Stay in shape for skiing
Performance Breakthrough
A structured programme of 4 levels
We all know that many skiers are simply under trained for skiing. To quote from one of the articles below:
THE MOST OBVIOUS POINT IS ALSO THE MOST INCONVENIENT: SKIING WELL AND SKIING SAFELY REQUIRE REASONABLE PHYSICAL CONDITIONING.
Simply put, if we don't train we'll break.
So here’s a gentle reminder - please get ready for the winter before the winter arrives, so that you can enjoy our great sport safely.
Over the past few years I’ve written several posts about physical conditioning, recovery and related topics. Here, I’ve brought all that information together in one place:
Developing a resourceful body
Three great ways to avoid injury,
Returning from injury parts 1 and 2
Training your balance
Avoid over training
I hope this collection of articles, plus the free download, helps to inform and motivate you to find your own way.
Let’s stay in shape for skiing, so that we can enjoy this great sport and this great environment for years to come.
Best regards,
Hugh
Developing a resourceful body
One of the most effective ways to improve your performance and to prevent injury is to prepare your body for our great sport.
The link below allows you to download a PDF, which is a chapter on physical conditioning for skiers, from my book "Ski Performance Breakthrough." I converted five sections of the original book to the e-book series of the same name, but I didn't do that with the physical conditioning chapter. So here it is, free to download, I hope you enjoy it!
Download article:
Physical_conditioning_for_skiers.pdf
Fortunately, a lot of the physical activities that produce the training we need are fun in their own right. So all we need is a commitment to be active, to engage in physical activities all year round, paying attention to the following athletic qualities:
aerobic fitness
flexibility, coordination and agility
balance
strength and power
The PDF article highlights effective ways to have fun while you develop these qualities. Just download and enjoy…
Download article:
THREE GREAT WAYS TO AVOID INJURY
Professional athletes take steps to avoid illness and injury. Injury can be particularly disruptive, especially if there's a long rehabilitation process followed by physical training before you can return to your sport.
So, it's worthwhile taking some sensible precautions to minimise your risk and maximise your enjoyment of our great sport.
THE MOST OBVIOUS POINT IS ALSO THE MOST INCONVENIENT: SKIING WELL AND SKIING SAFELY REQUIRE REASONABLE PHYSICAL CONDITIONING.
Simply put, if we don't train we'll break.
So attending to the physical qualities mentioned above is our first line of defence. Here they are again:
aerobic fitness
flexibility, coordination and agility
balance
strength and power
The next step you can take to avoid injury is: ski within your abilities.
This is familiar advice and is part of the FIS code of conduct for winter sports enthusiasts, but there's a well-considered way of applying this that can be overlooked.
When you're skiing on the public piste, keep at least 20% of your athletic capacity in reserve, so that you can cope with unexpected incidents. This means:
DON'T EXCEED 80% OF THE LOAD THAT YOU CAN WORK WITH SAFELY.
We're familiar with using this approach in gyms, on bicycles, etc. working at less than our maximum intensity, to achieve specific results. It's critically important to take that approach on skis. Otherwise, the slightest complication will cause an accident, for you or others.
And please remember that "don't exceed 80% of the load that you can work with safely" refers to a few high load moments through each day. Most of the time you will be skiing less intensely than that.
Take it easy and have a great time!
The third way to avoid injury is to learn how to manage the forces of skiing accurately.
We can make life safer for ourselves through:
Accurate and well-timed movements,
Fully developed movement patterns,
Learning how to direct the forces, generated by the snow and skis, accurately and safely,
Reading the terrain and snow accurately and responding with well-executed techniques, tactics and strategies.
VERY GOOD SKIERS use the BEST strategy, with excellent timing, and effective coordination.
That’s no accident of course. Your training in these issues will improve many aspects of your performance and keep you safer into the bargain.
I hope that helps!
RETURNING FROM INJURY - PART 1
Sometimes, we pick up an injury, despite our best intentions.
Returning from injury is a process that involves several stages. Some skiers have asked me to post some information on the subject. The result is a series of four articles.
While the other articles in this series contain more specific, detailed information, this article shows an overview of the stages involved in returning to skiing after injury. You'll make the best progress possible if you work with professionals through each of these stages.
Medical treatment
Healing
The progressive stages of rehabilitation
Training to regain physical function under load
Training to regain fitness
Re-introduction to skiing performance, which is as much psychological and tactical as it is technical. I'd recommend some gentle private lessons to help you with that.
If you are going through this process yourself, I hope your journey back goes smoothly.
RETURNING FROM INJURY - PART 2
RETRAINING YOUR LEG MUSCLES
Skiers often pick up a knee injury at some stage.
After treatment, healing and rehabilitation, the next stages of the journey back to skiing involve:
Training to regain physical function under load followed by
Training to regain fitness.
Before building muscle mass, it’s important to re-establish your balancing ability on the recovering leg. Otherwise, our bodies can try to cheat, reducing the load on the recovering leg throughout each day. With your balancing work in place to a reasonable extent, regaining muscle mass is certainly possible. The best practice is to seek professional guidance and a structured programme.
HERE’S AN OUTLINE OF A PROCESS THAT I’VE USED MYSELF
Retraining your leg muscles involves squats and variations on the theme, such as step-ups and cycling. I enjoy cycling, so that’s what I do.
A modulated gym - based program might involve:
• STEP UPs
including slow 'step downs’, so that the leg is still working in this phase (NB step machines might not allow for this, so you might need to use a bench, or indeed an actual step)
◦ ideally stepping onto a cushioned mat, to protect your joints
◦ unladen
◦ Progressing to carrying a light kettle bell, then a slightly heavier kettle bell, etc.
◦ Perhaps increasing the height of the step over time.
• SQUATS
ideally in a squat frame, or perhaps a leg press machine, though this changes the angle at the hip and so the way the whole body coordinates.
◦ Again the theme is - progressively increasing the load over time,
▪ i.e. increasing the weight used
▪ And the number of repetitions per batch
▪ And the number of batches in a session
The actual values you use and how they change over time would best be advised by a trainer who works with you regularly, of course.
• CYCLING
to warm up and cool down
ONE OTHER PRINCIPLE
that has helped me is the consideration of load values and the range of flexion/extension movement used.
There are two useful components to this:
• our knee joints are endangered if we squat deeply with heavy loads
◦ so I only squat//leg press with heavy loads, through relatively shallow angles
▪ i.e. from legs slightly bent to legs almost fully extended
◦ when I squat/leg press deeply, as I must, to develop effective strength through a large range of movement, I use lighter loads
◦ and I use medium loads when I squat/leg press through a moderate range
• the muscle directly above the inside of the knee (vastus medialis) does a lot of its work in the final 15 to 20 degrees of extension
◦ so work these muscles by extending almost fully (not completely, though, to avoid injury through locking out the joint)
◦ they can be targeted by relatively shallow squats/leg presses
Keep at your programme, and you’ll make progress.
Consider using a protein recovery shake after exercise to make sure your body has the resources it needs to make the adaptations.
Working out is good, I hope you enjoy it.
HOW DO YOU BALANCE IN POWDER SNOW?
YOUR BALANCE CAN BE ACTIVATED AND IMPROVED!
Like many physical abilities, our ability to balance can be improved.
Keen skiers, looking ahead to a new winter season, can make significant progress by doing some simple activities. And the progress made will improve your skiing.
We have three balancing processes and we use them all together as we ski:
Vision - look at something fixed, some distance ahead of you. It just works.
Inner ear - keep your eyeline level, to allow your inner ear canals to tell you which way is up, down, sideways.
Proprioception - let your senses feel what’s going on underfoot and allow them to correct your balance several times a second. You may feel that you are ‘wobbling’. Actually you are adjusting, and that’s the point. And this skill can become really well developed.
Here are some simple ways to train these abilities to work for you:
Balance on one leg for a couple of minutes, Then on the other one. Really! It’s that simple.
If you can do that easily, try it on a balance cushion.
I use an inflatable disc cushion, only partially inflated, so it’s soft to stand on. I then float on a cushion of air, allowing my balancing processes to do their thing for a few minutes. One leg, then the other.
It’s good fun, it feels very similar to balancing on skis in powder snow AND the skill transfers directly to my skiing.
If you really get into these activities, you can add some gentle bending and stretching movements to make things a little more challenging.
Or do them with your eyes closed - switching off one of your balancing systems, to challenge the other two.
Q. How do you balance in powder snow?
A. Learn to balance really well, then transfer that skill to powder snow. So do the simple activities above.
That’s similar to another question I’m frequently asked
Q. How do you ski in powder snow?
To which the real answer is: Learn to ski really well, then transfer that skill to powder snow.
That sounds like a great training programme to me!
Fitness training for advanced skiers
AVOID OVER TRAINING
Advanced and expert skiers are enthusiasts. They tend to be self-motivated and have the ability to commit to an action plan over an extended period.
These abilities can produce fantastic results in all aspects of life.
Sometimes, though, these same abilities can lead to a tendency to overdo things.
This article discusses the importance of balance in our fitness programs so that we can avoid the problems caused by over training.
Most keen skiers make sure that they stay active all year to maintain their athletic abiities and fitness levels.
Often this leads to the enthusiastic pursuit of a summer sport and even to an actual training programme.
Over enthusiasm, or working too hard, can reduce the benefits of these activities. They even lead to problems such as chronic fatigue and overuse injuries.
It is possible to make sure that your activity/sports/training programme is enjoyable and productive, contributing to your objectives rather than obstructing them.
That starts with a very simple but important realisation:
Exercise alone does not make us fitter.
Exercise makes us tired.
It puts stress on our systems and can cause the body to break down. In medical circles, it's called a catabolic process, one that breaks the body down.
By contrast,
rest and nutrition allow the body to rebuild itself.
They allow it to adapt so that it can deal with the demands placed upon it. This is an anabolic process, one that allows the body to rebuild itself.
And so, here is the secret of a successful training programme:
We become fitter by achieving a balance between exercise and recovery.
If we neglect either, the training will be less effective.
We need the exercise to have the right intensity, duration and distribution to put stress on the systems we are trying to develop.
Strength training has different requirements to endurance training for example.
And we need recovery phases with the appropriate duration, distribution, hydration and nutrition components, so that the body can adapt healthily.
This is how we become fitter.
As you might expect, there are many factors at play, and in the end, they should become personalised to your circumstances.
You might choose to seek professional guidance with this, or at least use some of the effective training software that is available.
For example, I use heart rate based training for my cycling programme.
The software I use allows me to check progress as I target different training zones, durations and intensities.
It ensures that I know when to ride and how hard.
And it ensures that I know when I need to take a day off. Or two.
The outcome is that the cycling is both fantastic fun and very productive.
So, if you have a natural tendency to overdo things, you could be obstructing the progress of your fitness programme.
Remember that: Training = exercise + recovery
Taking a day off is part of the programme!
Best regards,
Hugh