HEALTH & FITNESS
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Fall Training for Ski and Snowboard Season
by Luigi Rende
It’s hard to think of the alpine ski and snowboard season with Indian summer looming, but if you want to shred, rip and carve this winter, now is the time to begin training. In any conditioning program it’s important to understand the intensity level of your particular activity so that you can match the speed and pace of your sport.
Aerobic fitness is very beneficial for snow sports because it reduces your chance of injury due to fatigue and also helps you stay on the mountain longer. For maximum benefit, aerobic activities should be done at least two to three times per week for 15 minutes or longer at 65 to 75 percent of your maximum heart rate. Most aerobic activities are low to moderate in intensity, which predominately stress and develop slow twitch muscle fibers.
Anaerobic activities, such as skiing and snowboarding require short intense bursts of energy so specific preseason training is needed. These exercises are shorter in duration, lasting from ten seconds to two minutes, requiring high energy output. Anaerobic training can include sprints, interval training, weight training and plyometrics. Each of these exercises stress and develop the fast twitch muscle fibers. Finally, we will discuss the importance of balance.
Sprints & Intervals
Timing and focus are important when performing anaerobic sprinting and interval training. You should workout on a ‘one to three’ or ‘one to five’ work to rest ratio. That means that if you are doing a 30-second hill sprint, you need to rest for one-and-a-half to three minutes to be effective. Usually the shorter more intense intervals require more recovery time. It is important to take the allotted time for recovery, which insures high energy output on every exertion and prevents against injury.
Before an anaerobic training session, you must thoroughly warm up and stretch. Due to the intensity, you should limit these interval workouts to twice a week. I recommend those activities that primarily use muscles involved in skiing or snowboarding, such as running (track or hill sprints), bicycling (especially mountain biking) or inline skating.
When starting an interval training program, begin working out with two-minute long intervals. Pick up the pace during your workout, rest for two to four minutes and repeat it four or five times. After two or three weeks, start to shorten the duration of the intervals but make them more intense. But remember, stay within the allotted work to rest ratio!
Weight Training
The benefits of weight training are well documented. It helps develop pure strength, power and muscular endurance, which are components that help improve performance and prevent injury. Muscle groups that should be targeted by the skier and boarder are those of the hip, lower and upper back, front and back of the legs, chest and shoulders. Ideally, the exercises should work multiple joints at once.
| Lower Body | Upper Body | Power Development |
|---|---|---|
| Parallel Squat | Chest Press | Power Clean* |
| Leg Press | Bench Press | Push Press* |
| Lunge | Lat Pull Down | |
| Leg Extension | Military Press | |
| Leg Curl | Seated Rowing | |
| One-Legged Squat |
* Requires proper instruction
Weight training should take place two to three times a week. Start with two upper body and two lower body exercises per workout. For proper development, make sure that if one of your upper body routines works the chest muscles, the other should work the upper back muscles. Your core lower body exercises should be the squat or leg press, and leg curls or extensions should be done at every workout, preferably one leg at a time. Advanced exercises include the lunge or one-legged squat.
The power development exercises should be done only after proper instruction and a good strength base has been developed. Make sure to properly warm up, strengthen the low back and abdominal muscles, cool down and STRETCH!!!
Plyometrics
These exercises help develop overall body power. They include a variety of hopping, bounding, jumping and throwing exercises that build explosiveness, quickness and agility. If you are new to these activities, don’t do more than 100 “foot contacts” in one week, and they are not recommended if you presently have a foot, ankle or knee problem. For best results, these exercises should be started three to four weeks before the ski or snowboard season starts.
Examples of plyometrics are box jumps, tuck jumps, bench jumps and depth jumps. The best exercise used by skiers and boarders is jumping over a box or cone with both feet together in a good athletic stance. These types of muscle contractions closely mimic those used on the slopes.
Balance
One of the most important components you can develop is balance. If most of your training has been done on either a bicycle or inline skates you’re in good shape, because these activities simulate the balance and weight shift demands of both sports. Mountain biking on singletrack trails with technical descents helps you develop the timing, balance and weight shifting skills needed on the slopes. This is one of the rewards of those grueling hill climbs!
Inline skating helps develop lower body fitness and strength, and it also simulates skiing better than any other activity. If you can carve a turn on skates, it will carry over to your turns on the snow. The athletic and ski specific stance and rhythm that you develop while inline skating is very close to that used in downhill skiing. The same is true for skateboarding and snowboarding. I cannot stress enough, wear protective equipment when mountain biking or inline skating!
These are just a few ideas to make your alpine ski or snowboard season more fun and healthy. Today’s equipment has been developed for your enjoyment and safety, so practice your technique, which will enable you to safely improve your performance and tackle more challenging terrain. If a new snowboard or skis are in your future, make sure a fit body goes along with them!
Luigi Rende of Waterford is a certified athletic trainer and director of The Center for Sports Medicine at Schenectady Regional Orthopedic Associates P.C. He is an active skier and mountain biker.
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