burning thighs after about 30 to 40 mins of skiing

the fit of the boot around the calf can be adjusted by a variety of means.....adding padding around the cuff, a spoiler plate, or an eliminator tongue pad are all ways to reduce the volume around that area, what is important is that the range of motion at the ankle is assessed to make sure that the adjustments don't thow you off balance

Ellistine is right on!

Burning thighs are a direct result of skiing with weight at rear! 90% of skiers ski on tails!

Feel your big toe having "pressure" on boot soles at all times while skiing!

Think forward forward as you ski! Then when you think you are forward,,,,go forward more!

That does not mean bend over shoulders forward. You see this often with beginners who bend at waist with rear end ready to sit on pot!

It is the pelvis which must be forward, while chest is vertical!

Try this. Think, "ski proud"! Bring chin up and look 10 meters ahead! If you keep chin up and then bend at waist,,you will have pain at rear of neck! This is telling you to get straight!

Try it!

Pavelski,
My last ski instructor had us ski-ing backwards, as an exercise. We soon learnt that to go fast backwards you have to lean forwards, like you said, with the legs, not by bending at the waist and just leaning forwards with the upper body. He then said that, finally, we were all ski-ing in the correct position. And he said, whenever we forgot the correct position, to imagine we were ski-ing backwards again.

I have found, myself, that when my weight isn't far enough forwards, my skis become unweighted at the front and it's a horrible feeling because I can't properly control the front of my skis.

Thanks very much for your advice,

Ally

I've always understood thigh burn to generally be a result of too much lactic acid building up after a period of intense exercise. The lactic acid is, as I understand it, generated as a by product due to the body not being able to deliver enough oxygen to the muscles.

Technique will be one cause of it, i.e. by not having the right technique you are causing your muscles to work far harder than they should be.

Another is simply fitness. I usually get thigh burn like this after the first few blasts down the mountain on the first day of a trip. Reason is simply because I'm not uber-fit and haven't used those muscles to that degree in a year (and I'm not easing into it as I should). After a day or two the problem is gone. I would assume that improved fitness, improves muscle fitness and the body's ability to pump oxygen around the body.

Given the lack of oxygen issue, I guess maybe you can suffer from this more at higher altitude resorts.

I'm quite interested by these replies as I was told by a fellow skier that if my thighs did not burn then I was doing something wrong.
I don't claim to to be anywhere near an expert skier (very far from it) but my legs are quite strong. I was chastised several times last year for not stopping enough when leading a group, my legs simply did not ache.

I don't see that pain is necessarily related to good technique.

I do lean forward into my boots and this technique has been greatly helped by footbeds which reduce heel lift.

pavelski wrote:Ellistine is right on!

Burning thighs are a direct result of skiing with weight at rear! 90% of skiers ski on tails!

Maybe 20 years ago this would be a valid estimate, not enough tail length to ride these days, unless you go longer with your kit.

I would be inclined to agree with................. . . . . . . . . . . pavel, maybe not 90% of skiers but a pretty large chunk or skiers-especially when struggling on their choice of terrain-have their centre of mass too far towards the back of their skis.

Maybe not 'riding the tails' but definitely not 'over the centre of the ski'. The classic 'cruising the pistes, hands by the hips, semi-wedge look' is a favourite of mine.


I google image searched it and one of the first results was this one who I believe is a regular poster on another well known snowsports website

Hmmm He owes me lunch, I wonder if I could use it as leverage

That's got to be a very old photo though, ISTR he now has BASI L2