Prep for Ski Holidays

Does every-one on here, keep fit all year long? or do we do anything special about a month before we go?

I do try and keep fit year round. Gym work, walking, cycling and occasionally skiing, both in the UK and Europe. I the Autumn, I try and make sure that I get plenty of cardiovascular exercise ready for the season.

I play rugby so training for that aswell as the gym tends to keep me fairly fit! But there always those muscles used skiing that seem to be used by any other sport!!!!

RoseR wrote:Does every-one on here, keep fit all year long? or do we do anything special about a month before we go?

You've got to work out where your balance is going to be, obviously it's a holiday so on the one hand you want to get the best out of it but on the other it's not supposed to be an ordeal. To me, getting the best from it probably means being reasonably prepared and being sensible while you're there.

The main thing is aerobic fitness, that's the ability to perform exercise for a long period where you're getting oxygen from the air and transferring it to muscles, the measure of this is maximal aerobic power ( Vo2 max ). To develop that you're looking at any exercise that raises your heart rate and keeps it there for over 15 minutes.

Some anaerobic fitness is required for burst type activity, skiing bumps for example.

What works it things like cycling, keeping an even pace mostly just at the point of breathing hard but able to converse with the odd sprint up a hill thrown in. Hill walking is great for aerobic fitness and walking generally is now reckoned to be around the best exercise about although how far we each need to go to get a 'burn' depends.

There's some balance required of course, that can be learnt or reflexes conditioned, things like balance boards or home made versions are good for that.

The minimum is that aerobic fitness, that can be the most fun to do, at least to my way of thinking, I'd rather be out on the bike for a couple of hours than doing squats in a gym at lunchtime and it's a better focussed exercise anyway. Obviously not everyone's got the time for longer things.

While you're there it's worth thinking about diet and hydration. A decent breakfast, something to munch while skiing like dried fruit and nuts, reasonable lunches and keep hydrated. The diet followed by some holiday skiers would kill me or leave me seriously ill over a season and it's not helping them really get the best from their holiday either. But as well, avoid overdoing it, you see people tearing about at their limit and then they're wrecked for days as conditions like DOMS kick in.

Keep fit all year. I couldn't go from doing nothing for 11 months to being at the fitness level i wanted to be in just 4 weeks. To be honest I don't know how anyone can.

I consider myself pretty fit but I dont really do anything........or so I thought.
I am on my feet sometimes 9 hrs a day at work. I have quite a big house which needs cleaning and decorating. We do a lot of walking along the beach, especially on sand which really makes my calves ache. I have a massive garden and now a 100ft allotment which is now partially cleared. I swim and surf when I can. But my son, a fitness fanatic says I dont do enough. I just dont seem to have enough time.
I suppose a month before ,I do increase the walking trying to take in more hills, but am usually so out of breath.
The first couple of days on holiday we usually start with cross country ski-ing, it does seem to help us, find our feet on ski's, aclimatise ourselves to weather conditions etc and certainly gets the heart rate going, and helps with the breathing.
We eat a good diet, take vitamins, dont drink that much. Are we doing enough?

The minimum to enjoy the skiing is to have a level of strength endurance. As Ise indicates, that can be acheived by an aerobic fitness approach. Yes, cycling, but also 20/20 minutes a day of strength work helps retain a level. I don't go to the gym, as I find this is not a good use of time. So with the TV on, I do, after a 5/10min cycle warm-up:

1. Single leg squats, 5 X 10 reps
2. Clock squats, 5 x 10 reps
3. Lying down, slow leg lift, right,left,slow down, alterate leg, 5 x 10 reps.
4. Theraband, hooked around desk chair leg, other end of loop round your ankle, sitting, rotate knee upwards, (ie raise leg against the force of the theraband) 10x10reps, alternate legs
5. Repeat Theraband, but facing chair, standing, rotate lower leg behind you. 10 x 10 reps

I don't always manage the complete program, due to time pressue, but it is important to do a little everyday.

The other aspect, which helps from a safety viewpoint, is where you can, extend some of these exercises, every second day. This is to improve the basic strength. Why safety? Imagine you are skiing fast, (fast in your terms), and you come across an unexpected event, an accident, fall, someone cuts across you. Basic strength will provide the extra % to enable a quicker and stronger re-action.

Strength endurance provides us with the means to ski all day.

Ise and Dave give good advise on this, and I would emphasis dave's point on including strength training, especially as you get older. One of the reasons weight control becomes harder as we age, is that we start to naturally lose muscle mass from the age of 40 on (earler for many). Less muscle equals less calories burned. If you have never included strength training in your regime befor, you will be blown away by the difference it makes. It doesn't have to be much, 1/2 an hour of free weights or resistance at home a week will have an big impact. Not only does a little extra muscle make you feel stronger while skiing, it makes you less injury prone.

Thr best common sense advice I have found on the web for fitness and health in general is the Clarence Bass site. Don't be put off by the fact he is a body builder; he is a fitness consultant. Scroll down the page to the articles on diet & nutrition, strength train etc. A lot of facinating insights into how ordinary people can live better.

http://cbass.com/index.html

Trencher