Best Ways to get Ski Fit

This whole subject really interests me particulalrly when I cast my mind back to my school days (long time ago!) and we were ALWAYS told to stretch before carrying out any exercise. I personally wouldn't dream of doing any form of impact sport(like skiing) without having warmed up or stretcged first. I know from my time holidaying in Austria the ski instructors there also instruct the classes to warm up / stretch at the beginning of the day.

I can't see what benefit there would be from NOT warming up / stretching. Surely when your muscles are cold and tight they are more prone to injury?

If you look at any televised sport you can always see the participants warmign up, just go and watch a football match, the players warm up / stretch on the pitch before the match, take competitive swimming, a swimmer will stretch /warm up as well as down. Alll these players / athletes, particularly the football players here in the UK have the very best fitness coaches and physiotherapists at hand to minimse the risk of injury, mainly because when you pay a footballer £100,000 per week you want to make sure you're getting your moneys worth I guess?

I'm not disputing what Ise has said here and I haven't read any research that backs up his opinion but I do have to agree with Max.

Ise - where on the net can such research be found?

Freezy

I don't think ise was sugesting you omit warming up, just the stretching.

Most of this research seems to be still locked up in med/science and sports journals and isn't generally available on the web. Also, from what I've gleaned, the studies have focused on the lower body. Most of my muscular injuries, even when skiing and boarding are upper body. There seems to be so many factors at work, and potentially so many differences in the regimes for diverse sports, that it may be a long time befor we can be sure what works for specific circumstances.

In the mean time, I take it on board and do what works for me. Personally, I've never really woried much about lower body stretches (just hamstrings).

here's one summary

http://tinajuanfitness.info/articles/art052300.html

Trencher

Trencher

having re-read the thread I agree Ise only meant to omit the stretching part of the warm up routine. I've read the article and researched the subject a little deeper since my last post and whadaya know? seems like my PE teacher all those years ago was wrong!!

It would seem(from the research) that the best form of warm up(in the case of skiing) is 10 mins or so of less intense skiing to get the body temperature up. So in other words when I go to Hintertux this coming January it might not be the best idea in the world to head straight for the hari kiri downhill run!!! :P

I know what you mean about upper body injuries though, apart from an old knee injury that flares up now and then, this year was a nightmare for upper body muscular pain, mainly shoulders and tops of arms, and I only fell over once or twice!! and then because of the crap weather the snow was so soft it didn't matter!

Can anyone explain the correlation between upper body muscular injury/pain and a weeks hard skiing :?: And no, before anyone asks I am not trying to turn with my body rather than knees.

Trencher wrote:Freezy

I don't think ise was sugesting you omit warming up, just the stretching.

Absolutely, warming up is really, really good especially for skiers and especially for people not used to spending time at altitude.

freezywater wrote:
It would seem(from the research) that the best form of warm up(in the case of skiing) is 10 mins or so of less intense skiing to get the body temperature up. So in other words when I go to Hintertux this coming January it might not be the best idea in the world to head straight for the hari kiri downhill run!!!

absolutely, sometimes it's not practical to warmup by doing a run, for example if you ride up the lifts on the Schilthorn it's an awkward black straight out the lift so you want to be warmed up first.

as an aside, if your instructor asks you if you're cold before skiing it's OK to say yes or no, if they ask after say "yes" otherwise you're being their straight man while they deliver the punchline "well, you looked frozen coming down there" :D

freezywater wrote: Can anyone explain the correlation between upper body muscular injury/pain and a weeks hard skiing And no, before anyone asks I am not trying to turn with my body rather than knees.

not quickly :D turning your body is OK, obviously wrenching your shoulders round alone to turn is bad but you're trying to use your whole body. For example, upper body pre-rotation is a useful technique on steep ground and carving would be hard without some upper body involvement.

I do a combination of walking, weight lifting and rollerskating.

actually, I'm just reminded of the other reason for the cumulative discomfort in the quads which is lack of post exercise stretching.

Ise, you wrote that, that is how this debate started, I agreed with you and then you mistook my saying that people might want to stretch and get supple before they go skiing (meaning before they go on a skiing holiday you get supple over time), to mean that I thought people should stretch each time before the ski which I myself don't see as practical because you would have to stretch in the cold which is insane.

I was not being rude about the research you chose to be offended by my posting I shant aopologise I stand by what i said I think that you are being pedantic and petty it seems whatever i would have said you would have an opposing view, fair enough but lets not get childish about it.

As I have said all along in my experience stretching before excercise (not skiing) has been beneficial to me. I also believe that stretching after skiing maybe in a sauna would be benefical to people but that is in my opinion. as I always state I am not a medical professional so all i can offer is my opinion and what i have experience of I have advised noone to do anything. I am not an expert but neither are you.

If I offended you by calling you dude i apologise for that

I do a combination of walking, weight lifting and rollerskating.

Do you do this all year around or do you do it a few months before going skiing?

Now that I am more or less retired I am lucky enough to do several weeks of skiing each season. I also have enough time to keep reasonably fit by doing the following in the off season months:

1 When at home I cycle for half an hour every day.
2 I do a 10 mile walk once a week.
3 I do about six weekends, per year, mountain hiking in the Lakes or Snowdonia
4 I do two separate weeks mountain hiking in the Alps each Summer.

I find these activities keep me in good enough nick for the ski season. But I very much agree with Ise and 'Admin' that technique is also very important for long days of comfortable skiing.

Geoff Smith