Olympian Chloe Kim's Go-To Exercises For Powerful Legs

Kim couldn’t have done such an amazing feat without a tough training routine. She revealed in an interview with Shape that she would normally practice on the snow for two hours a day during competition season, but that stretched to six hours as she prepared for the Beijing Olympics.

“My training routine's pretty crazy,” the top snowboarder said. “I went to Switzerland for a month just to get all my tricks super dialed, and then I came home for like a week, and then we were off to Beijing.”

In the off-season, Kim leaves the snow and heads to the gym, albeit reluctantly. “It's definitely helped me improve my snowboarding, so that's why I do it,” she said. “But if I had the choice, I probably wouldn't be working out every day.”

Her daily exercise routine includes heavy lifting and single-leg moves, which give her those super strong legs, improve her stability, and help prevent knee and ankle injuries. Her tough workout is necessary so that her “body can sustain all the impact from falling,” she said.

The snowboarding prodigy’s go-to single-leg exercises include pistol squats and lateral lunges. Snowboard instructor Amy Gan told Self that one-legged pistol squats are crucial to the sport because “[y]ou need a strong core in order to bring your feet close to your chest and grab your board as you spin in the air.”

Single-leg lateral lunges, meanwhile, are important because “[h]aving a strong, well-rounded core and lower-body muscles will help you better handle that [impact] and protect you from injury,” Gan explained.

Kim revealed to Shape that she also took up running last year so she can enjoy the outdoors. “[T]hat's kind of something I look forward to,” she said.

The 2022 Winter Olympic Games may be over and it’s uncertain whether she’s heading back in 2026, but she’s determined to continue her workout routine, albeit with less intensity for now.