 Poster: A snowHead
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I know the answer is both right but if you could only do one or other in the lead up to a ski holiday what would be most suitable for ski holiday?
I go to the gym 2/3 times a week and mix it up but around 8 weeks prior to going away I ramp it up to 3/4 times a week and increase the weights etc, but sometimes wonder if I should ramp up the cardio instead (although I usually try both)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Personally, I think strength (high weight, low reps) and stamina (lower weight, higher reps) are better, as long as you have basic cardio fitness.
Cue a fitness guru to tell me I'm wrong.
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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.
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Cardio
I believe with the right technique then you can reduced the muscular effort of skiing to very minimal. We start off 100% effort and 0% technique, the holy grail being 100% technique and 0 effort. The athletic nature of the sport means good cardio fitness can make the world of difference and keep you going the whole way down those longer pistes.
That said, I have raced with guys built like brick s*it houses and the recoveries they can make combined with power they are able to develop from the ski is great to watch. We're not racing though!
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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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Cardio , core strength , stamina . With plenty of stretching . Possibly pilates? , power plate if u go to a gym with one . I build up to 5x 45 sec on 45(I think it's an ohm sign?!?) in a squat position hands infront. That bloody burns!! . I'm fat and have vvlittle technique so need all the help my body can give!! . Even so I hardly ever cramp up or give up when on holiday so something I do works for me!!!.
Ps also do three gym sessions a week and ramp up like yourself!!! 
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bfg, that is more or less exactly what I do. Coincidentally, I too am fat and very rarely get tired skiing (always excepting doing weird drills, which sometimes make both my legs and my brain hurt). 
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Not wanting to be left out - Im Fat Too 
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I believe with the right technique then you can reduced the muscular effort of skiing to very minimal.
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agree with this up to a point, after which with the right technique most of us will want to ski harder stuff like bumps, deep snow, or faster speeds, which then asks more from the body physically.
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The athletic nature of the sport means good cardio fitness can make the world of difference and keep you going the whole way down those longer pistes.
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I would say the core physical attribute is balance plus core strength - just look at the scrawny jibbers in the park, living on red bull and cigarettes: no way do these guys have high levels of cardio fitness, but what they do have is superb balance (plus no fear), so they don't get to need the cardio fitness.
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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'm fatter
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actually I think technique is the best aid if your simply cruising and a mid level skier but if I'm taking lessons or skiing with mates who are better and faster then strength in legs is invaluable. Stretching has become essential too now as I get older.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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rob@rar showed me at HH the other month that core strength was what I needed to do his drills, it was the key to this her one legged skiing!! - I've started to exercise again and have also been doing 20 situps in the morning!
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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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No- I'm fat
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Cardio.
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You know it makes sense.
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| Frosty wrote: |
| Stretching has become essential too now as I get older. |
Yup, stretching is a must if I dont want to be written off the next day
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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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boabski, cardio for sure. Strength will be an added advantage of cardio anyway (eg running and cycling build up leg muscles). Although skiing itself needn't always get your heart pumping, everything else that goes with sking will - walking from your hotel to the lift, side stepping up to the lift queue, pushing yourself up a little slope at the end of the schuss, and just walking around at altitude etc. If you're not aerobically fit all this will tire you quickly.
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Poster: A snowHead
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in that case, you would expect a marathon runner to have the perfect physical attributes for skiing. I don't think this is true, he/she also needs agility, balance, flexibility & strength (especially core strength), to ski well. The best thing to do is a combination of these, not doing any one to the detriment of the others
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Ah, but the poster was asking which of the two would be best to have.
The answer is both, but if pushed I'd say cardio too.
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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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gra,
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The best thing to do is a combination of these, not doing any one to the detriment of the others
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Of course it is, but that wasn't what the OP was asking. I'd take a guess that the marathon runner would cope better than the person who does nothing but pump iron.
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Easy answer use a bike and do lots of hill climbing, that will give the cardio a good going over but by doing hill climbs you will also work those all important leg muscles, think a bike machine is better than a jogger as you tend to cyclic movement with both skiing and cycling whereas jogging is more impact
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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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boabski, it sounds like you're doing more than enough for a "holiday skier" anyway. But I'd agree with D G Orf - I've very rarely had problems with fitness to ski and the only exercise I've ever done other than skiing is cycling to and from work (not a huge amount either, only 4 miles each way). One year I'd not been cycling to work and that was the only year I've had problems - my legs giving up on me mid afternoon. As you get to higher performance skiing (as I'm now finding in my racing) limiting factors change - my technique has now advanced to the level where I can now control skiing hard and fast enough that leg and core strength are again becoming limiting factors and will need to start doing some specific strength stuff.
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Thanks folks - some interesting stuff there. A couple of years ago I got a ski specific programme at the gym and first ski holiday I went on afterwards was the first time that I did not have aches in the thighs etc - so I tend to stick to that programme in the 3 months up to going away. I do find myself getting quite tired though, so I will probably continue with the strength work but introduce more cardio and stamina stuff
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boabski, what do they have you doing?
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plyometrics is the anwer IMO
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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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Cardio that has you using the quads, adductors, hamstrings, glutes and calves.
Cycling, step machine, cross trainer (both forwards and backwards) and rowing machine
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Don't forget you are going to be exercising at altitude, so better Cardio will help get more oxygen to your muscles.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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IMO the best answer is strength exercises done in circuit format, so you also get a good cardio effect (effectively this is interval training - more specific for skiing than slow, steady state cardio on a machine). You can play around with the circuit durations and rest periods so it matches the typical ski runs you do. You can also include functional strength exrecises, eg 1 leg squats, or lateral jumps, which also train balance & agility.
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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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Mosha Marc,
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what do they have you doing?
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Leg press, leg extensions, hamstring machine (can't remember name), lunges with weights, squats on weight machine, cycling, rowing, abs stuff, cross trainer, some upper body stuff and jumping left to right and vice versa on step - ie start with one foot on floor and one on step then alternate (great excercise for skiing but I do tend to look like a complete fud  ). Then they get me pulling some dumbells with my right arm towards my chin to get my beer muscles excercised 
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You know it makes sense.
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| gra wrote: |
In that case, you would expect a marathon runner to have the perfect physical attributes for skiing. |
gra, it depends what you mean by 'marathon runner' i.e. jog /walk around London or sub 3 hour runner. Even with the weight lost from reducing body fat to 10% or so they still end up with a lot of new muscle above the legs and below the shoulders and my guess is that the 'marathon runner' will be in a much better condition where it counts than someone else pumping iron and circuit training for anything less than 5 days a week for 2 hours or so per session. That said, most good marathon runners are obsessives who would resent going anywhere they can't put in 60-80 miles of running during the week.
For my part, I stay plenty fit enough for skiing with cardio. I'm a hill runner, mountain biker and winter ski tourer who's lucky enough to have a home gym equipped with almost every bit of kit for the rainy days. I do occasionally lift weights in there too but would rather have my toenails extracted with pliers most of the time. 
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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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I read something yesterday that said drinking up to a bottle of red wine a day can reduce your risk of heart attack by 50%. Cardio exercise can also reduce your risk of heart attack by 50%. For the holiday skiier, cardio fitness is probably more beneficial than pure strength, so by my reckoning, drinking a bottle of red wine a day will make you a better skiier. Therefore two bottles a day will make you twice as good!!!
I am about 75% of the way through todays training and I can't work out if it should be skiier or skier
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Poster: A snowHead
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I find at my age (46) that I need to work most on stamina (cycling / cross trainer), core strength and most definitely flexibilty. That would be everything then.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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erica2004, crikey you're old, I'm not 46 till monday 
Don't you find that the more strength work you do , the easier the cardio stuff feels?
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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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Having just joined the "life begins at !" club I actually find weights easier after cardio as the blood is pumping round quicker . Also the better your fitness/ stamina levels the quicker the recovery ! IMHO 
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bfg, and, by analogy, I find cardio easier (it takes me longer to work up a sweat/get my heart rate up) if I go to the gym straight after a choir practice. That is, presumably, because my lungs have already done some good work.
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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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bfg,
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I actually find weights easier after cardio as the blood is pumping round quicker
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It is only because you are lifting half the weight you would have done before cardio.
You have to be hitting the free weights first before cardio.
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ph,
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You have to be hitting the free weights first before cardio.
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Why?
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Hurtle, Because you will be far more tired after a cardiovascular work out than the other way around.
If you do the weights first then you will go into the cardio phase realitively fresh. If you hit the cardio first you will be lifting lower weights as you will be basically knackered from the cardio.
Yes you get the benefits of being warmed up by doing cardio first but in reality you should be doing five minutes warm up before you do either.
There have been plenty of studies done that back up " Weights first then Cardio "
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Absolutely no point working on strength at all unless your diet is built around your goals. Common knowledge.
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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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| ph wrote: |
| You have to be hitting the free weights first before cardio. |
Yes, that's what trainers have always done with me - a 5 mins warm up, weights or similar and then 25 mins cardio.
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boabski, I've been doing stuff similar to your program (weights, cycling and stretching) and noticed today that I was stronger than my ski buddy who's only been doing cardio (as he just ran the NY marathon). We're similar skiing standard but he's fitter than me. I think the weights has made a real difference.
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FAQ
) would be a great start. The trouble with all the really keen people swapping gym recipes is that it can make some of the less active of us give up before we begin. 
