Muscular endurance

To enjoy your day on the slopes, muscular endurance is essential. Just think about it - we normally spend our days sitting around at work or at home, with the odd half hour workout thrown in. Then go on our winter skiing or snowboarding vacation, and expect to be able to able to spend up to 8 hours a day on the slopes, working hard.

If you haven't worked to improve your endurance in the months leading up to your holiday, you'll be shattered at best, and quite likely end up injured (Research shows that most injuries occur on the third day of a winter holiday, when people are fatigued).

So even though you won't actually be running or moving forward under your own steam when you're skiing or snowboarding, you still need good muscular endurance simply to keep doing it all day.

There's a whole range of cardiovascular exercises you can do to get ready, from swimming to running to biking, but it makes sense to concentrate on those that help strengthen your legs. Good choices are therefore running, biking, and of course using a cross trainer - these somewhat mimic the motion of skiing.

People are frequently advised to do 20 minutes of cardio per session - this is based on the idea that you need at least 20 minutes to really improve your cardiovascular system. But if your goal is to spend 7 or 8 hours on the slopes, then it makes sense to perform longer cardio sessions.

If you're not currently doing any cardio, then you'll need to work progressively just to reach the 20-minute mark, but if you are already working out regularly, then you can look to progress.

The easiest way to do it is pick one workout per week to be your 'long' workout - then you simply add five minutes per week to that workout. Within just 8 weeks, your 20 minute workout will be an hour long - performed regularly, that will really help you to get through long days on the snow.