BLOG

I’m going to piggy back on Chris’s last blog entry about the need and necessity of fitness in your ski regime.  I think the message is starting to get across that riding your bike or doing your average gym routine is not enough to ski our best or to be injury free and ski from season to season. 

We think of skiing as very much a leg dominated sport, however that is not entirely the case.  Your core plays a big role in skiing as it is the platform where your extremities move from.  Since the body is interconnected weaknesses in different areas of the body can affect overall performance, weakness through the shoulders and the lat can affect your pillar strength and stability.  So going to the gym, riding the bike for 45min, then doing a bunch of squats and leg presses and maybe toss in some bicep and tricep exercises is not enough.  Training for skiing is about training your whole body.  You can go to various degrees of intensity from weekend warrior fit to elite athlete fit, the choice is yours and is dependent on what your goals are. 

My training and preparation for the season has changed as my goals for myself have changed.  My training regime now requires very specific exercises and a committment to good nutrition (without a healthy diet, what I do in the gym becomes futile).  Over the last few years I have been progressively pushing myself harder physically and mentally, the biggest challenge I find is maintaining balance and knowing when to rest the mind and the body.  Yes training requires time and energy, sometimes it easy to shove it aside because you have a report to finish, or a birthday party to go to, or stuff.  This is where goals come in handy.  When you have something that you are working towards then it makes it easier, to hold your ground and commit to your training regime.  Goal can be anything from getting your PSIA Level 3 certification, to summitting a peak, to being injury free and pain free for a season, to ski top to bottom runs, or ski off-piste more – you get the idea.  Whatever your goal is and how much you want it will be your motivating factor.  Along the way, you will discover other rewards like gaining more self-confidence and of course feeling amazing!