Weight workout ans skiing

Hi, All

During this year i started doing weight workouts and gotten pretty seriously into it. So, I wonder, anybody here is combining these 2 sports ? Does skiing affects your recovery between workouts ?

I lift five days a week through ski season. I primarily ski on the weekend, so I make sure I lift legs on a Wednesday to give myself maximum recovery from skiing/lifting.

5 days...that's a lot. do you do splits ?

I do 5 days in the non skiing season- with skiing its tough cause I wouldnt lift on a ski day, and lifting mon-fri doesnt work w/ work and school etc. But legs on Wednesday (assuming weekend ski days) is perfect, and if you lift weights on the weekend, just do so to maintain rather than put on muscle or anything.
As for preseason lifting,it certainly helps in skiing- though nothing gets you in shape better than actually skiing. I feel that the skiing also helps the recovery of muscles broken down by lifting more than lifting overall helps my skiing.

normally i lift 3 times a week- mon, wed, fri. the routines i do more often than not are full body routines in every workout. most likely skiing day - saturday, so i would have to ski the next day after my squats.....need to think about it.

skiing after squats

you will find out immediately how squats affect your skiing the next day. if you do heavy weights to the point of complete fatigue, it takes several days to recover.

Do you do adequate balance and flexibility training, and cardio, of course, along with your strength training? I think of skiing as mainly a balance sport with the essential flexibility, endurance, and strength needed to sustain the balancing moves.


Ken

no, i don't i don't lift FOR skiing, my lifting has different goals. i was just thinking how to make these 2 sports not to interfere, if my lifting helps my skiing (which i doubt) that's a bonus.

Umm yeah defintely want to not ski after doing squats. Do squats on Tuesdays or Wed. Make sure you stretch after, maybe go for a run Thursday or Friday to get the blood going (through the whole body and legs). Skiing is good for the legs as its more of a conditioning/light workout than all out squats or deadlift or whatever. When you do squats go a little heavy in the gym, youll have a few days to recover. And Monday ( or Wed- whenever you lift the other body parts) do your normal routine- by the time the weekend comes around youll want the cardio/blood flowing to repair muscle. Lifting now wont get you in shape for skiing though, but the skiing will help you recover in time for the next time you lift.

EDIT- Ive still got to figure out a routine for ski season too- just pick whatever works for your time restraints. Have a plan when you go to the gym and youll be fine, whether its 2 times a week or 4 or 6. You have to factor in what is feasible though- dont say youll go every day if you wouldnt. And lifting Monday after skiing/traveling all weekend is a challenge, so be prepared.

My lifting has never interfered with my skiing.....I agree on the leg day thing - some potential soreness for sure skiing soon after leg day.....

Actually, my lifting IMPROVED my skiing - it's easier to pole on flats, etc.....

Yury, I do basically one major muscle group per day or two minor ones. I usually take a week off every 6-8 weeks.

how are you finding this type of approach ? i gravitate to working the entire body each workout, however depending on a program there are deviations from that sometimes.

It works for me. Now, I typically have low volume (minimal sets/reps)/high weight workouts. It keeps my workouts short. However, I have followed high volume/low wieght workouts too. Having said all this, I think the most important thing is making sure that you get enough nutrients to sufficiently recover. Whevenver I have done full body splits or upper and lower body splits, I don't feel I recover from one workout to the next.

probably cause it ended up being too much per workout ? in a full body routine i usually stay within 1h 20 mins 3 times a week, something like 2 sets per muscle group.
but anyway, it all is really individual.

nutrients, a lot of sleep, right amount of excersise...all that ...... and overtraining still happens

plus they say the state of mind matters too.

Lots of weight lifting (walking lunges, step ups to balance on one leg, weight lifting on a BOSU) has a balance component while resisting a load--very applicable to skiing.

Deep squats and lunges (and adductor machines) can all increase range of motion--very applicable to skiing, especially as you age and hip flexibility becomes a limiting factor.

The main (and somewhat unique) muscular demands of skiing are eccentric (the lowering phase of the squat rather than the lifting back up phase.) Eccentric lifts seem to have a strong crossover to help skiing.

Lifting to strengthen muscles to avoid common muscle imbalances (i.e. hamstring lifts) probably reduces serious injury, as muscle imbalance is a contributing factor in ACL tears, and plyometrics have been shown in large studies to sharply reduce the risk of ACL tears in athletes

Skiing bumps or racing has high anaerobic threshold requirements. (One or two minutes, all out.) A specifically designed lifting (or, more likely, plyometric jumping) program can increase your anaerobic threshold.

Particularly power exercises--Olympic lifts, if you can do them safely, and weighted jumps--help in power demands (jump those legs with their heavy boots and skis over to here for a pivot entry turn.)

It also depends on what kind of skiing you do. As you go from a 60 degree inclination turn (resisting 2 Gs of force) to an extreme WC racer type 70 degree inclination turn (almost 3 Gs resisted) muscle strength demands become serious. (If you weigh 180 pounds, you're resisting 540 pounds, with about 80% of the demand on your outside leg.

Beyond that, it's no accident that over the last 5 years, the (NBC?) multi-sport athlete challenge competition has usually had the skier (not NFL star, although I guess now Jeremy Bloom may move into the NFL category) win or finish second. Top level ski racing demands extraordinary athletic conditioning, including fairly extreme weight lifting.

That said, getting back to your question:

1. If you lift 5 days a week (!) you probably have some handle on how much your body tolerates, to avoid overtraining. (Or maybe not. Maybe you're just a weight training junkie and you've hit a plateau. I don't know. I can't conceive of lifting five times in a week. I do one heavy leg workout with weights and it takes about a week to recover, during which time I'll do one medium plyometrics--jump training--workout.)

2. Skiing, for me, counts as a light or a medium day of exercise for purposes of overtraining/recovery. By contrast, weight lifting in the gym is always a heavy day. An hour of plyometrics is a medium.

3. I schedule my workouts so I have at least one (and usually at least 3) days after a heavy leg workout before I go skiing. I usually postpone my leg workouts so that I have one day recovery after skiing before the workout.

I've been useing 'Crossfit' for about a year now .
3 days on 1 day off. I'll do their 'workout of the day' and fill in with some ski specific stuff or some more core work.
If you know your body ,you will know what and when you can lift or not before skiing.
For me ,I don't see a problem working legs on thursday and skiing saturday. In season you can back off a bit on the real heavy stuff.