 Poster: A snowHead
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Hey all
Now that we are heading into the final throes of the season I was wondering if I could get a bit of feedback from the people who requested copies of my ski workouts (you know who you are). As you can understand, the more feedback I get on them the better I can make them. I have already developed a few new exercises that I will be incorporating into the workouts for next season but I would also like to hear about how you guys found the workouts, what you liked/disliked, found easy/hard etc.
I would be grateful if you could PM me with your feedback, good or bad, plus any other info you deem relevant.
Thanks in advance. 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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stocky, Firstly, many thanks for letting me have a copy of the workout. Much appreciated and you put a lot of work into it.
However, neither I, nor the gym I go to, had sufficient balls - or indeed semi balls - to enable me to have a proper go.
If you'd only let me know the number and size my balls, I could have had a decent fist of it.
I'm sure it was a worthwhile effort for those suitably endowed both with balls of sufficient numbers and sizes, but I felt a little inadequate 
Are there circuits available for those of us with this problem? I hope so, as I need to vary my regime.
Yours apologetically
Marc
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Hi Stocky
Are copies of your workout still available to those who missed it? I am always looking for ways to improve fitness with skiing in mind
Thanks
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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stocky, VERY interested in knee ligament rehab-safe workouts if you have anything specific.
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comprex, A lot of the rehab protocols are injury/ligament specific so if you let me know which type of injury I will be able to give you a better idea of what to do.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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stocky, Ill swap you a leg - I did my right side knee - 70% pissibility ACL but awaiting scan!
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| lampbus wrote: |
| 70% pissibility |
How the hell did you do that! 
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You know it makes sense.
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OUCH. GWS Stocky! Only just picked up that you were injured.
You sent me the workouts and they looked excellent. Only trouble was I didn't get round to buying an exercise ball, due to all sorts of things happening before and after our ski trip to France. I'm now doing my Exercise to Music qualification, and hope to get round to using them next season. Hoping to teach Body Step and Body Pump in future, but not Body Combat (maybe just as well after your experience). I'll be teaching aerobics and step pretty soon, as one of the local instructors is going on maternity leave and I am likely to have to cover some or all of her classes.
I think one of the problems with the ball is that most gyms either have one or two, or have them reserved for use in pilates and conditioning classes only. Ours certainly does. I've nowhere to store one at home, so reverted to use of BodyPump weights and more "traditional" exercises for strength work. It is difficult to recommend free weights when you can't check technique, as it can be very harmful to do it wrong, so I'm not suggesting that you have those in the workout necessarily, but there is better availability of these at gyms.
The good thing is that CV-wise I was in excellent shape both in Courchevel and Kaprun, largely down to BodyStep classes and huge amounts of cycling. Last year I was struggling to carry my skis up the steps to a gondola lift, this year no problem (I have cystic fibrosis and damaged lungs, so need to be doubly fit to do this at altitude).
Anyway, thanks for your workout ideas, and good luck with recovery from the knee problem (and BASI course).
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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stocky,
I don't know who your Doctor is but I think he has the diagnosis wrong looks like a pale left knee to me.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Mosha Marc, well, it is a bit of a pi**er 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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MCL/meniscus and it was a LOT bigger than that, looking for cardio other than swimming* that won't rotate knee (can't open a door without a brace) or subject it to going-downstairs pressure and extension.
Managing up to 10 miles on the bike trainer (with Biopace gearing, less with round).
*(I can frog kick without pain but not flutter, whip, or eggbeater. Time to become a fly specialist, what?).
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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stocky,
I PM'd you about my regime and brought the ball. It set something off in my back though so I went through your charts and cherrypicked things that I could adapt or noted the reps. I concentrated on Core, legs and CV via running.
I had a very successful first 2 weeks and felt strong. However, I contracted the lurg which wiped me out more than I realised. I still had to train on...or so I thought, and went into my second holiday, well not fresh... The second trip was hard skiing but I suffered from the 1st day. I took this deficit into every subsequent day and skied...well, tired. Not something I had experienced before.
So, my main problem has been about balance of the workouts through an illness. In my defence, I didn't think that stopping training was an option... oh hindsight. I only had 3 weeks between 1st trip and 2nd trip and I had the lurg for pretty well much of that time.
So I think I went into the trip fatigued. Then a mad sunday blew what ever reserves I might have had..and never recovered.
I am off in 3 weeks again...after a 4 week break so I start it again this week.
I will concentrate in leg lifts, core and running
Many thanks
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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stocky, being as you are a Fitness Instructor and that one of your specialities is preparing ski specific exercises and sound advice for your much attentive and appreciative fellow snowheaders; can you tell me if your knee injury is directly attributable to the fact that such worthy and invaluable advice in ski specific exercises has failed to reach all the muscle groups in your trusty upper legs... 
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| stocky wrote: |
docsquid, To do the majority of the workout you only need one BOSU as other exercises can be adapted. Keep working on the ETM stuff as it is really enjoyable teaching classes. I love it. Don't discount Body Combat either, its a great class. The main reason that I got hurt was not down to the class itself but due to a change in trainers funnily enough. The ones I would normally use have a thinner sole and they were packed ready for going away so I was wearing a pair of normal running shoes. The rest as they say is history.
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I know it only needs one BOSU ball, but getting that one at the gym usually means waiting around for ages! I like Body Combat too, it's just that most instructors I know want to teach that, but the gyms I go to can't find Step instructors because it isn't trendy any more whereas they are overwhelmed with spinning and combat and attack instructors! I happen to like step, so will concentrate on that first - I guess in future I'll move on to other things.
Sorry to hear about the trainers being the cause of the injury, but interesting - some trainers are a bit sticky on a gym floor and it bothers me that some instructors include rotation in their routines without the warning people about this - I have bad knees so am wary of rotational movements in any sport or activity! I hadn't heard of an actual injury before yours.
Hope it heals soon.
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| Scarlet Pimpernel wrote: |
| stocky, being as you are a Fitness Instructor and that one of your specialities is preparing ski specific exercises and sound advice for your much attentive and appreciative fellow snowheaders; can you tell me if your knee injury is directly attributable to the fact that such worthy and invaluable advice in ski specific exercises has failed to reach all the muscle groups in your trusty upper legs... |
SP, not wishing to demean Fitness Instructors, they are very good at what they do, but I am slightly more than that. I am a Personal Trainer and Sports Therapist who not only deals with the fitness and nutrition aspects of the industry but also the rehab side of things. The fact that I only strained my ACL and MCL as opposed to tearing them is attributable to the fact that my muscles are in as good condition as they are.
As a brief background for you into my workout regime, each week I teach and participate in the following classes:
4 x Body Pump Classes (1 hour each)
2 x Body Combat Classes (1 hour each)
2 x Spinning classes (1 x 1hr, 1x45min)
1 x Circuits class
In addition to this I generally also do 1 hour long workout each day varying between cardio, functional resistance, functional stability, plyometrics and ski specific workouts. These are in addition to any workouts that I do with clients. So in an average week I workout a minimum of 9 times and a maximum of 15-20 times. I consider myself in pretty good shape and it is due to this fact that my injuries were as 'minor' as they were.
So the answer to you question is 'YES' my knee injury is directly attributable to my advice, in that it prevented it from being as bad as it could have been but it wasn't the cause of said accident.
I hope that is a good enough answer for you. 
Last edited by After all it is free  on Tue 3-04-07 7:55; edited 1 time in total
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| docsquid wrote: |
| stocky wrote: |
docsquid, To do the majority of the workout you only need one BOSU as other exercises can be adapted. Keep working on the ETM stuff as it is really enjoyable teaching classes. I love it. Don't discount Body Combat either, its a great class. The main reason that I got hurt was not down to the class itself but due to a change in trainers funnily enough. The ones I would normally use have a thinner sole and they were packed ready for going away so I was wearing a pair of normal running shoes. The rest as they say is history.
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I know it only needs one BOSU ball, but getting that one at the gym usually means waiting around for ages! I like Body Combat too, it's just that most instructors I know want to teach that, but the gyms I go to can't find Step instructors because it isn't trendy any more whereas they are overwhelmed with spinning and combat and attack instructors! I happen to like step, so will concentrate on that first - I guess in future I'll move on to other things.
Sorry to hear about the trainers being the cause of the injury, but interesting - some trainers are a bit sticky on a gym floor and it bothers me that some instructors include rotation in their routines without the warning people about this - I have bad knees so am wary of rotational movements in any sport or activity! I hadn't heard of an actual injury before yours.
Hope it heals soon. |
Sorry docsquid my fault for grasping the wrong end of the stick with that one. I know what you mean about instructors and spins in workouts. We used to have a guy here whos step workouts were really over choreographed to the extent that he used to get at least one or two people walking out of his classes cos they just couldn't do what he wanted them to. Bad news really.
The trainer thing is a real pain though. I normally use a pair of thin soled martial arts style shoes for teaching combat classes as you don't tend to fall over them. With normal running shoes having thicker soles it is easier to do. This, in conjunction with the jumping and kicking in the combat class caused me to over rotate, twist and fall off the edge of the sole, jarring and twisting my knee in the process. Very painful I can tell you. Fortunately now the rehab is underway and going really well.
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Stocky wrote
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I hope that is a good enough answer for you.
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Stocky, it certainly is.. Thankyou for being gracious enough in appeasing my tiny cynical mind. I wish you a speedy recovery so you can carry on with your excellent work in working with others to enjoy to the full, their much loved snow sports. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Hi Paul,
I got your workouts but alas my gym appears to be Bosu less, so I used your General ski workout to do some work on my legs on their machines. Unfortunately I had some knee problems caused by playing hockey, so had to back off the weights and leg exercises 
I resorted to simple exercises like rower, step machine, elliptical trainer etc. I found I was ok for most of the day, but my legs tended to get very tired in the last hour or so of the day, ie skiing off piste with a guide after 4pm I suddenly got cramps in my thigh and legs felt exhausted, so I need to do more for next year.
regards,
Greg
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kitenski, Thanks a lot for letting me know. I am in the process of designing a workout for BOSU less people to do which will acheive the same aims as my other workout so when that is sorted I will let you know.
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You know it makes sense.
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stocky, if you still have copies of your programme I would REALLY appreciate one. I'm going to be doing a load of skiing over the summer and need to be totally prepared with my fitness. I already go running a couple of times a week and do regular pilates classes to build core strength but it's not very focussed at the mo and I need to be more ski fit.
Thanks
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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cheeky:monkey, if you PM me your email addy I will mail it to you tomorrow.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Sorry I haven't replied sooner. Skiing holidays mean I don't catch up with all the threads and Apres takes priority! Anyway. I got the programme and was keen to start. But like a lot of people I didn't realise I needed equipment. And I hate gyms with a passion. But I thought I could adapt. I have a real bike. And I went out and found a mini Bosu-like thing in TK Maxx. Then persuaded son to find the Swiss ball that he had bought (and never used, must be a family trait) and blow it up.
But then somehow I never got round to it. Husband, kids, jobs, illness, stuff etc got in the way. Oh, and sheer lazyness and lack of willpower too.
But I still have the programme, and, as they say, "Tomorrow's another day"  (well, I don't need to start for a few months now .....  )
Again, sorry. I bet you wonder why you bothered . Will try harder next year.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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maggi, No worries, Thanks for getting back to me.
Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Sat 14-04-07 8:48; edited 1 time in total
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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comprex, I've picked up this thread later than most. Don't give up on swimming yet! A swimming club we used to use a device called a pull or pool buoy. Basically, it's a "figure of 8" shaped piece of dense polystyrene that you clamp between your thighs when swim training. It keeps your legs afloat so you can concentrate on arm stroke and body position. An example is shown here:
http://www.zoggs.uk.com/content/product/53
Ok, it's not going to exercise yor legs but you will get a decent cardio workout without resorting to long bike rides
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Sorry to bump this again guys but I am still waiting for some feedback on these workouts  . I look forward to hearing from a few more of you in the near future.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I've finally got round to emailing you! Many thanks 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Clive, I've been using the (local term: leg float) buoy but stocky got me into trying the flutter kick again. It's -sort- of working but I wince each time in anticipation and short-change my rotation.
stocky: I used the 8 week BOSU workout as an adjunct to my usual conditioning (with 45 minute warmup) just prior to the Epic ESA last December. Figure about 75% attendance compliance with your outlined plan, mostly because of schedule pressures.
First 3 weeks: side lunges and front lunges very effective. People were actually copying me at the gym. Press-ups didn't really feel like they were doing anything until I moved the grips to in-line with the body. Planks were a bit of a snooze. I took the lateral jumps to 10 minutes. Ski jumps took a bit of practice, alright a week of practice before I even remotely thought I was doing them correctly enough to get a benefit. The half bicycles were quite wicked, and no one copied me on those. I'm afraid I dropped the bunny hops, mostly coz I didn't have an explanatory graphic on my hard copy. Tricep dips I didn't bother with as on the graphic as I have a dip station; I wound up slotting those in on Monday and Thursday workouts the other nights being purely legs and core. I also dropped the step/depth jumps for lack of room.
Second 3 weeks: Pretty much as above, half bicycles a lot easier, no bunny hops, also lacking space for the bosu 5s. Fitball jacknifes didn't seem to be doing anything???? Felt the workout wasn't quite getting hamstring work and I wanted some more abdominals so I included ham curls 3x12 and russian twists 3x20r on the incline bench in between jacknife and reverse fly schedules.
Last 2 weeks (90 minute warmup): Oooh full bicycles excellent! 20 minute lateral jumps. EDIT: ham curls 3x5 2x week, russian twist, roman chair Pressups one-footed for extra evil.
So, several thumbs up for the one bosu work and plans! I'd like to think my mass centre awareness has improved; can't say for sure as my season was so wickedly short. My foot speed in bumps wasn't as I would like, but it seldom is and 8 weeks isn't quite enough to correct for the weight gain of summer (I didn't have full skate or cycle seasons either).
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comprex, Thanks for the detailed feedback. I am in the process of revising some of the workouts to add additional exercises that I have developed and they should be ready within the next month or so, I just need to sort out the pictures.
Thanks for the comments about hamstring work, that has been addressed in the revised workout and regarding the abdominal work, if you are using correct form and technique with all of the other exercises then extra ab work really isn't necessary. Have also revised the plank exercise to make it slightly more hardcore.
The fitball Jacknife exercise is designed to aid core stability with a bit of work for the hip flexors. For extra work on this exercise keep your feet closer together or do it with one leg at a time.
As soon as I have made all of the revisions and sorted the photos I will drop you a copy in the mail.
Thanks again for the detailed report, its much apprciated.
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a few ideas for workout
after three weeks of hard skiing i noticed a of stiffness in my calves mainly on the upper portions. Could just be a lack of flexibility but perhaps i need to strengthen the muscles. does your workout have any specifics for this?
also some stretches to aid hip flex and rotation would be a good thing to add IMO. I had a stretch for IT bands which everyone thought was great and really helps with the skiing.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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stocky,
sorry got a really nasty bug that lingered for months and left me exhausted for longer again.... just really recovering...
Just back from Colorado skiing for a month....
My concentration is usually the limiting factor for skiing anyway....
the muscles that suffer most are my calves/achilles (poor dorsiflexion so I am always at my limit)....
I used to get sore thighs until my technique improved so I stopped hammering them so much.... normally I get a deep tissue massage or 2 during the season to help the tightness in side of calves area... and stretch my legs to death most days....
I did look at the work out and go "oh equipment required".... also noted not much grading in exercises (ie harder/easier versions) which I always find very helpful (especially those that require balance/coordination I like to work up on).... eg Lisa Westlakes book on ball fitness has nice easier and harder versions of the basic exercises so you can pick a level and work up through it....
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FAQ
) Funny though 
Have now rebooked on to the first December course. Only 8 months to wait 
