Heading to Cory Pickos in 7 weeks--need to get in shape

[WBLskier]

So I am going to be getting some coaching at Cory Pickos’ place in Florida in seven weeks. With our winter here I likely will have no way to ski before I get down there. Does anyone have any advice on what to do at the gym to be in the best possible shape and get the most out of it? It is generally my upper back muscles/neck that give me the most trouble early in the season. Thanks for any input.

[ForrestGump]

Strength is not so important. Recovery is. Your muscles will recover faster if you can get more oxygenated blood to them. For that reason, I'd be doing things like sprints on a treadmill. One minute of all out, followed by 30 seconds of rest. Repeat 10 times. When you can do that easily, bump it up to 2 minutes, with 30 seconds rest. Another great thing since you mentioned upper back/neck is handstand pushups. You would think they work the shoulders, but they don't. They work your rhomboids, traps, and the inner part of the Lat where it folds under the rhomboid. These are the muscles that connect you to the boat, not shoulders. They allow you to roll your shoulders blades back and pinch your shoulder blades together, which is how you resist the load of the boat as it's applied. When I first tried them, I could only do 1 or 2. After a month, I could do 10. After 3 months I could do 3 sets of 15. Also.........stretching is VERY important. Limber muscles don't get hurt as easily.

[ctsmith]

This year I started doing 8 sets of push-ups / sit-ups. I do the push ups, immediately thereafter do the sit ups then rest 60 seconds and do it again (my simple mind is equating the 8 sets to 8 passes). At set 6 I am hurting and winded and usually have to finish with girl style push ups the last two sets. I skied my first set in about 3 months a few days ago. From a fatigue standpoint I was in as good or better shape than when I ended last year. You still are going to be sore no matter what.

 

[501Brandon]

Try "Insanity" it's very fast paced with a ton of basic exercises and you will get a ton of stamina!

[Jody_Seal]

Shoot! I go their at least twice a week to stay in shape....

[lakeaustinskier]

For the first time in my life I'm battling tendinitis and have not been able to really do much upper body-wise in the off season. So I've been doing a lot of Turkish Get-Ups (Google it). The soreness that I experience afterwards seems fairly similar to slalom.

[Wish]

I like @lakequstinskier suggestion. Now where do I find the proper weight like this?

[Dirt]

The above suggestions are great. Get some aleve in your system twice/day starting a few days before you get there. Bring tape and clenchers. Have fun.

[ral]

Complementing the video, a Personal trainer girlfriend might help.

[jimbrake]

Hey! That dude in the video is wearing the official Ball of Spray (baller) ski shorts! Where do I get a pair of those?

[jimbrake]

And on a serious note, try this progression:

2 pull ups, 10 pushups, 20 crunches

3 pull ups 15 pushups, 20 crunches

4, 20, 20

5, 25, 20

6, 30, 20

I can't make it through the pushups on the last one.

Rest about 2 minutes. Finish off with windsprints of your choice.

[lakeaustinskier]

For some reason lifting hot women with the Turkish Get Up is very popular on YouTube . If we ignore the snug ski shorts on that dude for those of you that have never done this exercise the sheer feat of him lifting the girl is very impressive. People sometimes cheat and bend their arms and he did not.

[PBD]

I have found that shoulder shrugs really help avoiding the soreness I used to get in my traps.

[Laz]

Last year I used a pull-up bar before going to Costa Rica to ski. The bar could swing down and let me do reverse pull-ups. That seems to be a similar muscle action to skiing.

 

I think it helped.