Snowboard Dryland Strength Training with Andrew Hildebrand

“My name’s Andrew Hildebrand. I am 21 years old and I compete in alpine snowboarding. My experience here at LPS has been incredible. The atmosphere at the gym is unmatchable to anything I’ve ever been in before. Everyone is always pushing you to go harder and heavier and it’s just a great atmosphere at the gym.

Last year, after training here for the first time, I made it to the National Development Team for Canada, and I had my first podiums on the North America Cup circuit, which is the circuit for all North America for snowboard racing.

Prior to training at LPS I was training at a crossfit gym, and the gym was pretty quiet. It was pretty dull. And basically you were just told to do your workout. But having everyone at LPS being able to push you to do more, and the atmosphere is just way different. And at my other gym it was just you on your own.

The culture is one of the greatest parts about the gym. Everyone is trying to make you better. Everyone is trying to make you go further and lift heavier. And whenever you’re maxing, the whole gym comes together and pushes you to go heavier and to make you get it. And it feels great when you get it when everyone cheers you on.

My biggest challenge in snowboarding has been conditioning. Conditioning is a huge part of snowboarding, especially in competition when in total you have to do 12 runs top to bottom to come first. And generally I start off good and I start to lower down as I go up and up in the competition. And at LPS, the atmosphere and everyone pushing you to go further and complete your reps faster has really helped me overcome this issue.

For upcoming snowboarders, I would just say to get involved and I would say if you want to get to the next level, a hundred percent you’ve got to go to the gym to reach your goals. ”

– Andrew Hildebrand, National Alpine Snowboarder