Vermont Ski Safety Institute’s Take on Exercise

By: In: Health and Fitness, Skiing

One of the things we hear about frequently is how exercising helps prevent injury on the snow. However, the Vermont Ski Safety Institute has an interesting statement on this:

4) Exercise – We are not aware of any proof that an exercise regimen will reduce the risk of the most common or the most serious injuries in skiing. But, in our opinion, you might help to avoid less serious (though none the less painful) muscle strains if you have prepared yourself with skiing-specific exercises. See early season copies of your favorite skiing magazine or talk to a professional trainer before you hit the slopes. You’ll also get in more skiing with less fatigue and you will be better prepared for the rare emergency requiring strength or endurance.

I suppose, if you wipe out in a certain no amount of exercise is going to save you from injury. However, I have a hard time disbelieving if you get on the slopes with well developed, strong, and enduring muscles your chances of any sort of injury is reduced.

A person who has been working out is probably going to be able to maintain and hold better snow form longer than if they did not work out. Maintaining that form is key and being in a position to fight off being backeseated by a surprise bump.

I guess I understand what they are saying, but I fear some may use that as an excuse not to exercise. Don’t you do that!

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Blahs

By: In: Health and Fitness, Off Season

 
 
 
With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season I have had to give my budding workout routine a miss. I am already feeling it and the chief symptom is a blah feeling and a general lack of ambition.

The pressure is not off 100%, but it is quite a bit eased, I will resume my routine, but I worry about showing up along with many others who are in the same situation as myself. I am quite sure I am not the only one in that situation and will show up tomorrow and have to compete for stations and unfortunately, wait for them. As I have stressed in previous posts, for added cardiovascular challenge as well as to save time I attempt to complete all stations quickly with minimal wait between stations. Unfortunately, most people at the Y do not take that approach. They laze their way through multiple sets, taking time between each set and each station.

Oh well, typically, I find plenty of room on the cardio machines and at least 30 minutes on those is the minimum we all need.

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Workout Wisdom

By: In: Health and Fitness, Skiing

 
 
 
The Crossfit workout regimen is making quite a splash in fitness circles, of late. One of my online ski buddies & FB connections made mention of this and I checked it out, and it appeals.

Skinet has picked up on cross fit:

Crossfit is an all-out, holy-crap-I-can’t-go-any-harder work out. Variety is the name of the game, with anything from plyometics (explosive movements that increase speed and power), to weightlifting, to running. It will challenge your stamina, strength, and stability, leaving you sweating in a matter of minutes. This may sound like hell, but it’s not—it’s fun

Crossfit aims to workout the entire body across all sorts of different fitness criteria.

However, not all are enamored with Crossfit: go to the link above and read the comments.

When I was in high school wrestling, we had a two day cycle, dividing my fellow wrestlers into a lightweights and heavyweights. On day A, the weight room would be setup for the light weights. I forget the timings, but the idea was on getting as many repetitions as possible in during the time allowed, and then moving quickly with minimal pause between stations. Group B would spend that time in the mat room A-B-C wrestling (whistle blows, A&B wrestle and C officiates, whistle blows, B&C get ready to wrestle and A officiates, etc). The idea was on endurance and not just cardiovascular fitness (however, we did run a lot).

That is the idea I try to bring to my workout sessions. I may be working weights, but that is no excuse to take it slow.

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Exercise Exercise Exercise!

By: In: The Sharp Edge

 
 
 
I remember seeing clips of a sales training video featuring Vince Lombardi talking about winning and the principles he thought winning everywhere requires.

In this video he addresses the importance of being physically fit. Yeah, you got it, a football coach talking to salesmen on the importance of being fit (there is more to the video, but the clip I saw he was specifically addressing physical fitness), and it seems odd, but it is not.

In my life, I have veered from decent and good physical fitness to poor. That bouncing back and forth has empirically shown me a few things to be true:
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Working Out for the Ski Season

By: In: Health and Fitness, Off Season, Skiing

 
 
 
The Wisconsin Ski Bunny and myself have just rejoined the YMCA. We were members for sometime but had essentially stopped using it years before. Now that it has been years since we have had an active exercise program we changed that. We rejoined and so far we are using the membership.

Our workouts are not major affairs, we need to treat our time as precious. I spend about 30 minutes in the cardio-vascular machine land. With 10 minutes on three of them, rowing, bike, and elliptical. Rowing is a great exercise that gets the upper body involved! All three are knee friendly none of them putting undue stress or banging on those ski-critical joints. I finish with one machine and then on the next machine with minimal time for recovery.

After that, it is to the weight machines. The Y we go to has a number of machines but less than a full set. I concentrate on the machines that workout my legs and core. This means 7-8 stations, again I setup and attempt to do as many reps in one minute as I can, when I am done with the station, I move rapidly to the next station and repeat.

The goal is not so much strength as it is endurance and perhaps more explosive strength. I find skiing is more about muscles being able to expend force at a moderate level for long periods of time, with occasional bouts of explosive power demands (e.g. yanking back an errant ski). I don’t ski bumps nor do I go airborne (i.e. jumps & tricks, flying off a headwall is a different matter). In addition, I keep the heart rate up for the entire visit helping out with my overall cardiovascular endurance.

Now, you go and do likewise!

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The Endorphin Express

By: In: Media, Skiing, Writing

 
 
The Wikipedia starts off on its entry on Endorphins by stating:

Endorphins (“endogenous morphine”) are endogenous opioid peptides that function as neurotransmitters. They are produced by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus in vertebrates during exercise, excitement, pain, consumption of spicy food, love and orgasm, and they resemble the opiates in their abilities to produce analgesia and a feeling of well-being.

Emphasis added and Wikipedia footnotes removed by yours truly.

Sometime ago I referred to drug use as a shortcut to pleasure. The Wiki I quote above strongly indicates our very own bodies produce opiate like substances to help our bodies cope with stressful situations — namely strenuous physical activity. When God was forming us (Open up God’s toolbox and in it you see evolution) it became apparent that humans need to bust their @$$e$ from time to time and that endorphins helped us through those times. Whether it was hustling across the African savanna chasing an antelope down, hustling down the road to make spot X before your adversary, or splitting a cord of firewood; those who can squirt out a bit of endorphins probably did better at it and actually may have even come to crave the exertions.
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Getting Outside

By: In: The Sharp Edge

I find there are a number of different activities many skiers like. Obviously most of them are outdoor activities, if the cold, snow, and winds of Winter do not keep us from skiing we will surely find as many reasons we can to be outside during the rest of the year. I am sure I am not the only one that goes crazy being confined inside all day when it is sunny and pleasant outside. I will find any reason to be outside. Watch the grass grow was a common reason last summer.

Last summer our yard came in. So, I would water the lawn and I would break out a lawn chair, get a beverage, sit outside and watch the grass grow (and tweet about it). So, you may see I am being literal about watching the grass grow.
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Skiing to Maintain Our Health.

By: In: Health and Fitness

Skiing to Maintain Our Health!

Most often when we talk about downhill skiing and health we talk about injuries. However, skiers know downhill skiing is an active sport; this may surprise some, after all most of the energy harnessed in downhill skiing is gravitational. The non-skier may assume skiing takes the same amount of exercise as falling into one’s easy chair.

Well since you are reading this article, I assume you know that is FALSE! Downhill skiing is a physically active sport. While it is true, most of a skier’s speed comes from gravity to harness gravity enjoyably and safely requires physical exertion. Staying up requires athletic balance, avoiding obstacles, skiing bumps, running gates require split second timing, planning a route down the hill requires planning, and if a skier has to move over flat or uphill terrain they must provide the required energy. Skiing requires more exertion than plopping down in front of the TV with a sixpack of one’s favorite beverage.
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