Pre Season Ski Training 1

  My legs hurt, and as they should. I’ve just finished a rather short, intense pre ski training session in the park, the kind that I should have started two months ago to be best prepared for what is already a bumper season in the Alps. 

I have a month in hand before packing my boards and skis and heading towards (hopefully!) powder heaven and I’m determined to cram more than just mince pies in to the next few weeks.

My pre ski training is aimed at more control on the slopes, faster recovery and enough endurance to make the most of my precious time in the mountains. And of course, above everything else it will also go a long way towards preventing the all too common ski injuries.

When you think about it though, its no wonder that so many people fail to make the most of their holiday time and often acquire injuries in the process of hurtling down a mountain. For many skiers it’s the most intense period of activity undertaken all year, though of course if you’re reading the Lifestyle Experts magazine that probably puts you in a more active category of person.

In an ideal world we’d fearlessly propel ourselves down the slopes, making perfect turns with the strength and grace of an Olympic pro. There would be none of the usual aches, soreness or fatigue that comes from racing at high speeds all day over moguls and jumps.

We’d refrain from the overpriced all night drinking sessions in the Euro trance playing bars, stay hydrated all day, and in between perfect turns on untouched powder we’d eat regular, small snacks to keep our muscles fuelled and ready for action. After a final, masterful finishing run we’d bounce from our skis and walk jauntily to the hotel for a hot bath an early night and a fresh start all over again on the following day.  

Yeah right! Reality in the mountains is somewhat different in my experience and it amazes me at just how much punishment we can put ourselves through in the name of a ‘holiday’.   

I’m not going to labour on the late nights, inflated beer prices or Euro trance, but I am going to offer some advice on getting your body just that little bit stronger and ready for the potential onslaught.   

The basics of good Ski preparation should start with building stronger legs and core.

There are very few exercises that genuinely duplicate the constant adjustments required for skiing and as with many other outdoor sports, the best way to train for skiing is –obviously- to go skiing.

But I live in London and the last time I saw any patches of snow here they had a dog’s signature in them. So pre season I do the best I can in the gym or park to ensure that I’m not exhausted on the second day of my limited time in the mountains.

Below are two of my favourite strength programs for beginner and intermediate skiers or boarders. These programs are designed to get the best from you in the shortest time period. However, I would caution any real last minute types amongst you to not undertake heavy training for five days before your ski trip. If you’ve left it this late and you start cramming in exercises you’ll just be weaker on the slopes than had you undertook no training at all. It’s important to be well rested before a continuous stint of high altitude leg workouts and at most I might recommend half of the beginners program, just to recruit muscle fibres in advance of the first day.   

The same goes for your torso. Overdoing the core exercises too close to your snow holiday will only make things worse. However, if you have three weeks or more before your trip then sensible abdominal and back strengthening can make an enormous difference to your general responsiveness and most importantly your daily recovery.   

Skiing and boarding are primarily endurance activities and therefore repetitions for pre season exercises are best kept in the 15 – 20 region. 

Exercise tempo (the speed at which the exercise is executed) is important, as this will, along with the reps, dictate the time that the muscle is under tension. A long piste run of ten to fifteen minutes can require muscles to withstand vastly varying degrees of intensity, (think short intense mogul fields, followed by long sweeping powder runs) as well as the overall requirement, throughout the day, of extremely high endurance.

 I’ve found that the best way to ensure my legs last the day is to warm up thoroughly at the start of the days skiing. Launching straight off of the lift onto an un-pisted black run is not only a great way to accelerate fatigue, it’s also a perfect opportunity to injury yourself.

A thorough warm up should consist of plenty of easy cruising for half an hour or more in the morning followed by some dynamic stretching once the muscles are warmed up. Under no circumstances should you stretch statically before, during or directly after your skiing. Not only will it shut your muscles down by switching on the parasympathetic (rest and relaxation) side of your nervous system, it’s also the quickest way to lay down scar tissue directly after skiing – or for that matter, after any exercise.

If you want to stretch safely, do it after a hot bath and before bed. Otherwise just focus on some light dynamic stretches once you’ve warmed up on the slope itself.  

Nutrition and more importantly Hydration, seem to be generally overlooked by the skiers and boarders that I’ve encountered.

Having an Orange juice and two coffees for breakfast followed by a few glasses of wine for lunch is a sure fire way to ensure that your muscles are weaker and more prone to injury.

If you’re not drinking a minimum of two to three litres daily of pure water it’s almost certain you are dehydrated.

A good point to always remember is that by the time you are thirsty you are already dehydrated, and being even 2% dehydrated has been shown to seriously effect athletic performance.  

Eating on the mountain can be healthy if you make the right choices. Most restaurants tend to have decent meat and salad choices alongside the usual fast food swill. Forgo the usual chips and hotdog junk meals that are on offer, you are after all an amateur athlete, working out up to eight hours in a Mountain environment. Therefore I’d say that you owe it to your body to refuel sensibly and with at least a little discipline.

The key to eating right on the mountain is to ensure that you are getting plenty of regular snacks. Don’t allow your blood sugar levels to drop as you’ll feel weaker, your recovery for the next day will be hindered dramatically and you’ll tire far too quickly between runs. Leave your mobile phone at home and pack some snacks in the pockets of that shiny new Gore-tex jacket that you bought for the occasion. On a long mountain day even a bag of jelly babies is better than letting your blood sugar get low.

Finally, I recommend eating a large protein meal in the evenings to help repair and re build muscles that have been blasted during the day.  Leave the Pizzas and pasta firmly alone in the evenings and get the highest quality proteins you can afford each night.   

In a nutshell, the stronger, better fed and more hydrated you are the longer and more productive your day’s skiing or boarding are going to be and the quicker you are going to recover. Who knows, if you get enough of the workouts in before your holiday, you may even find that you feel lively enough to face dancing to the Euro trance music and cheap beer after all!

Beginners routine: Every 3^rd day

 Intermediate routine: Every 3^rd day

 * Tempo: The first and third numbers represents the time in seconds that is required to execute each part of the exercise. The second and fourth numbers represent the time in a rest position. For example a bench press of 3 0 2 1 would lower to the chest for 3 secs, pause for 0, raise for 2 and pause for 1.

Mike Weeks founder of the http://www.thebodyalchemist.com/