Skiing Exercises

From LoveToKnow Ski

Whether you are an expert or a beginner skier, pre-season skiing exercises can enhance your technique, prevent injuries and prepare you for a great season.

Best Types of Skiing Exercises

Consider the movement requirements of the sport. If you observe a good skier in action, you will notice:

They have excellent dynamic balance
Their movements are fluid
Their movements initiate in their feet

In contrast to yoga, which involves a series of poses, skiing involves balance in motion. In skiing, we are concerned with the transitional balance, or the ability to keep your balance in between movements. As such, training programs such as Pilates and balance ball workouts are ideal skiing exercises, because they incorporate dynamic balance challenges while enhancing fluidity of movement.

Correcting muscular imbalance is crucial to proper skiing form and injury prevention. Most women and many men are significantly stronger in their quadriceps (the front of the thigh) than their hamstrings (the back of the leg). This causes some serious problems in skiing. The hamstrings are responsible for flexing the legs, whereas the quadricepses are responsible for extension. If the legs are extending more than flexing, it leads to what is called “backseat skiing.” In other words, it is skiing with your butt sticking out. This alignment is not only unattractive and inefficient; it's downright dangerous. Backseat skiing can lead to backward falls, which can cause severe injuries.

Correct Hamstring/Quadriceps Muscle Imbalance

The stability ball hamstring curl is probably one of the best skiing exercises. It works the hamstrings, the core muscles and the gluteus. This exercise is also a great way to test the tracking ability of your knees. If they can't extend in a straight line when your feet are on the ball, you will probably have the same problems on your skis. Here's how it's done:

Lie on your back with your feet on the ball
Separate your feet to pelvic width apart, which is a natural skiing stance
Make sure that the top of your head is lined up with the base of your spine, and that your weight is equally distributed throughout your body
Inhale to prepare
As you exhale, lift each vertebra off the floor, until your spine is in a “bridge” position
Inhale as you straighten your legs
Exhale as you are bending your legs
Perform 10 repetitions
Keep your knees bent as you roll down to the floor

The Primary Movements of Skiing

Many people mistakenly believe that skiing is all about leg strength. You've seen these people on the slopes. They are the ones who are “muscling” their movements. Skiing movements actually begin in the feet. Any ski instructor will tell you that there are three primary movements of skiing:

Edging: You initiate a turn by shifting your weight to the pinky toe of your downhill leg
Pressure: Adding pressure allows you to control the turn
Rotary: Rotary movements allow the skier to change direction

“Train the chain” is a current catch phrase in the sport conditioning industry. The “chain” refers to the kinetic chain, which describes the muscular sequence of a given movement pattern. Sports medicine experts believe that the best skiing exercises will mimic the movement patterns of the sport.

As previously mentioned, skiing movements are initiated in your feet. Fortunately, it's easy to mimic the edge and pressure movements by using two exercise discs.

Make sure that the discs are at the same level of inflation
Stand with one foot on each disc, taking a moment to get your balance
Shift your weight so that you are balancing on the little toe of your right foot and the big toe of your left foot
Pause, and add a bit of pressure to your right little toe
Make a smooth transition and repeat on the other side

You can use rotary discs to train for rotary movements. While they are available at physical therapy and Pilates equipment supplies, you might occasionally find them for a much cheaper price at stores like Marshall's. The ability to turn your feet without rotating your upper body is one of the most challenging skills in skiing. Practicing rotary exercises on the discs can help your brain memorize this sensation. Stand on two discs, and hold on to the top of a chair. This will keep your upper body “quiet.” Using smooth movements, rotate your feet to the right and to the left.

Practicing skiing exercises can lead to many happy turns on the slopes. Set up a program now!

Retrieved from "http://ski.lovetoknow.com/Skiing_Exercises"