
| Friday | Rest day with 15-20 min mobility/activation |
| Saturday | Ski day + 15-20 min ski-day micro session |
| Sunday | Ski day + 15-20 min ski-day micro session |
Ski-Day Micro Sessions: The 15-20 Minute Activation Protocol
You don’t do strength training on ski days. But you don’t do nothing either.
Before skiing:
- 5 min easy movement (walking, arm circles, light rowing)
- 5 min mobility work (hip internal rotation, thoracic rotation, ankle mobility)
- 5 min activation (banded pull-aparts, monster walks, single-leg glute bridges, pallof presses)
After skiing:
- 5 min recovery breathing and light movement
- 10 min mobility and activation
Recovery Between Ski Days
Sleep is non-negotiable. You need 7-9 hours on ski nights.
Manage inflammation actively. Controlled movement on rest days, adequate protein intake (0.8-1g per pound of bodyweight minimum), moderate carbohydrate intake on ski days, anti-inflammatory foods.
Space your ski days if possible. Three consecutive ski days without a rest day creates an accumulating fatigue debt.
The Wave Loading Approach
Week 1: Slightly higher load (90%+), lower reps (2-3), 2 sets per movement
Week 2: Moderate load (85%), moderate reps (4-5), 3 sets per movement
Week 3: Slightly lower load (80%), slightly higher reps (6), 2 sets per movement
Then repeat. Chapter 27 (3-Week Wave) in Ski Strong for Life details this approach.
When In-Season Training Isn’t Working
You’re training too much. Cut one session. Run two sessions per week for two weeks and reassess.
Your load is dropping. Put load back up. Do 3 sets of 2 instead of 5 sets of 5.
You’re not sleeping enough. This is the most common culprit. Add one hour of sleep per night for a week.
You’re not eating enough. If you’re skiing 3 days a week and training 2 days a week without eating at maintenance or slightly above, you’re in an energy deficit.
Most often, it’s sleep or calories. Fix those first before blaming the program.
The In-Season Mindset Shift
The hardest part of in-season training is psychological, not physical. You spent months building strength. And now you’re supposed to do half as much. It feels like you’re losing fitness. It’s not. It’s strategic.
In-season training is not about chasing gains. It’s about preserving what you built so you can use it for the actual sport.
Your Next Step
Chapter 26 of Ski Strong for Life lays out the full in-season maintenance protocol. Start with two strength sessions per week using the movements from the Keep List. Ski hard. Sleep more. Eat enough. Reassess in three weeks.
That’s the protocol. It works.