Skiiers: Top Three Leg Exercises for Ski Strength

Ahh, the joy of not being the one crashing…  Is there anything sweeter?

The following video has a few crashes, however as you watch them, try to focus on the skis as they jump.  See if you can notice certain things in common…

This video has more of the same:

The key in 90% of these crashes?  Absorbing the landing.

Some of them did not have the strength to absorb the big jump.  Others had the strength, but not the muscular control required.

Much attention is spent learning a variety of tricks, but minimal effort is spent actually trying to build up the muscles and muscle control that is required to take big air, make big dropoffs and to carve through moguls without eating some snow.

How to develop this strength?

Combine strength building with balance – here are the top three exercises you can do to build leg strength for skiing:

1.  One leg squats on platform.

Dont just drop down and return up – angle the squatting foot in, then to the front, then out as you drop for each repetition.  You will find you work different muscles in the hip with each repitition – funnily enough, these are the same muscles that will need to jump into action come time to control an awkward landing.

2.  Double foot jump to box and down with twist landing

Off a raised surface (nothing too high, you just need a foot off the ground to make this effective – perhaps the same as the height of a stairway step) jump with two feet together then land with the feet rotated 90 degrees.  Then jump and return up to land in the same position.  Do a few jumps down to the left then to the right to work both sides.  Be sure to do your best ‘ninja landing’ with this drill – make sure you land soft as possible when coming down and jumping up – the aim is to keep your knees soft and your landings silent.

3.  Woodchops

The upper body drives the rotation in the lower body as you stand to come out of the turn.  The rotational aspect of skiing requires the upper body have powerful strength, control and endurance not only through the upper body but through the core as well.  Note that this is different than doing situps.  This is focused on rotational movements – meaning crunches might give you a nice ‘front abs’, but will do little to improve your ’skiing abs’.  To do a woodchop take a cable from chest height, feet wide in stance and rotate away until the cable is almost touching your shoulder.  You should feel this in your abs but also the intercostal muscles found in the ribs as you twist.  Be sure to rotate to both sides as you go.

Above all, remember to do the above exercises in a progressive manner and mix it up with other activities.  For best preparation, be sure to work hard, but also to rest hard.

If you need that massage at the end of the day, take it!  Personal training orders

Interested in attending a Back Bowl Ski Conditioning 5 week Program?  Live in the Denver area?

Classes are being booked through til the end of November – book in today – time is limited!

When?

Classes happen through the month of October and November.  5 week programs are scheduled in two week increments.

Where?

Classes are run in the highlands area from an indoor studio or -weather permitting-a nearby park

How much?

2008 pricing is $360 for a 5 week, 3/wk program.  Classes are held before and after work

How do I sign up?

We recommend you call for a brief consultation so you can be placed in a class that best reflects your skiing and physical abilities to ensure maximal results and satisfaction.  Please contact Jamie Atlas on 720 203 3084 or email jamescatlas@yahoo.com to arrange your initial meet/phone consult.

To find out more please contact:

Jamie Atlas – Master Instructor, Back Bowl Ski Conditioning on 720 203 3084 or email jamescatlas@yahoo.com

Ski Conditioning – Master your Butt Muscles, Master the Mountain!

Your Exercise Program is Getting You to the Halfway Point of your ‘Ski Potential’ – At best!!!

Regardless your skiing preference, your glutes are a crucial part of your turning power

The butt is the most important part of your ski turn. 
These muscles must absorb the majority of shock and distribute it down the thigh and calf before exploding out to create the ’ski turn’.  Without these muscles working properly, your front thigh muscles (the quadriceps) must do even more work which puts your knees and other joints at risk.
The exercises you will see makes use of my fifteen years of personal training experience and numerous consultations with various body-shaping coaches, physical therapists, movement specialists and other fitness professionals.
The exercises you are about to see can help you develop and tone your glutes for the action of skiing like nothing you have seen before.
Before I reveal to you my secret weapon, here is a quick and relatively painless explanation of how our muscles work (Warning: This next section may make you smarter than your personal trainer!)
Our muscles are like cables that pull – they are attached at two ends, and when we want it to achieve a movement they pull together to achieve a movement.
If you think about the line in which we move the bicep doing bicep curls, it is a straight up and down movement. We shorten our bicep through a full range of motion in a straight line (funnily enough, in line with the fibers of the muscle – this is your first clue).
To get the most out of a muscle we must exercise:

1. In the line in which the fibers are oriented
2. Through a full range of motion

If you missed ‘advanced human physiology 301′ in college (I loved this class, but all of my others… well, lets not talk about me – lets keep the focus on you
Here are some visuals to work with.
Your biceps fibers run in a mostly vertical direction


Your glutes… do not. They wrap around the butt at an angle.


If you look closely (go on, soak them in… I wont tell) you will see that the fibers run in ANYTHING BUT a vertical position.
It becomes plain to see that the fibers of the glute run at almost a 45 degree angle!
By this understanding, if we want to work the butt in the same way we work the bicep (through a full range of motion), would it make sense to work the butt in a different way than straight up and down?
Think about the motion of the bicep curl being up and down, and the motion of a lunge being… well, up and down.

This guys problem (apart from having misplaced his shirt) is that he is only working the glute through half of its range of motion and therefore half of its potential.
Now look at the pictures above. I agree that the muscle might be working, but is it working the way YOU want it to be working? At full range? To full effectiveness? To give you the full potential?

Can you see how the everyday lunge (shown above) is only working our glutes through PART of the range of motion?  Can you see how when you rotate your hips you use even more of this angulation?  Does it make sense that your butt is the most important part of your ski turn?
If you said yes, then print yourself off a personal trainer badge and pin it on.  You’re hired.
Below is a 4 minute video that explains and demonstrates how your glutes move (put together by Jamie Atlas, master trainer for Back Bowl Ski Conditioning), but also shows a couple of exercise variations that you can do to REALLY work the butt.
Watch this video to work your butt to the max like never before!
 
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lHU50G0tmA if it doesnt show up on your browser)
If your gluteus maximus has been a little too much on the minimus side, then these exercises are what you have been looking for. These lunge variations (if done correctly and with good form) are your new best friend – or worst enemy, depending on how you look at it
If you don’t normally do lunges, then just do the basic ‘perfect lunge’ version – 2 sets of 15 reps each leg, 3/week (add weight if it gets too easy) for 4-8 weeks.
Then email me to say thanks – send me a thank you e-card if you would like
After you have gotten better at the basic version, try the intermediate version – but make sure you are feeling confident with the basic version first and have good form and no pain as you go through the movement.
Get working with with this workout as part of your skiing routine and you will find yourself ruling the mountain in no time! 

Jamie Atlas
 
Interested in attending a Back Bowl Ski Conditioning 5 week Program?  Live in the Denver area? 

Classes run through to the end of November – book in today – time is limited!

When?

Classes happen through the month of October and November.  5 week programs are scheduled in two week increments.

Where?

Classes are run in the highlands area from an indoor studio or -weather permitting-a nearby park

How much?

2008 pricing is $360 for a 5 week, 3/wk program.  Classes are held before and after work

How do I sign up?

We recommend you call for a brief consultation so you can be placed in a class that best reflects your skiing and physical abilities to ensure maximal results and satisfaction.  Please contact Jamie Atlas on 720 203 3084 or email jamescatlas@yahoo.com to arrange your initial meet/phone consult.

To find out more please contact:

Jamie Atlas – Master Instructor, Back Bowl Ski Conditioning on 720 203 3084 or email jamescatlas@yahoo.com

Latest Scientific Training Methods of Ski Conditioning Now Available to the Public

Did you swear last year that you would get in better shape for this years ski season?

If you are like most people, your ski season last year preparation probably consisted of a couple of deep knee squats next to the car before you head up the Gondola.

Hopefully you didn’t start off your first day anything like these guys:

If you recall, you probably had trouble walking a couple of days after your first few runs.

You might also have found yourself falling, gasping for air, apologizing to others and generally not enjoying yourself too much at all.

You might even find yourself injured or somewhat hobbled at some point – in part thanks to your poor preparation.

The first day of ski season doesn’t have to be a rite of passage.

There can be many things to hold you back from enjoying your day at the mountain:

• Chance of Injury
• Fatigue
• Lack of endurance needed to get through the day
• Inadequate balance to navigate tougher runs
• Tired legs

If you find yourself struggling to perform at your best as the day goes on, you may benefit from a conditioning program.  However, you should not settle for just any old workout.  Here’s a few things to consider:

As you land though a turn, you counter-rotate the upper body.  This upper body rotation lengthens the same-side gluteus muscle.

The #1 Mistake even the best skiers make when training:

If you are not training your hips to rotate as they squat, you are not training your legs to ski

Stand with your feet at shoulder width.  Bend your knees about 20 degrees.  Grab your butt cheeks.  Grab a good chunk of muscle of your right and left glute in each hand (try not to do this one in public – the people in the supermarket might wonder what is going on).

Now rotate your body to the left and try to look behind you.  If you noticed, your left glute switched on and lengthened a bit more than your right glute.  You use each glute differently with each turn, and you use each glute while in rotation.  Now ask yourself the following questions:

• Have you been training with rotation?
• Have you ever done a squat with rotation?
• Do you know how to do this exercise safely and effectively?

If the answer is no, you could be missing out on valuable strength, flexibility and power to help you keep those turns crisp and fast.

Abs of steel don’t help if that steel doesn’t twist

Now think about the action of a ski turn.  Does it involve rotation?  Does your core work consist of any rotational movements, or are they all simple crunches and side bends?  Do you know how to safely and effectively train the core to be strong while going through a skiing motion?  If you don’t, you may be putting your hips, low back and upper back at higher risk of injury.

What does the ACL do?  The ACL serves to control rotation of the upper body as it lands and explodes from the ski turn position.

If your hips and core cannot assist in the acceleration and deceleration of your upper body and hips, then your ACL is left to do the majority of the work.

Talk to your local physical therapist and they will happily tell you the number one ski injury is a torn ACL.  With the right type of training, you can give your body the best chance of preventing an ACL injury.

Promo Alert: Back Bowl Ski Conditioning Programs are designed to train the body to be strong, powerful and flexible in all the right places at the right times.

The Back Bowl Conditioning program is the best ACL injury prevention strategy on the market today!

This advanced level of movement science for ski conditioning has previously been the domain of elite athletes and international ski coaches.  The new training method now comes to you with all of the science, but has been adjusted such that this program is suitable for skiers of any level.  Heres why it works so well:

If you train the legs, hips and core to be strong in a ‘front to back’ sense rather than a ‘rotational’ sense, you have not only worked out inefficiently, you have done little to nothing to help protect your ACL (the guardian of injury for the ‘rotational’ movements).

If you are interested in preparing for your season to give yourself the biggest chance of success and the smallest chance of injury, be sure to look for a program that follows certain foundational principles:

• Qualified instructor(s)
• Trains each individual according to their specific needs
• Only trains small groups – no more than 7
• Understands the functional aspects and physiological needs of the body as it goes through a ski turn
• Is able to work with all levels of athlete

The next Back Bowl Ski Conditioning Small Group class will embrace all of the above.  After completing one of the specially designed 5 week programs, you will experience the following:

• Improved speed and turn control
• The endurance to take turns all day and be ready for night skiing
• Be able to power through deep powder easily and effortlessly
• Greater core strength and upper body control
• Better coordination in unfamiliar territory
• Less falls
• Decreased risk of injury

If you are interested in being part of the next class, you can call now to book a place for classes through the month of October and November. 

5 week programs start up every two weeks. 

Call/Sign up today, because this class is only offered for a limited time!

 

Need convincing?  Have questions?  Like to get in on the next group?  Call 720 203 3084 or email jamescatlas@yahoo.com to check on availability for the next class.

When?

Classes happen through the month of October and November.  5 week programs are scheduled in two week increments.

Where?

Classes are run in the highlands area from an indoor studio or -weather permitting-a nearby park

How much?

2008 pricing is $360 for a 5 week, 3/wk program.  Classes are held before and after work

How do I sign up?

We recommend you call for a brief consultation so you can be placed in a class that best reflects your skiing and physical abilities to ensure maximal results and satisfaction.  Please contact Jamie Atlas on 720 203 3084 or email jamescatlas@yahoo.com to arrange your initial meet/phone consult.

To find out more please contact:

Jamie Atlas – Master Instructor, Double Diamond Ski Conditioning on 720 203 3084 or email jamescatlas@yahoo.com

PS Don’t try this at home – or in the subway for that matter: