| Whenever you pick a skiing magazine... you are going | | | | correct. Doing so would create excessive stress on |
| to see articles written by so called ski fitness | | | | your back and possible injuries in the knees. Yikes! |
| "expert" recommending that you do his specific ski | | | | Avoid them... |
| workout... and to be honest with you... most of those | | | | Another ski exercise that is pretty common for |
| ski workouts are what I would call bogus. Let's just | | | | skiers is the wall squats. In every skiing fitness |
| define exactly what you SHOULD get out of an | | | | program I've seen on the Internet or the skiing |
| excellent and well-designed ski workout -- the ability | | | | magazines incorporate wall squats or wall sits in the |
| to train your body to get stronger legs and core that | | | | workouts. Although this exercise is OK... it isn't the |
| can endure long skiing times without feeling fatigue. | | | | best or optimal for skiers! But much better than |
| Without feeling like "jelly legs!" Or much worst, | | | | those machine exercises by far... As I said before, |
| getting injured. | | | | wall squats are not optimal exercises that improve |
| And I don't know about you... but when I finally show | | | | your legs strength and endurance over the full range |
| up at the slopes and it is a GREAT powder day... the | | | | of motion that you will be using when downhill or |
| last thing I want to do is call it quits after 2 to 3 | | | | crosscountry skiing. But there are a dozen exercises |
| hours. Or even get some nagging injuries that cut our | | | | that I know of that are much, much better than |
| skiing season short. | | | | locking your joints over a period of time as an |
| Now let me tell you what is the problem that I see | | | | isometric exercises (wall squats). |
| with the traditional workout routines for skiers... most | | | | Another big red flag for the typical ski workouts is |
| if not all the recommended skiing exercises are | | | | they mostly ignore the right joint strength balance. |
| inefficient and quite frankly, have little to do with the | | | | To make it more simple... when you are skiing... you |
| actual movement while you ski. And to make things | | | | are putting a lot of work on your quads, hamstrings |
| worst... you may be setting yourself up for a | | | | and glutes... and they must all work together. So |
| potential injury. | | | | what you want to do is find some exercises that |
| For instance, any workouts that involve the use of | | | | strengthens the major muscle groups as opposed to |
| machines -- leg presses, leg extensions and leg curls. | | | | individually working out each muscle. |
| Not only those machine exercises are incredibly | | | | And this is why most ski programs fail to strengthen |
| boring... they are so dangerous that you should run... | | | | and protect your legs from injuries! |
| not walk away from them. In my opinion... using the | | | | Conclusion: |
| machine workouts can only set you up for injuries. It | | | | Finding the right ski workout program is critical to |
| won't help make your legs stronger. And it won't | | | | your skiing success and shouldn't be treated as an |
| increase your leg's endurance on the downhill slopes. | | | | afterthought. You want a program that is fun and |
| And I say this because the machine workouts have | | | | challenging... one that incorporates effective ski |
| absolutely nothing to do with the actual movements | | | | workouts that makes sense... so you can rule the |
| your legs make when skiing. They usually follow | | | | powder on your ski vacation! |
| unnatural patterns that are not biomechanically | | | | |