How to get better at moguls

Do you avoid moguls like the plague? Or turn into a trembling wreck when there’s no option but to ski them? Do you give them a go but explode after a couple of turns?

Skiing bumps requires strength, power and stability. Photo: Will Rackham Photography

Skiing moguls, or bumps, is one of the most physical types of skiing and even if you know the techniques to use, your fitness and strength can hold you back and cause you to avoid or even fear a mogul field.

When your technique and fitness come together, you’ll find that skiing moguls can be extremely fun and skiing a mogul line well is one of the most satisfying feelings!

In this blog we’ll look at some common problems people have when skiing moguls and what exercises you can do now to build the strength and fitness you need to tackle the bumps.

Problem 1: Leaning too far back

Just like in other types of skiing, staying on top of your feet is important to maintain control over your skis. In the bumps though, that becomes much harder as each mogul tries to throw you off balance and your skis can shoot away from you as they slide down the back of a mogul.

To counter this effect, we want to pull our feet back under us at the top of every bump to keep our hips over our feet.

This movement is knee flexion and the key muscle responsible for it is the hamstrings.

Here’s a great exercise you can try to strengthen your hamstrings:

Hamstring Curls (Slider version shown but you can also do it with your heels resting on a Swiss Ball)

Problem 2: Getting ‘squashed’

In the bumps, we bend our knees to absorb as we go over the mogul then re-extend our legs into the trough on the other side, ready for the next absorption. Or that’s the theory.

In practice, a lot of people get the absorption part, but don’t fully re-extend after each bump. Which means as they come down a mogul field they bend their knees more and more, until they end up in a very crouched position with no ability to absorb left.

The movements to re-extend after the bump are knee and hip extension by your quadriceps and glutes, and this needs to be a powerful movement (meaning you need strength and speed) as you don’t usually have much time between bumps.

A good exercise to build power in your quads and glutes is the squat jump:

Squat Jumps

Problem 3: Flailing arms and upper body

As mentioned before, bumps are really quite good at knocking you off balance. Which can result in arms waving around, your body twisting and generally getting out of a solid, balanced position.

The key to fixing this is having a strong and stable core which in turn enables you to hold your upper body in a strong position for a well-timed pole plant which is very important for staying balanced in a mogul field.

One of the best exercises for building core stability is the plank:

Plank

Include these 3 exercises in your workouts before you go skiing so you’re ready to boss des bosses!