Best Ways to get Ski Fit

I couldn't agree more with Ise and Admin about skiing posture. I remember last year I spent the first two days absolutely dying. On the third day I had a 1 hour private lesson and then bingo, the rest of the week was a breeze. A day of Sitting back on the skis must be one of the most tiring activities you can do.

Thanks Ise,

Yes but you can also, (or a least this is what I have found), get thigh burn from Fast down hill skiing without stopping. That is how I typically ski and I am leaning forward in my boots as I obviously need the control and transmission to my skis.

Two great indicators that you are leaning back in your skis
1) you bruise the backs of your Calves on your ski boots
2) you fall over every time you gather a bit of speed

Cheers

Max

I've never heard that before, particularly since bruising, for people with normal health, is associated with impact and typically repeated impact at that. I also think the average skier isn't totally stupid and generally won't engage in something that makes them automatically fall over.

The sort of posture I mentioned, very real and very common, is just weighting a little too far back, sometimes associated with incorrect binding positions, of which the two symptoms are, first, pain in the thighs caused by the muscle groups there having to work to support the skeleton in an abnormally loaded position and, second, poor edge control.

Loading forward into the boots will tend to force the weight forward but it's not guaranteed in all cases, in fact, it's precisely that forward lean, either by effort or boot adjustment, coupled with poor poor posture that will cause that overload in the thigh area for some people.

If you're both fit enough and have good enough technique to avoid this that's absolutely super but it doesn't alter the fact that the single most common reason the rest of skiers have pain in the thighs is bad posture and alignment.

For the rest of us without that perfect posture it works out at that we're around 80% as far forward in our weighting as we think we are due to imprecise feedback and, to a degree, an instinctive vertigo wired into most of us. Leaning forward into the boots is useful advice but most skiers benefit more from an awareness of where their upper body is and my guess is that private lesson ellistine mentioned concentrated on this as much as anything else and probably tried awareness of where the arms/hands were as instrumental in moving the upper body forward.

ise wrote: ellistine mentioned concentrated on this as much as anything else and probably tried awareness of where the arms/hands were as instrumental in moving the upper body forward.

You're probably right, although none of this was specifically mentioned. Infact not a lot was mentioned! Most of the gain was in aggression and commitment through just trying to keep up with the bloke. I found myself a lot further forward, a lot more dynamic and using the edged to turn rather than forcing a skid. A lot less effort!

Anyway, Back on topic, Has anyone tried those ski trainer Machines you find in Gyms, They look pointless to me but I admit I have never tried one.

Are they any good?

My vote vote for the best cross training goes to inline skating. It has many of the benifits that other sports have in terms of improving fitness, but it also has something none of the other suggestions have directly and that has to do with balance and stance.

I spend most of my time on skates carving turns down hills and getting a workout skating back up. I also sped a lot of time doing short cross under turns with an emphasis on the extension phase (with both skates). Practicing this forced extension creates powerful turns on skis.

The best part of this training is that it promotes good stance and balance. You can not get in the back seat on skates for more than a second without ending up on your butt. Advanced traning includes skating on one skate (really helps when one ski decides to to something weird).

You can directly practice many of the concepts from skiing including angulation and weighting.

Just make sure you are wearing all the pads and a helmet. You can't benifit if you are afraid to fall.

Trencher

Have tried the ski training machine, and sadly have ordered one to add to my home gym.....Helps posture, balance, weighting...the lot...and is bloody hard work!! Never really had a fitness problem as cross train or swim every day, but am a believer ,as some have said that it is more to do with stance and ski position than overall fitness.....Cos not being funny, some of the "older" skiiers I have met, can barely walk off slope, but kick butt on the snow!!Can`t somehow see them " spinning!" to get fit!!!

Is that the 'skiers edge' machine? How much are they? I've seen them advertised but never priced.