Fit Skiing with the Help of Andrew Hooge!

Losing the Weight -- Womand performing box jumps — Box Jumps for Fit Skiing!

I frequently refer to the website Fit Skiing by Andrew Hooge for ideas on exercise to help me get ready for the ski season and you should too!

Fit Skiing — Good for Skiers

Fit Skiing offers a large number of exercises a skier can incorporate into their training sessions to focus on their special needs as skiers. Off of the top of my head there are probably about 150 or so exercises offered and most come with video demonstrations of Coach Hooge talking about the exercise and what muscles the exercise trains. In addition there is written material about the exercise.

Fit Skiing — Variety

The exercises are divided into groups depending on which muscles the exercise primarily trains. The groups are “primers” (e.g. warmups), core, upper body, lower body, whole body, plyometric, and restorative. This way you can easily develop a general workout that hits all of those groups or you do not get bored. Mind you, I don’t think it is a great idea to change things on a daily basis, but it is always good to have a number of moves ready for those times when the space you need for your desired exercise is not open (a frequent occurrence in any gym).

Fit Skiing — Equipment

Many of the exercises do not require special or expensive equipment. In fact, many of them only require space, that is a place you can make the moves. About an equal amount of exercises require gear that one can readily purchase at most sporting goods stores, and by readily I mean at a price that most people would be comfortable spending without too much thought (for example, most of us would not buy an exercise bike on a whim, but buying a fit ball is in the whimsy price range).

Some of the moves require barbells and dumbbells, but I see no exercises requiring weight machines (e.g. Nautilus machines and the like).

Fit Skiing — My Spins

I have been physically active now for about one year, the activity was not without interruption, but I started working out at about this time last year and I spent about 2-½ months with a solid routine. Work got in the way and I fell off of my workout and I returned to it in the springtime and then I got into bicycle riding in a big way. Instead of working out in the gym, I started riding my bike anywhere from 3-6 times per week. I have two 100+ mile weeks and am currently at 1100+ miles on the year and am going to finish off at 1200+. However, since the sunlight is now over way early I can only ride on the weekends. I now workout in the gym for about 80-90 minutes three to five times per week.

My other gym sessions prior this fall focused on only cardio and my legs. This time it is different, I am working out all portions of my body, my core, my upper body, I am looking for plyometric exercises to do, and I am thinking about yoga too. This evening I started swimming (the second of the triathlon 3). My muscles are responding the way they should and I am getting stronger and fitter. Am I losing weight?

Up until the end of biking season I was laying weight on the road like hot-rodders lay rubber on the road, but now the weight is much more stubborn, oh well keep it up and have faith and more on that later. I pity the mountains I am going to ski on.