Ski season is coming, and all of the weight I've blissfully
gained over the summer is going to have to go. Presumably most readers are actually more
active in the summer, thus heading into the winter lithe and ready for action. However,
whether you have been torpid all summer or a sporting freak the only thing that works your
muscles or skills exactly like skiing, is skiing. Fortunately there are routines you can
integrate into your day that will help more directly prepare your body and mind for the
coming snow.
Lateral Movements
When walking or running we project a foot far ahead of the
other foot. Alpine skiers, however, focus more on lateral projections of their feet –
side to side. Accomplished skiers are skilled in accurately and dynamically launching
themselves from one foot across to the other while staying in perfect balance.
Any exercise that involves mindless entertainment is a home
run with me so I work on this in front of the TV. I stack a few books on the floor and the
proceed to hop back and forth over the books, clearing the books with both feet but
landing and then springing back off of just one foot each time. By varying the speed and
height of the hops it simulates different kinds of skiing movements. Sometimes I'll slow
the rhythm way down on the hops and flex very deeply down on each leg before springing
back up – as I flex down I concentrate on staying perfectly balanced over the center
of my foot. As you do this try and keep your hands relaxed and slightly in front of you,
your posture erect, and look up at the TV instead of down at your feet. If you put on a
skiing video you can synch your movements to those of the skiers on screen which add
challenge and an element of mental training.
Centering and Balance
Everything active you do will help with balance, but skiing
well requires a very specific use of your skills. Modern ski equipment is most responsive
when skied in a perfectly centered stance. For specific situations we may temporarily
shift our weight towards the toes or the heel, but always we return to center.
Another of my exercises especially tailored for lazy
living, I often do this while reading, washing the dishes or talking on the phone. Its
pretty straight forward, I just stand on one foot. Yep, at least that's what it would look
like to an observer if I weren't too ashamed to do this in front of people, I would look
like I was playing at stork, every minute or so changing feet. The important part of this
exercise is not visible to outside observers – the focus is on standing exactly
centered in the middle of my foot. Sounds pretty simple, but upon trying it for the first
time people find that their center seems to be constantly shifting around slightly. It
requires thoat small muscular corrections be steadily used to keep you in that center.
Again, how deeply flexed your leg is will change the kind of corrections that need to be
made and the workout intensity.
Strength
<Sigh> yep, strength conditioning - this is the part
I find toughest to subject my summer tanned and fattened body too, but it's quite
necessary. While good skiing posture can shift much of the work from your muscles to your
skeletal structure, skiing still heavily works out your butt, thighs lower back, stomach
and shoulders. The previous exercises can help with all of these, but a few specific
workouts are good for pure strength conditioning.
Sit-ups – I've always hated these but nothing seems to
work out the ab's as efficiently. Since they are a necessary evil I just go for the full
measure of torture, the worst ones I can find so as to get them over with more quickly.
There are many cruel variations on sit-ups, pick whichever you find most hideous. I use
one from an old Karate class where you just sit ½ the way up, then exhale all your air,
tense your stomach up as tight as possible – and strike yourself with both fists
across the abdomen. It sounds silly, and in fact it looks silly but it is one heck of a
workout.
Wall sitting is an excellent leg workout, especially for
the quads. Wall-sits look very lazy, and you can in fact watch TV or read while doing them
but generally you will shortly be in too much pain to concentrate on entertainment.
Wall-sits are simple, just put your back flat against a wall and then slide down until the
angle from your calves to your thighs is 90 degrees. Stay there as long as you can.
The shoulders are a deceptive one, nobody expects that just
holding ski poles up all day would be much of a workout – but then are in agony after
those first few skis days of the season. Once you think of it, it does in fact make sense
that just holding poles up is a workout . . . have you ever tried holding your arms
straight out for as long as you can? Its incredible work after awhile, and this is exactly
the best exercise for it. Hold your arms out so that they are horizontal. Vary holding
them in front, to the sides and behind you – dance around the room and play
"airplane", might as well look really silly while you are doing this.
Putting it all Together
Eventually, even the most dedicated homebodies must head
outside to prepare for ski season. There are many workouts that combine the necessary
movement patterns and muscle groups needed for effective skiing. My favorite three are
Skree Skiing, Sapling Slalom & what I call Mountain Dancing.
Skree Skiing feels very much like the real thing in
some ways, drawing upon the same balancing skills and working the same muscles out. Put on
some heavy hiking boots, grab some beat up old ski poles and find a steep slope of loose
shale. Climb to the top, hop back and forth down the mountain as if skiing, and that's all
there is too it. One thing though – it is extremely dangerous since it hurts a lot
more to fall on shale than on snow.
Sapling Slalom is also quite simple. Don some good
running shoes, find a nice large stand of small trees, run through them at top speed
– zigzagging between them as if its a ski race. Just remember that in real races the
poles are "breakaway" gates, trees usually aren't. Again this exercise really
crosses over to skiing in balance and muscle use.
Mountain Dancing, the only reason I'm willing to
endure the work of climbing up a mountain is so that I can "Mountain Dance" on
the way down. Climb a mountain, get a catchy tune in your head . . . and bound, skip, hop,
run, spin and dance down to the rhythm. I Ping-Pong off of rocks, put my feet sideways up
onto tree trunks to slow myself down, do helicopters and back-scratchers over logs, skip
in strides that send me fifteen and twenty feet across the ground between strides, and
generally just have a great time. It's an amazing test of your endurance, reflexes, and
your knee cartilage – careful about your knees.
These are just a few of the exercises I use to get ready
for ski season each year, and there are many more I don't know about or don't use. I also
did not touch on stretching, nutrition, or mental preparedness - all equally important.
However you decide to get ready, if you want to have a fun and safe time in the season
ahead, do at least prepare in some way. And of course, even this early, it
never hurts to start to "think snow".
Todd Murchison has furniture sitting in both Colorado
and Vermont at the moment. Schizophrenically bouncing from West to East the only thing
certain is that every winter you will find him on skis every day.
