Do you work out during "The Season"

[PT Mike]

48 year old Men 4 skier 5'11" Medium frame. Got pretty hardcore last fall with a cardio workout and personal trainer. Went from 200lbs. down to 180. I'm in the best shape now since I was 25. Buoy count hasn't improved...yet. I try to ski 2-3 times per week and sometimes double down on the weekends. Work out is down to one hour with the PT plus 1/2 hour cardio tues. & thur. eves. With skiing in full swing it's hard to get a night off. I know most guys ease off the gym during ski season but with the results i got I'm having a hard time letting it go. Thoughts?

[6balls]

No time for both, life is just too busy. Light core work at home, have not seen the gym since April. Always irritated my comp bench press competitors that I hit the gym only 6 mo's/yr and was setting records.

[Rich]

do a dynamic work out 2x per week. Box jumps, plyo drills, intervel work, Power cleans once every 10 days, medium weight 10-12 reps 3 sets no cardio other than intervel training. No bodybuilding stylye workouts.

 

I personally do Bikram (HOT) Yoga 5-6 times per week 105 degree room 26 postures 90 minutes I'm 55 yeras young 5'7" 162 LBS 8-10 percent body fat.

[Rich]

the dynamic work out lasts 25-30 minutes

[Chef23]

I am down 30 pounds since last year and I am still going to the gym. I am doing 3 days a week of mostly strength work plus trying to get out on the paddle board a couple of times a week. On tournament weeks I drop a workout and take Fridays off. I am skiing 4-6 times a week but I live on a lake so it doesn't take a ton of time.

 

It has been good for my buoy count.

[McGruder]

My weight lifting workouts must be cut back a little during the ski season. I cut the weight down but keep reps up. I found it difficult to keep the heavy weight routine and ski. My poor old body just cannot do both. Perhaps I need to eat more meat.

[Taelan28]

If your workout is under 90 min then you can ski and workout. Sure youre a little bit gassed if you do both in the same day but it makes you al the better. Sure im younger and can get away with it a lot better but you dont get in very good shape by doing the sport alone you supplement it. Your body getting in shape through sport alone or one activity alone is like climbing a ladder with a leg and an arm supplement it with something and both will be propelled.

 

When i did weight lifting alone... A lot of it mind you...id get good results but once i aued hockey or did some physical job for more than two weeks the two activities would comploment eachother.

 

I say do both. You body and especially your muscles are extremely resilient.

[Nick Sullivan]

I still do cardio as much as I can. Maybe, 2 or 3 times a week. I guess I just like to eat too much so in order to maintain my weight I must do cardio. I ski at least 4 times a week and if I am lifting in there I notice my skiing is not as good.

 

I feel bad however not working out, it really kind of bums me out because I feel I should be working out.

[Nick Sullivan]

Right on Chef, thats awesome.

[jimbrake]

Generally ski Wed, Fri, Sat, and Sun so try to do a couple of other workouts on Mon, Tues, Thurs. I do a short pullup/pushup/crunch progression that doesn't take much time, but is very difficult followed by some windsprints, then do 1-mile+ open water swims on Tues and Thurs. 54, 6'0", 195. Been that size forever. Workouts will change in the fall for snow skiing.

[The_MS]

Ride bike and swim. Thats it.

[Than_Bogan]

I generally agree with @Rich. Dynamic stuff and stretching are the key elements at this time of year. I only do static strength work in the winter.

 

Some cardio is always good, and even more so if you are above ideal weight. (Aside: I just hit my semi-official scrawny-dude target of 167 this morning. Look out purple line! :) )

 

I personally expend about 3x as much energy in a tournament set as in a practice set, so that cardio base is also useful to avoid being completely gassed.

[dave2ball]

Hitting the gym is great during the season. Personally I try to ski first and then push weights and then cardio for 45 minutes X 2 days in a row and then on the third day I do just cardio. When a tournament is the next day I take it easy and do just cardio. On the water trainning I will run back to backs x 6 passes on windy days or days I just want to work on certain things. great way to change it up cardio wise.

 

[disland]

@rich That work out routine is awesome. Thats how to keep skiing well as you get older. I need to step it up

[Texas6]

@PT Mike, I struggle with the same thing. I just can't seem to let go during the ski season, and I believe my skiing suffers a little because of it. But when you work hard all year, you feel like you lose everything if you stop hitting the gym. I get it. I go pretty hard in the off season, use a trainer, etc. I'm 5'11" and 165lbs and normally hit the gym 4 times a week. I ski approx 3 days a week during the season and often two sets on Sat & Sunday each. I've found out what works best for me is:

*No workouts on ski days (just some light warm up prior to skiing)

*No deadlifts or heavy legs the day before skiing (particularly the deadlifts will ruin my set and add injury risk)

*Take one day off per week no matter what to recover

*Stretch every day without fail

[Razorskier1]

Just skiing and some planks and stretching.

[Klundell]

I was talking to Chris Rossi about this last year and he said he feels like he had his best seasons when he was trading buoy time for gym time. He then relayed a story of him and Jamie riding 50 miles on a bike, rock climbing until they couldn't hang on one more hold, and then going to run 39. Since then I've tried to keep working out during the season but with that said I'm only hitting about 2-3 crossfit style/strength focused workouts a week.

[bigtex2011]

more skiing less gym...i think the gym hurts skiing during the ski year...i agree with MS swimming and biking

[Than_Bogan]

Rossi and Beachesne are rare specimens. Even when I was that same age, if I did something like all that would happen is I'd get hurt.

[thager]

As I get older I ski less. Every third day is about all I can handle in my fifties. Body just doesn't recover like when I was younger and skiing all day everyday. One summer in the 70's my ski bud and I put 1500 gallons through the Nautique. Of course fuel was $.50/gallon then.

[Razorskier1]

I think there is some value to working out during the season in that it uses all your muscles in a full range of motion. I did a leg workout at the gym on Monday and it was actually funny that the next day my legs felt stronger than they had before. Rather than being tired, they felt great. Might have to start squeezing in some gym time. Can't ski with this blasted low back right now anyway!

[Chef23]

I had a tough workout last night that included military presses, pullups, lunges and a few other things. It definitely showed in my skiing this morning but given the overall results for me this year I am willing to have a practice set that I ski a little tired in exchange for skiing much better when I am fresh. I have deadlifts on Friday although I am thinking of doing them this afternoon sometime so I am fresher for the weekend.

[Taelan28]

For sure Chef. I ski fatigued quite often. Skiing fatigued is like skiing when its a little windy, it only does you good. Do a workout, get a meal in you and go skiing a little later. You're already warmed up. You wont be 100% but you'll still ski well. Take a two day rest then get on the course and you'll rippin it up.

 

I recently took a week off from skiing and continued exercise. I skied very well, better than I thought but my right forearm and bicept arent too happy right now. Maybe because Im still young, or dumb, that I can say "Screw it Im going to continue using it" that allows me to continue, but I find that if the muscle tissue is in great condition (work on it 3x a week) you can be pretty abusive to it and still have it perform very well. I skid four times and worked out on a saturday which left me pretty gassed, and out of boredom I decided to ski even though I felt I should have rested. Once my muscles warmed up I skied ok.

 

BTW, I know this will fall on the most deaf of ears here, but stop drinking the beer. That stuff is pure poison, not just he alcohol part, but the entire beverage. Even if I have 2 beers, sober up before bed and wake up feeling fine my body just doesnt perform nearly as well as it should. Beer and alcohol is just bad fuel.

[GAJ0004]

I bike and rollerblade when I can't get out on the lake. I ski 2-4 days a week during the season, but I typically ski 2 sets of slalom and 2-4 sets of tricks. I will add a barefoot run and some kneeboarding when time permits.

[Patmaster]

51 years and a few surgeries old. Still skiing brings me to the best shape ever. I also do Bikram (hot) yoga, but not as much as @Rich. Good to control the weight. Moderate targeted gym workout, moderate alternative like hot yoga, a lot of targeted warmup before skiing and never more than 2 sets per day. The key word obviously being - moderate. Except in competition...

[matt_b]

50, have had a few surgeries, back, knee, rotator. Ski a 2-3 times a week in course. I decided to do some Triathlons, so I've been running, swimming and biking allot. Have lost nearly 20 lbs. Need to get back in the gym, been working on core mainly at home. Really enjoying the swimming workout with a coach doing drills ect. Everything is feeling good !

[skiboyny]

54 years old. I work out faithfully all winter and struggle during the summer about how to combine it with skiing. I only am able to ski 2 or 3 times a week. I try to workout on off days and get 24 hours between skiing and working out. The skiing is conditions driven so it could be any day any time. Very hard to maintain any kind of schedule. I might get 1 to 3 workouts in a week. In one way it helps but I believe it also lends itself to increased injury's (pulled muscles and the like) One thing is for sure It's easy enough to regain all my strength once skiing is over. You have to cut yourself slack during season after all we sort of train for an event it's time to let the event happen. Believe it or not maintaining a good diet is much more important. Now if only I could talk my stubborn self in to listening to that......

[crashman]

I try to recover from each outing with some 12 oz barley pop curls and on a good week I might get a few sessions of horizontal thrusts

[cwillygood]

i mountain bike, i feel that keeps my cardio up

[SkiJay]

I ski best if I'm working out regularly on top of skiing regularly. The only time working out messes up my skiing is during the first couple of weeks while getting back to the gym after a long layoff.

[Taelan28]

Crashman you have the best workout.

Skijay i completely agree. If i take 3 days off from the gym i ski GREAT but the next day im sore and out of synch. Better to dig deep and ski fatigued.