| How do you get fit for your ski trip? |
| I smoke and/or drink a lot, & never exercise. Yes I'm a slob |
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10% |
[ 6 ] |
| I don't smoke or drink, but I don't exercise either |
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3% |
[ 2 ] |
| I exercise once in a blue moon |
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16% |
[ 10 ] |
| 'Other sports' at least twice a week (see below) |
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21% |
[ 13 ] |
| Yes, one of the categories only though (see below) |
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15% |
[ 9 ] |
| Two categories (see below) |
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16% |
[ 10 ] |
| Three categories (see below) |
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6% |
[ 4 ] |
| All four, I'm superfit (see below) |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| Two or more + at least one other sport, I'm in great shape |
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5% |
[ 3 ] |
| All four + at least one other sport, I'm crazy |
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5% |
[ 3 ] |
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| Voted : 4 |
| Total Votes : 60 |
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 Poster: A snowHead
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Are snowHeads super fit? Or do they head for the pistes having not broken into a trot since the last ski trip? Broken bones, twists and strains, often don't happen just 'by accident'. Technique is all very well, but fitness is key to minimising risk of injury. Skiing and snowboarding require short intense bursts of energy so specific pre-season training is advisable. Aerobics, interval and weight training, plyometrics (to develop explosiveness, quickness, agility) and balance-orientated sports are play a part in the 'perfect' preparation.
For at least a couple of months before you set off, do you do.....
Category 1 - Interval training - track/gym or bike (2 times pw)
Category 2 - Weight training (min 3 times pw)
Category 3 - Plyometrics (eg jumps, hopping, throwing exercises (min twice per week)
Category 4 - Balance sports (eg cycling, skating min twice per week)
Other sports - (such as squash) that combine one or more of the above, at least 2 times a week...
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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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Mmmm, hard to categorise.
Typical (ish) week,
Monday - Gym, stationary bike, one hour, one of three exercises that I rotate.
Tuesday - 5 a side football, one hour.
Wednesday - Gym, circuit session, weights interspersed with stationary bikes, one hour.
Thursday - occational mountain bike night ride, couple of hours.
Friday - gym, 15 mins warm up on bike, 30 min running.
Sat/Sun - bike ride, approx four hours or golf and perhaps hill walking with the family.
Thats the plan, but other things tend to muck it about a fair bit, I'm not a slave to it. I think my fitness is fair, I was much fitter until the second child came along.
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I think the key is to stay fit, not get fit for skiing by cramming exercise into a month before you go.
Generally my week consists of:
Mon - gym (hour programme of running, cross trainer, step, some weights)
Tues swim (half a mile - 32 lengths)
Wed - gym
Thurs - row on river (four or scull) for about an hour (good for uper body, shoulder strength)
Frid - gym or swim - depending how I feel
Sat - slob - eat drink and be merry
Sun - row on river
Also have large veg garden which keeps me fit digging (i.e. last autumn 2 tons of horse manure!).
Something like Pilates is also very good for skiing (core strength, suppleness and all that). Did do a course and I did notice the difference.
So as you can see, today is my slob day so I shall go off and do some now! 
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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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OK, only got a week to go. Think I can squeeze all of the above in? Nah, I don't think so either. Ah well, looks like I'll be packing the Radian B & Annadin extra again.... 
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Come on, get a grip Eeyore! Out of the sofa now and god for a jog.
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I meant 'go for a jog' not god for a jog (or you could always run with a bible!).
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| Quote: |
I think the key is to stay fit, not get fit for skiing by cramming exercise into a month before you go.
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Never a truer word spoken.
I have an innate dislike of gyms, but my job is anything but sedentary (am a secondary school teacher).
Fortunately for my dislike of gyms, the work alone often meets the "20minutes exercise 3x / week" recommendation. However, an 80quid investement in a rowing machine (reconditioned by works, off ebay) has really paid dividends, and 15minutes a night is quite adequate to maintain and improve fitness at minimum time-expense - which is, I suspect, an important consideration for many, me included.
Rowers are excellent for all-round fitness and ski-relevant quads, calfs and upper body. Add some free weights and stretch routines and you have a simple, effective, ski-related fitness programme (and a lot cheaper than the 350quid+ for gym membership !).
A move well worth considering if you want to get fit, stay fit, and want to concentrate on skiing muscles.
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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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As I learnt to my cost... the older you get, the harder it is to get that fitness back after a break. Beverley's regime sounds good to me, as for Mark's, well that's about what I used to manage, a few years back.
I was in the doc's for a check-up the other day. The waiting room was packed with forlorn looking tourists, many of whom had picked up injuries in their first couple of days' skiing. Ok newbies on the slopes are more vulnerable to damaging falls, but you do wonder just how many of them could have avoided injury, stayed on their skis, if they'd taken the trouble to prepare properly for their ski trip.
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I do a fair bit of cycling (mountain bike on desert tracks - traffic's too dangerous in town here) and swimming. Considered myself fairly fit for my age (54) but as I discovered recently skiing uses a different set of leg muscles. Still I enjoyed my annual trip to the snows. Agree with comments above that you should try for ongoing fitness rather than a panic burst of activity before your holiday.
Used to live in Tehran at about 5000 ft. Fully altitude-acclimatised. That was wonderful when you came down to sea level. Felt like superman. Leaping over tall buildings in a single bound. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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I keep myself in pretty good nick for my age. The trick is to keep it going throughout the year. In my 20's and 30's I would have put myself in the "superfit" category, since I maintained a high level of athleticism and played rugby and hockey to a good standard. When I gave up rugby I didn't feel the need to train so intensively (being chased by large wing-forwards half your age is a dam' good incentive to keep in shape).
Nevertheless, I still maintained a good general level of fitness, and have always participated in physically demanding sports.
When I took up skiing (in my mid-40's) therefore, it wasn't too much trouble to keep it going, although by that stage my training regime had deteriorated considerably.
Funnily enough, it was skiing that got me training seriously again. A few years ago I damaged my medial collateral ligament, and the rehab. work I was doing got addictive. - That and the fact that I was doing it in a University gymnasium frequented by surprisingly large numbers of lithe young women: it's something that takes your mind off the pain (Austin7, you should try it: it might change your dislike of gyms  ).
These days, I find skiing becoming less demanding than it was when I started, and I'm certain that this is because my technique is refining, meaning that I'm using less energy to achieve better results.
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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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Up till this year I would have said option 2. I have decided after this years skiing holiday to try and get fitter, so I have started going to the gym twice a week and also play badminton once or twice a week. So who knows I might actually be more fit next year!!!!!! 
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You know it makes sense.
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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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The reason I don't go to the local gym is that I fear the people there will feel I should go an awful lot more often...
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Poster: A snowHead
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Ian Hopkinson, the reason you don't go to the local gym is you spend all your time posting on snowheads. Tom just did a little calculation: you have posted 726 times and snowheads has been going about 5 weeks (=35 days?), so you have posted nearly 21 times every day!!
(Tom's now had enough of this, and he's chucking me off to play Warcraft3 on Battlenet....)
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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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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Ian Hopkinson, thanks: I didn't realise you could search by so many criteria. Tom thrilled his calculation was so accurate (and he has managed at last to join a "clan" on Battlenet, whatever that means).
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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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ok, what are your resting pulse rates? I clock in at 51/54 beats a minute.
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Beverley, I'm impressed.
I don't do Resting: with 2 teenagers, hamster and Snowheads it's all go from morning to night (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).
Pulse rate 70.
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Dunno. Skiing really isn't really physically strenuous or difficult, is it, unless you're performing at World Cup level? Of course the couch potato feels his/her muscles after 6-7 hours on the slopes but what about the moderately active (eg, aerobic exercise 3x week) person?
I observe that my 9 year old, whom I can out-run, out-distance (not for much longer!), out-lift, out-stretch etc. etc., has no difficulty doing 7 energetic hours on the piste every day for a week. Maybe an inapt comparison?
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| Jonpim wrote: |
Beverley, I'm impressed.
I don't do Resting: with 2 teenagers, hamster and Snowheads it's all go from morning to night (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).
Pulse rate 70. |
Jonpim A Resting Pulse rate of 70 is bang on average for a mature healthy Male. 
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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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Thanks Maximus: healthy - yes, male - yes, but I've got some mature cheese here and I'm wondering which aspect of mature applies.
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Way too unfit to go skiing, can't find a pulse though it used to be surprisingly low for my fitness level, don't care if I die on the piste or in the mountains they will bury me with a smile on my face for I shall have died happy 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Cee Bee wrote: |
Dunno. Skiing really isn't really physically strenuous or difficult, is it, unless you're performing at World Cup level? Of course the couch potato feels his/her muscles after 6-7 hours on the slopes but what about the moderately active (eg, aerobic exercise 3x week) person?
I observe that my 9 year old, whom I can out-run, out-distance (not for much longer!), out-lift, out-stretch etc. etc., has no difficulty doing 7 energetic hours on the piste every day for a week. Maybe an inapt comparison? |
I'm one of the better skiers in our group but have tended to find that I work harder when I'm with them rather than off with just a couple of them craking on at a fair pace.
When just 2 or 3 of us go off on our own I tend to lead (I'm a little more experienced and have no trouble working a map) and therefore mostly run at a pace I'm comfortable with them following (if you get my drift). However when I'm with the whole group I tend to flit between the front, the back, picking up stragglers etc so tend to have to work harder.
I don't do anywhere near as much exercise as I should, or indeed as I used to, so I'm overweight but when the ski season approaches I like to get a good hour or so on the dry slope each week which seems to get the right bits back in working order each time. I only got back into skiing in 02 and have only managed a week each year (damn work keeps interfering at the wrong times) but I've noticed even the little I have done has generally gotten me into better shape.
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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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Cee Bee, you can make skiing as strenuous and as difficult as you want. That is one of the delights of the sport. Some people amble along as if on a Sunday stroll. Others take a different (steeper) route or go like the clappers. It's up to you.
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Jonpim, of course you're right, but still, gravity plays a large part. That, or I haven't figured out how ski strenuously.
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You know it makes sense.
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Cee Bee, or maybe you are just very good. I commented recently to our instructor that he never seemed breathless at the end of a run when I was gasping for breath. He just said, if I was doing it right I wouldn't be out of breath. So there you are!
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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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Jonpim, no, I am a terrible skier - but with a LOW center of gravity!!! Pulls me down the piste!!!
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Poster: A snowHead
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Well, I'm impressed, all these dedicated people who make time for regular gym etc.
I never felt I needed to get fit for skiing, I'm not an athlete, and never had any serious skiing injuries. I'm sure that having done it since the age of 4 has much to do with it, skiing feels as natural as walking.
I have been fit for a couple of years of my life (two seasons in a rowing club) but various injuries put a stop to my training. Right now I'm not quite a blob, do 5 hours on a dry slope and some light weights.
Skiing attracts all shapes and sizes, because you don't need to be very fit or strong to do it. This morning I taught some youngsters and they all did well though none could ever keep up with me walking up the slope. Later on I took my daughter to a climbing club. A very different bunch of kids, even the little ones were zooming up the 20m wall like monkeys on acid.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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What's that, roughly a third of snowHeads who admit to being unfit?! At a guess, that would probably indicate a good half of once a year skiers who set off totally unprepared....
| Quote: |
| you don't need to be very fit or strong to do it. |
To "do it" properly, to minimise the risk of injury, to get the most enjoyment from a full day on the piste, to improve quickly and get the most benefit from lessons, I reckon nothing could be further from the truth....
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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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Winter "other" sports
-Tai ji quan, once/twice a week
-Swimming once a week
Summer
-Tai ji quan
-Swimming
-Blades
-Bicycle
-Tennis
-running
Not on a regular schedule but whatever time it catches me.
Still, I am unfit.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Matteo, Now that's being honest! Many would claim to be well fit on your winter schedule alone!
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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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There are reasons...
For me, to be fit means to take a mogul field and ski it top to bottom without the need to stop, on my last experience with one-a very small one- I had to stop and wait a bit.
Fit means to ba able to "hike for my turns" even once in a while. I can't do that.
Fit means that if I pull my son for 50mt at the bottom of the run, whee the flat is (for you that have ben in the Dolomites I'm talking about the end of the Lagazuoi run, near Armentarola) I don't have to stop and catch my breath...
Fit means that I am able to exercise as hard and as long as I like, but alas, I cannot anymore.
Hence, I am not fit.
I bluff my way down the hills, but I need the lifts to go back on top.
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PG, I said you didn't need to be _very_ fit, and I stand by that. I consider myself unfit compared to my potential, but I can still row 2000m in well under 7 minutes. I wonder how many people here could do it. As for strength, it helps to have certain muscles developed (I guess I'm lucky there) but you can do a lot without having a powerful upper body.
You can have fun and make good progress if you have balance, flexibility and good body-awareness, without being superfit.
I guess we all ski for different reasons. If you're into acrobatics or racing, the fitness requirement obviously changes. I don't believe this is why most of us do it, at least not according to replies to the 'why do you ski' thread.
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MartinH, See what you mean, but my point was about optimum fitness needed to avoid injury, especially for those (and a large majority of once a year skiers it is too) who really haven't got the technique even if they think they have...
Sure you can have fun, and make progress, if you're lucky and don't knacker yourself in the first few days!
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Matteo, That's as close a description as you can get to describing what real fitness for skiing means... not knowing your fitness limits is often a key factor in injuries over the first day or so, in the "rush" people get when they first hit the slopes.
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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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I wore my heart rate monitor again last week & burnt off 16,086 cals in just under 38 hours of skiing. Hubby did a whopping 30,386 cals in just over 38 hours.
It's an awful lot of exercise for your body to cope with & if you're not fit then it will be a struggle.
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From a personal point of view, my technique is not the best and so I use a fair bit of energy skiing. As I tire my skiing becomes lazy and my technique becomes even worse, requiring more energy so I tire even more etc. etc.
So, if I'm fitter I ski to a better standard for longer. That's one of the reasons I "up" my training for the ski season.
Proof of the pudding; last year on holiday I got chatting one lunchtime to a bloke who used to race and who now coaches on a dry slope down south (London somewhere IIRC). We agreed to ski together that afternoon and we had a great time, he knew the resort well and we skiied at a quick pace. He doesn't train anymore, but his technique was far superior to mine and for the first couple of hours I was having to ski hard to keep up. But as he got tired I found our places changed and he was struggling to keep up with the pace. I knew I had him when he asked for a beer stop. 
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FAQ
).
I spend way too much time on this site at the moment 