Ski conditioning can help avoid injuries

The snow’s flying, and you’re at your desk dreaming of the slopes, but are you in good enough condition to catch big air, or are you going to bono (ski full speed into a tree)? Are you a going to pack (slam hard), or daffy (pull off an aerial with one ski forward)? What if all that sitting has broken your ability to use your skis, and now you’re just another lift licker (a kid who freezes his/her tongues to the chairlift), and you have to stick with the snow toys, (devices used for gliding on snow by those who are unable to ski. Like sleds)?

Worst of all, what if the three seasons — spring, summer, and fall — that you haven’t skied have made you into somebody who face plants, (just like it sounds, ending in sadness with a face full of snow), his/her way off the ski lift?

But what if every time you got up from your desk you did a few squat exercises? What if you did that 10 times? Just that could make a difference in your strength and stability on the slopes, said personal trainer Beth Holschuh of Boulder’s Colorado Athletic Club and Kirk Emry of Kirk Emry Fitness. Holschuh, a Green Bay, Wisconsin, transplant, moved to Colorado specifically to ski and has been teaching ski conditioning for 20 years. Emry is a professional ski instructor, and has also been a personal trainer for 15 years.

Both are fans of desk exercises. In fact, they agree that if desk exercises are all you can do, you might be OK. Emry recommends that if you haven’t been exercising at all, you can start with a chair that you stand up from and sit down in, continually, for 30 seconds, gradually increasing your time.

“Any strength training you can do will make your experience better,” Holschuh said. However, “The best thing to condition you for skiing is being on the mountain.” But who has a mountain in their backyard?

That’s why the desk exercise works. Still, that’s the third best way to go. Second best is to ski condition before you hit the slopes.

Here’s a five-part workout plan for recreational athletes and desk jockeys alike to get fit for skiing:

1. Plyometrics: This exercise is all about learning to land. “A lot of people land with straight legs but it puts pressure on your knees and hips. We do box jumps,” Holschuh said. Depending on your current abilities, the jump could be onto an actual box. What you do is jump onto the box, or maybe just six inches forward on the floor and then you come into a “nice squat and land softly.” With your jump, you’ve created all this power so, “you want to soften the compression in your joints. You focus on landing mechanics because that’s a big part of skier conditioning,” she said.

2. Rotational strength: You do squats on a half sphere, focusing on keeping your knees and toes aligned.

3. Core: Hate situps? Good, because nobody does them anymore, Emry said. Instead, do planks, which won’t hurt your lower back and engage all the core muscles. You start a plank in a pushup positon on the floor. Then, you just stay there. Up to two minutes is recommended.

4. Eccentrics: Hop on one leg. Then the other. Bound from leg to leg going forward. Do this downhill, which strengthens your quads, the large upper leg muscles that are typically sore after a day of skiing. Lunges are good for this too, Emry said.

5. Cardio: 20 seconds of something such as high knee runs, jumping jacks, then 20 seconds of rest. Progress to 30 seconds of cardio exercise with 20 seconds of rest. The key here, Holschuh said, is to remember that you are only actually skiing for a few moments.  “It’s about having the ability to hit the run as hard as you can, then resting.”

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