UKC

Hi guys,

Does anyone know any good ski fitness training exercises,for example leg muscle exercises? Any suggestions would be great.

Cheers

In reply to alpchild004: you tube lindsay vonn training

In reply to alpchild004:

Ride a bike, up hills, lots. You'll then be able to ski all day without tiring.

In reply to Beat me to it!: I'd second that. Took up road cycling last year, and now put in some good miles weekly now.

This really helped my snowboarding this year, and made a big noticeable difrence.

Leg curls, leg extensions, leg presses on a machine at a gym...

Calf lifts (with a step), squats and lunges with free weights.

Also doing core exercises will help with your stamina on the hill.

Wish I took my own advice!

In reply to alpchild004:

If you're already hill-fit, you don't need any training exercises for skiing. Overall a day skiing, i.e. downhill skiing at a resort, is much easier than a day walking or cycling.

The only respect in which downhill skiing is more tiring than these other activities, I find, is the brain activity! When you're skiing as fast as you can down good pistes for 8 hours, your brain is making a LOT of very quick decisions and issuing a LOT of instructions. After a day's skiing I feel like I've driven 300 miles. I fall asleep very quickly, because I'm mentally tired.

In reply to Tim Chappell:

Does the apres ski beer have an effect on the sleeping Tim

In reply to alpchild004: I was serious about youtubing Linsay Vonn... check our didier cuche as well. Don't underestimate the core - more important than strong legs

In reply to Henry Iddon:

In Dundee we don't talk about apre's-ski, we talk about avant bie're

In reply to Tim Chappell: i'd second whats been already said... it boils down to strength and agility. a good quad to hamstring ratio is really important for leg burn free days of skiing and protecting your knees, you want the hamstring to be as close as poss in strength to your quads. Don't underestimate your calf muscles as they do alot if fore aft balance to keep you upright. This is where being clipped into a bike is really good as it helps with all these leg muscles. The other part of the puzzle is good core strength so that your body is more able to keep itself in balance, so you fall less and your legs tire less.

In reply to alpchild004: As with most things in life, squatting helps.

In reply to nw: i have a 5 pager on ski fitness exercises...wrote when i was bored offshore.

it works! it not for the meak

In reply to alpchild004: Following on from another thread about ski lessons..... how strong you need your leg muscles is a bit linked to how well you ski. If you have poor technique, you may sit back too much and then your thighs will burn! Better technique means you expend less energy.

In reply to alpchild004: Hey guys, any suggestions for weak knees? Please notice the plural. No matter what sporting activity I do, I end up with agony in both knees the day after. Apparently there is "nothing wrong" with them, so I guess I am just not preparing properly. Any tips?

In reply to HotLemons: when u damaged my knee a few years back i was told to do 1 legged squats. the important thing is to make sure your knee points outwards past your little toe, not inwards.
hth
matt

In reply to alpchild004:

Take up road cycling.

In fact, buy the lovely 55 cm aluminium and carbon road bike in new condition that I'm selling for £680.

Nice sales pitch rigid raider!

@matt - just did a quick google regarding your suggestion, seems like a positive. thanks!

In reply to alpchild004: Hamstring exercise, super important to balance muscles and protect ACL, like Ali Gibb says. I.e. Lay on your back, bum off the ground and walk your feet in and out... with lots of variations, like rolling the foot out and in on a swissball, 1 legs versions etc.

Also, hip abductors are apparently real important (glutus medius i think). lay on your side and lift the leg straight up to ceiling, repeat until you get a crazy pump and burning muscle in your hip!

Put together your own circuits and build up to 60secs per exercise for like 8 stations of different things, quads, core, hammies, calfs.

Very boring

In reply to alpchild004:

An easy one to do is the chair position against the wall
ie. sit against a vertical wall with no chair with your lower legs vertical and upper legs horizontal

Feels easy at first - stay for as long as possible
A book can help ignore the pain

In reply to Carless:

I was waiting for someone to suggest the horrible chair (less) endurance exercise. All this does is compound the myth that developing endurance in the thighs is good and at the same time encouraging bad technique.

What you need is to develop the wee (propreceptor) muscles - thus a wobble board will get you far. That and a regular regime of Pilates - after all Josef Pilates was a skier.