Don’t Take Short Cut To Slopes It’s Important To Get In Shape For Ski Season With Workouts

It’s that time of year when some of us find out how good is the shape we’re in. Or how bad.

It’s ski season.

It’s not too late to make this year different, though - no more next-day aspirin binges or visits to the local masseuse to work out the pain in muscles you didn’t know you had.

Tammy Jensen, a physical education teacher at Spokane Community College and one of the coaches of the Spokane Ski Racing Association, says a good exercise routine can make skiing a lot more fun.

“You want to get in shape for two reasons,” Jensen said. “To have a good time and avoid injury.”

Jensen says a three-to-four-day-a-week cross-training workout is the best, alternating days with different activities to develop balance, quickness, agility and upper body strength.

Day 1: Endurance workout. Ride your bike, go jogging or rollerblading or use exercise machines to increase cardiovascular fitness. Plan on spending 30-40 minutes doing this.

Day 2 and 4: Strength and agility. Alternate the two strength days by working on lower body one day and upper body the next. This allows time for the muscles to repair themselves.

For legs, lunges and step aerobics provide excellent strengthening exercises. At home, surgical tubing can be used to do squats by putting the tubing under your feet and raising up from a crouched position. Anything that provides resistance is the key. Do as many repetitions as you feel comfortable with and then increase those “reps” over time.

For the upper body, sit-ups help build a strong stomach that promotes balance and a healthy back. Backs receive a tremendous amount of stress during skiing.

Day 3: Circuit training. This is a combination of endurance and strength training. The object is more repetition with less weight while alternating between aerobic and strength exercises. For example, jog 2 minutes, then do step aerobics for 2 minutes. The workout should take 30-40 minutes.

Always begin each workout with a 15-minute warmup period to get your heart rate up. Jogging, jump-roping or exercise machines get the blood pumping to muscles so there is less chance of injury.

Also, it is very important to continue your workout throughout the ski season, Jensen said.

“Be careful not to overdue it the first couple of days,” Jensen said. “Make sure you keep a log and build from there.”

Equipment

With almost all equipment being technologically advanced, the choice depends on what type of skier you are.

Skies come in many shapes and sizes, and should be chosen depending on what you are looking for. According to Jeff Spray, manager of Wintersport in Spokane, what are known as “fat skis” are the most popular this year. These alpine skis average 5 inches in width compared to 2-3 inches for traditional skis.

The advantage of the “fat ski” is that they float better through the powder, enabling better turning. K2 ski company claims the ski makes a beginner skier an intermediate, an intermediate an advanced skier and an advanced skier a god. One drawback, though, is the width makes it harder to turn on icy surfaces.

New skis range from $99 for kids’ skis to $700 for the most expensive, according to Spray.

“There are so many good skis on the market,” Spray said. “The best way to buy skis is to find somebody you’re comfortable with and will listen to what you say and then help you make a decision.”

Boots are probably the most important piece of equipment any skier will buy. They are the one thing that can make you uncomfortable and ruin your ski day.

“If you’re going to spend a little extra money on anything, spend it on boots,” Spray said.

Spray offers these boot-buying tips: Bring your own ski socks, go when you can spend some time, try on a couple of different boots. Tell the salesman how you ski and like to ski so they can show you boots made for your ability. Boots cost from $125 to $600.

Snowboards offer many new technological improvements this year because, as Spray says, “there are kids trying new stuff in their garages all the time.”

Biggest innovation is step-in binding. K2 got together with Shimano, the maker of bike equipment, and developed a snowboard binding comparable to step-in pedals on bikes. This allows skiers to jump on their snowboards and go, not having to worry about sitting down and and fiddling with all the straps.

An average snowboard and bindings can be bought for $400-$500 with the top models pushing $750.

“There are so many nice products out there so buy what you need,” Spray said. “Decide on what level you want to ski so you don’t spend a bunch of extra money on equipment you don’t need.”