Most gym-based ski training programs include squats, deadlifts, lunges, and something for the core. What they almost never include is the one category of exercise that most directly trains the lateral stability and bracing demands of skiing: loaded carries.
The oversight is understandable. Carries don’t look impressive. They don’t fit neatly into a set-and-rep scheme. They don’t produce the kind of visible muscular effort that feels like training. But for masters skiers specifically, the anti-lateral-flexion strength that loaded carries develop is one of the most undertrained and most skiing-relevant qualities in the entire training toolkit.
What Loaded Carries Actually Train
A farmer carry looks simple. You pick up a heavy implement in each hand and walk. That’s not what’s happening physiologically.
What actually happens: the moment you lift the load and take a step, your spine is under asymmetric or symmetric compressive load while your pelvis is shifting laterally with each stride. Your quadratus lumborum, obliques, and the entire lateral chain from hip to shoulder must resist that lateral flexion — keeping your torso upright rather than collapsing toward the load side. That’s not passive bracing; it’s continuous, reactive, proprioceptively demanding work in a standing, moving position.
A suitcase carry — where you hold load on a single side — intensifies this demand. The asymmetric loading creates a strong pull toward lateral flexion on the loaded side, and your entire contralateral chain must resist it, rep by step, for the duration of the carry.
The core isn’t the only thing being trained. The loaded carry also builds:
- Grip strength, which transfers to pole confidence and security in technical terrain
- Shoulder girdle stability under sustained compressive load
- Gait stability under load, which trains the nervous system to maintain upright posture while the lower body moves independently beneath it
- Cardiovascular efficiency at load levels that don’t require recovery like high-intensity intervals
For masters skiers over 50, this last point matters. Loaded carries can produce meaningful work capacity at moderate intensity without the systemic fatigue of HIIT or heavy conditioning intervals.
The Transfer to Skiing
Skiing is not a sagittal plane sport. It is a sport built around lateral force management — loading an outside edge, driving through a turn, resisting the centripetal forces trying to collapse your stance, then transitioning to the other side.
If your torso is not trained to resist lateral flexion under load, your body compensates. The most common compensation: the upper body collapses toward the inside of the turn, the hips shift out, and ski performance becomes reactive instead of controlled.
Loaded carries directly address the anti-lateral-flexion capacity that keeps the torso upright and organized through the full arc of a turn. They also train the hip lateral stabilizers — the gluteus medius and minimus — under dynamic load.
Mogul skiing is the extreme case. The “quiet upper body” that every ski instructor talks about is not a technique point alone — it is an expression of lateral and anti-rotational core stability under dynamic load. Loaded carries develop that stability in a form that transfers.
The Variations: Farmer, Suitcase, and Racked
Three variations cover the full spectrum of loaded carry training for skiers.
Farmer Carry (Bilateral, Symmetric)
Both hands loaded equally. Pick up a kettlebell or dumbbell in each hand and walk for 30-40 meters. Keep your shoulders back, torso tall, gaze forward.
Starting load: 40-50 lbs per hand for most masters skiers.
Suitcase Carry (Unilateral, Asymmetric)
One hand loaded, one hand free. The asymmetric loading creates a strong lateral pull on the loaded side. Your contralateral oblique, QL, and hip stabilizers must resist that pull actively.
Starting load: 40-60 lbs in one hand. Walk 30-40 meters, then switch sides.
This variation has the most direct transfer to the anti-lateral-flexion demands of skiing edge work.
Racked Carry (Unilateral, Offset Load)
A single kettlebell in the rack position — resting on the forearm, at shoulder height. The offset load creates an additional demand on shoulder stability and anti-rotation.
Starting load: 16-24 kg kettlebell (35-53 lbs).
A Practical Loaded Carry Protocol for the Off-Season
Carries integrate naturally into a strength training session as a finisher, or as active rest between heavy sets.
| Exercise | Load | Distance/Time | Sets | Rest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Farmer Carry (bilateral) | 40-50 lb/hand | 30-40 meters | 3 | 60 sec |
| Suitcase Carry (per side) | 40-55 lb | 30-40 meters each | 3 | 60 sec |
| Racked Carry (per side) | 16-24 kg KB | 30 meters each | 2-3 | 60-90 sec |
Progress by increasing load in 5-10 lb increments once current load feels fully controlled.
The Summer Strength Build sequences loaded carry work into Phase 2 (weeks 5-8) after the foundational bilateral and unilateral strength work has established the baseline.
The full progression for loaded carries is in Chapter 13 of Ski Strong for Life, including coaching notes on load selection and tempo for masters athletes.
Where Carries Fail and Why
Too much load, too early. The torso tilts, the gait gets shuffly. Reduce load until form is clean throughout.
Distance too short or too long. Carries need to be long enough to require sustained bracing. Thirty to forty meters is a reliable working range.
Treated as an afterthought. These should be deliberate, focused movements — not the last five minutes of a workout you’re trying to wrap up.
If you haven’t programmed loaded carries into your off-season training, the next session is the time to start.