Snowboarding
Your snowboarding training guide: How Mark McMorris and Seb Toots train
Find out how bonafide snowboarding legends Mark McMorris and Sébastien Toutant get their mind and body ready for the demands of snowboarding.
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Canadian athletes Mark McMorris and Sébastien Toutant have established themselves as two of the best snowboarders on the planet. McMorris is a three-time bronze medlalist of the Winter Games, and Toutant won gold in Pyeongchang. They're true champions in the snowboarding world. But getting to this point isn't easy and often requires a well-rounded approach.
There's a high level of athleticism and innate talent behind their success, but there's also a driven focus on training. Yet, beyond gyms and diets, both of these Canadian snowboarding icons can tap into a sense of joy as they hone their craft -- both on the mountain and off it.
This underlying joy helps them slip into a flow state, where they can mentally prepare for the intensely focused experience of high-performance snowboarding. We had the opportunity to get inside their minds and dive into some of their snowboard training techniques that help give them the upper hand to stand atop that next podium.
The proper training helps with nailing a trick
© Joseph Roby/Red Bull Content Pool
01
Hit the gym
Cardio, strength training and stability exercises will all enhance your ability on a snowboard. “In the gym, I focus on mobility, strength in deep positions, and building muscle over the summer to maintain throughout the winter,” explains McMorris.
Pushing yourself in the gym, no matter your limits will help keep you focused on reaching your goals. The end result will lead to not only longer and better days on the slopes but even more fun. Because, at the end of the day, that's what it's all about.
Here are a few exercise tips to keep in mind to help your balance, endurance and overall power when it comes to snowboard fitness training:
- Get your body ready: doing various mobility exercises will help warm up your body and improve your range of motion.
- Focus on the muscles you use most: lower body muscles, like your hamstrings, quads, calves and glutes, are where a lot of your balance, endurance and power will come from on a snowboard.
- Mix in enough cardio and stamina exercises: being strong is one thing, but increasing your stamina will pay dividends every time you're making your way down the mountain. Cardiovascular exercises like biking and running will allow you to stay out longer.
The goal is to stay limber, stable, and strong in your legs and core
Don't forget about your core. Working your core will help your body stay aligned properly so you can efficiently drive power from your upper body to your edges. Different variations of squats are some of the best exercises you can do.
Not only do they target your quads, hamstrings, and glutes for strength, but they also target your abdominal and lower back muscles. You get a little bit of everything. Other core exercises to focus on can include crunches, planks, mountain climbers, leg raises and box jumps.
Watch Mark McMorris and some of his friends in Chasing Winter as they push themselves to get ready for the biggest contest season of their careers:
42 min
Chasing Winter
Follow Mark McMorris and friends as they prepare for the high-stakes 2022 competition season.
02
Tap into your joy
After grinding out a strength routine in the gym, Toutant lets creativity take over with low-stress challenges like backwards three-point basketball shots from exercise ball stands. In fact, sometimes, his entire workout will consist of elaborate obstacle courses built around stability, balance, and focus.
His floor-is-lava videos give a glimpse into the mind of an athlete who is constantly pushing the envelope of what his body can achieve.
“Fun, in general, is the word that’s really important to me,” says Toutant. “In everything I do, if I’m not having fun, then it's not important for me to be there.”
Lately, Toutant has discovered an immense amount of fun and joy in the game of golf. "In the summer, it's nice to get obsessed about something else. I'm hooked with how technical it is, just like snowboarding."
In everything I do, if I’m not having fun then it's not important for me to be there
He trains his mental game on the links with time spent in deep focus. He applies himself, and it shows that he's even hit a hole in one. But on the flip side, McMorris takes a slightly different approach.
“Surfing and skating are key for me," he says. “They both humble me and bring joy standing sideways in the off-months. Skating was the first board sport I got into, so I love spending off seasons on my skateboard.”
As he hits the ocean or the skatepark, McMorris works to complement his time in the gym but in a much more playful, less constrained way. He finds new ways of moving, all while using the same muscles he needs for snowboarding.
Watch Sébastien Toutant as he takes on one of his most technical and challenging runs:
22 min
The Obstacle Course
Snowboarding legend Seb Toots returns to the snow for one of his most technical and challenging runs.
03
Find that flow state
Tapping into joy can be a great way to encourage your body to push past physical limits, but it also allows your mind avenues for growth and rejuvenation.
Golf, surfing, skating, trail running and soccer are all types of off-season activities that can help you enter a flow state. While in that headspace, focus on and remember what it feels like. You can then try to get into a similar state and flow the next time you hit the slopes.
The focus, energy, and joy that helped get Toutant his hole-in-one on the golf course are similar to the energy that helps him stand on the podium in different snowboarding competitions. Similarly, the blissful sensation of a frontside hack in Hawaii is with Mark as he tops X Games podiums or drops into Alaskan spines.
Maybe your time in the flow state will bring you to your first linked turns or maybe to your next 540 variation. But no matter what kind of snowboard gym training you do, the goal is to always get out there and enjoy your time on the slopes.
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