The Seven Principles of Effective Ski Conditioning
The 2008-2009 ski season is apon us at last, and if you’re
like me, you’ve waited all year long for that glorious white powder.
Incidentally, this is the time of year that most of say, “Ok, it’s time to get
in shape for the winter.” Even though I am out with a season ending injury, I can still offer my advice and get all of you in solid alpine shape for the season. I have mourned my loss, and I'll be back at 115% next year. No time to lose for all of you though
There are seven basic principles that are essential when conditioning for the demands of the ski season. Efficiency and noted progress in every area will ensure your ability to perform to your optimum capabilities, and more importantly allow you to avoid the classis skiing injuries that come along with a lack of conditioning.
(1) Cardiovascular Training One of the best cardiovascular mediums to be in when preparing for the ski season, is on the bike. The elevation of the heart rate, coupled with demand placed onto the quadriceps, is ideal when preparing for the slopes. Specifically, intervals on the bike, with two minute sprints at 100rpm’s or higher, with one minute rest periods. Alternatively, running on the treadmill develops your cardiovascular of your heart and lungs more effectively, than any other mode of cardio. You can’t go wrong with that.
A clip from 'Playground' - Warren Miller 2007 Feature. If this doesn't get you amped for training for the ski season, I don't know what will
(2) Strength Training When working on strength training in preparation for the ski season, your quadriceps and gluteal groups should be your focus, as they are most involved on those long steep and demanding runs. One exercise that is particularly effective is the one legged squat. Standing on the edge of a step with your inside leg, your arms tucked in as if you are skiing (convenient), and your outside leg elevated, lower yourself slowly to about 75 degrees and some back up. The repetitions should be performed fluidly and rhythmically, with a slight one second pause at the bottom of the rep. Start at about 30 seconds on each leg, and working up. This in combination with staple type exercises such as squats, leg presses, lunges and seated hamstring curls are optimum.
(3) Flexibility Flexibility is a key component to any type of conditioning, and conditioning specific to skiing is no exception. Proper length tension relationships is second to none in the prevention of injury and of optimum performance. In skiing, your body’s ability to recruit proper muscle groups under abnormal stresses is essential, and is impeded by a lack of flexibility. For your hamstrings, the track stretch: Kneel down, and sit back on your back heel with your toes on the ground. Your front leg should be straight out in front of you with your toes up in the air. With your front knee soft, gently lower your chest towards your knee, and at the same time visualize pushing your hips in the opposite direction. Hold for thirty seconds and switch. For your hip flexors: Kneeling on one knee, one leg out in front, and your back up straight, lean forward into your front leg, and at the same time slightly leaning back and away from your front leg. You should feel a stretch in the front of your hip. For your quadriceps: Bend a knee behind you, grasp your ankle and gently pull it towards you until you feel a stretch in the thigh.
(4) Agility Another aspect of skiing that is essential is your ability to react efficiently to your environment as your are hurling down the slopes, and your levels of mobility while doing so. Agility is increased in a number of effective exercises, but one good one is lateral lunges and progressing to lateral hops. Called ice skaters by some, equally effective for skiing. Start by taking a step out to the side with your toes facing forwards and continuing directly into a squatting position onto your outside leg with your inside leg straight. Push off your bent leg and come back to center, continuing with the other side. Do 15 reps on each leg. Once strength improves, progress to leaping out to the outside leg, squatting onto the one leg, and driving off hard to the side to the other leg, going directly down into the squat and repeating. It should resemble an ice skater skating down the rink, hence the name. This exercise is also very much conducive to developing power and speed, both important attributes.
(5) Speed Speed is increased by only one way, moving fast. A myriad of exercises can be applied here and modified accordingly. One mode that works well, and was also mentioned under cardiovascular training, is intervals. Periods of intense speed, followed by a quick recovery and repeated. Possibly the best for this, is running stairs. At a stadium, at the park, at Green Lake, in Queen Anne, wherever non slippery stairs of some distance are found. Start by sprinting as hard as you can getting your knees up high up the stairs, turn around at the top, and begin descending by leaping from the left side of one stair down to the right side of the stair below it, landing with soft knees. This mimics the side to side motion of skiing.
(6) Power Your power is a function of your strength coupled with your speed. In other words, your ability to produce significant amount of force, quickly. This principle plays an enormous role in skiing. Plyometrics has proven to be the most effective means for developing power. Plyometrics are basically performing one movement pattern that puts a muscle into a stretch and followed immediately by an explosive motion that contracts that same muscle. My favorite, as so many have discovered, jump squats and progressing to box jumps. Start by going into a squat position, your back straight, your hands up, your hips turned out, and lowering yourself down to your heels, keeping your knees behind your toes. Come out of the squat with an explosive force, leaping as high as you can, and landing with soft knees directly into the next squat. Repeating 15 times. Progress by doing the same exercise, but jumping onto a box, and then back off it into the next squat.
(7) Balance Your balance is something that is going to be of obvious benefit to the skier. Specifically for those last few runs of the day when your legs are getting fatigued, and reaction time is slowing. This is when you are most vulnerable to injury. To train your balance, you must be in an environment of high proprioception and instability. BOSU balls work wonderfully for this. Start by standing on the BOSU and doing repetitive squats. The instability of the ball alone will be effective in working on balance. Progress to doing the same thing with one leg. Your foot placed directly in the middle of the BOSU, and doing one legged squats. In addition, have a partner throw medicine ball at you while standing on the BOSE from all angles.
Staying Motivated in the new year: How positive energy improves your workouts
President Dwight D Eisenhower, once said that ‘motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it’. In this new year, your motivation will make or break your goals, and the importance of staying positive and focused is essential.
The power of your positive energy on your workout can be profound, and often essential to training efficiently and getting the most out of your time. Leading sports psychologists say that your ‘positive self-talk’ and ‘internal dialogue’ can significantly improve your performance while you are training. Gareth Dutton, a psychologist at Florida State University says the problem is that most people just are not aware of how destructive their thoughts really are. “The thing that precedes your behavior is a thought, and we sometimes aren’t good at getting in touch with our thoughts,” he says. “We’re on autopilot.” Rather than telling yourself that this exercise is too hard, it hurts too much, I am too tired, I’m not getting anywhere, or any negative thought when it comes to exercise, try preceding your exercise with a positive thought and set yourself up for success. Try telling yourself while you are working out, “I feel tired, but I know there is more inside me to give”, “this is tough, but I know I can do this”. That positive self-talk will have profound impacts on your performance not only during your workouts, but also in making the right decisions when it comes to eating a healthy diet.
It can be difficult for beginners to master the skills necessary to adhere to an exercise plan, but give it time. If you can stick it out for six months it begins to become a part of who you are rather than what you do. You will begin to see more results as the weeks go by that will continue to motivate you further. You will begin to see more muscle tone, have more energy, feel stronger and fitter, and even to sleep better and feel more focused at work. Your confidence will begin to increase, and that will motivate you even further to continue to your goals.
Even the most dedicated among us experience dips in our motivation and long for something to relieve the boredom of repetitive training sessions. In fact, sport and exercise psychologists have demonstrated a strong association between boredom and exercise dropout rates. Whatever your performance level, enjoyment is a key motivator for adherence and output during training. Outside sources, known as ergogenic aides, namely music, can be an incredible motivator during your workouts. Recent studies are contributing solid evidence that listening to music can increase your effort and reduce your RPE (rate of perceived exertion). And these days more and more exercisers are turning to music as a source of inspiration that can aid in their performance.
Another aide in getting and staying motivated in the weeks and months ahead is to do some goal setting. Goal setting is a simple, yet often misused source of motivation. People tend to set either a goal towards something (running a half marathon), or away from something (not being lazy and unfit anymore). Setting a negatively enforced goal can be arbitrary and unwise in the long run. Set yourself up for success by being positive from the beginning and setting a goal towards something. Goals give a focus and the key to effective goal setting is the S.M.A.R.T. principle:
· Specific: not just generic, do-your-best type goals.
· Measurable: Your progress needs to be specific and measured, not just arbitrary gains.
· Adjustable: In the case of unexpected gains and improvement the goals can be increased, or in case of injury, they can be decreased.
· Realistic:
· Time frame: If you don't give yourself a specific time frame in which the goal must be achieved, then the urgency for attainment is reduced.
If the SMART principle is followed, you will be heading out on the right foot to reach those goals, and able to remain motivated as you make your progress along the way.
Every one of us has an untapped energy source that can be drawn upon to bring about superior results. Enhancing motivation is fundamentally about a change of attitude, developing a positive mindset and engaging in goal setting that facilitate improvement. Stay positive and focused on this road to improved fitness and performance this year. There will inevitably be ups and downs along the way, but if you stay determined and positive, you will make it happen.
A new year: a new healthier, more fit, more active, and more inspired you
Welcome to 2009. It’s a new year, and like all new years, we are all momentarily inspired to have a fresh start in which we challenge ourselves to lose that weight, and to get in shape. Well, this year is going to be the year that it happens for you. This is the year that you don’t fizzle out by February, and that you stay fired up throughout all of ’09, and finally get to that leaner, fitter, and more active you.
As most of you know, the last few months of ’08, I have been out with an injury that has forced me to focus on other aspects of my life other than being physical and active. It has been hard for me, I won’t lie, but I think in the long run it will have made me a more aware, more rounded person. I’ll definitely have empathy now for my PT clients that I work with. It is not easy, and now I can personally attest. In case you are not aware of what has laid me up for so long, on November 4th (election night as luck would have it), I was warming up for a volleyball match, doing nothing terribly out of the ordinary. Contrary to what some of you have enjoyed teasing me about, I was practicing what I preach: slow easy warm up, slow static stretching, active warm up. During the active warm up, I stepped forward with my left leg on the first step of my approach to the net, dorsi flexing my right ankle, when there was an audible ‘POP’ at the base of my right calf, and a feeling exactly like I was whacked in the back of my leg with a stick. I went straight down, and knew right away that this was not good. I held out hope all the way to the ER that it was no more than a tear in my calf, but they confirmed what I new, and Achilles tendon rupture. A pretty serious injury considering that it is not only a weight bearing tendon, but the main weight bearing tendon of your body. The largest tendon of your body, your Achilles supports your entire body weight plus the exponential increase in force as you dynamically jump, run, land, pivot, and anything that requires movement of your body basically. In short, in order to recover to your pre injury glory, it takes time, and a lot of it. So after surgery to repair the 95% rupture of the tendon, I was laid up for weeks and weeks immobilized and not allowed (or able) to put any weight on it what so ever; a very hard thing for someone like me to do. Not only not being able to do what I normally do, but also as an independent person, being forced to be dependent on others for virtually everything. It was humbling, but in the long run, I think it will have been very good for me. By the way, I would like to thank all of you came over in my time of need and helped me out. I will forever be indebted for being there for me.
So, in all the exorbitant amount of time I have had the last 6 weeks of 2008, between recovering from my injury, and the biggest snow fall in Seattle in 15 years, I have been planning for what is going to be the best year yet in 2009. Not only am I more fired up than ever about helping everybody reach their goals of getting in better and better shape, but I am more fired up than ever about getting myself back to where I was pre injury, and to be 115% of what I was by the fall if this year. That is affecting not only how hard I want to work myself, but also my excitement level in developing new programs and tools to get everybody more active and in better shape along with me. Hence the updates to my website, and beginning this very blog. With this blog, I want to create a place online where you can come and get solid reliable information about all things health and fitness. I will be writing roughly weekly posts about everything from weight loss, to motivational tactics, to nutrition. There will also be updates on my guided trips to both local destinations in the Cascades and beyond, and also my annual guided adventure travel trips – this year’s being Machu Picchu. This will be an effective forum, where you can have consistent reliable access directly to me. Feel free to make comments on the posts, and ask questions directly to me, or of course you can always send me an email directly. Visit www.hildebrandfitness.com, and check out the Hildebrand Fitness Facebook page as well.
Welcome to the blog and to 2009! This is going to be the greatest year yet!
I look forward to hearing from you, and to getting you to your goals in 2009,
Michael Hildebrand
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