Mid Season Fitness for old guys - what do you do

[Horton]

I took my 98th ride of the year yesterday. All winter and most of the spring I went to the gym twice a week and skied as much as possible. About a month ago I slowed down to one gym visit per week. Last weekend I skied 5 tournament sets and 2 practices sets over 3 days. 2 days off then 2 sets yesterday. I was freaking fried for that second set yesterday - granted I was running up the rope to my limit on the first ride ( I ran a 38 and then almost backed it up).

 

I am sadly feeling my age. Joints hurt and recovery is becoming more of an issue. Perhaps parenthood is costing me a bit of sleep (falling asleep on the floor next to the crib/cage in the baby's room happens all the time).

So for the M4 and M5 out there - are you guys going to the gym during ski season?

 

Note - this thread is not for anyone named Ross

[DaveD]

I've been working out before work and skiing in the evening. I don't get as much time on the water as you so I haven't been wearing down. I don't work out the morning after skiing.

[John Brooks]

I ski 8 sets per week, broken down as 2 sets / ski day. During ski season usually don't go to the gym and do a 3 mile or so run 2@ days / week. This seems to keep the rust off. Strength training during ski season does not work for me.

[The_MS]

I have a nice hill in my back yard to sprint up. 4-5 of those and a few cool IPAs is all I need.

Riding bike is also great when I have time.

[Texas6]

i honestly feel as though it's a tough balancing act during the season between diminishing returns (wearing yourself out further), and better fitness for skiing. I am Mens 3, which is not what you asked for, but at my age I still have to be very careful with when I workout, the frequency of it, what I do for a workout, and what the impact is on my body - particularly my joints during the season. I really think less is more during the season to be frank, and what I want to do is maintain fitness rather than improve. For me personally, I cut back to 2-3 days a week in the gym during the season, rather than 4-5 days during the offseason. I try not to workout on days that I ski if I can help it. I try to limit impacting cardio like long distance running, in favor of biking, C2 rowing, or short .5 mile-1 mile runs. I remove dead lifts from my workouts during the season, but do a lot in the offseason. I'm careful with my elbows and knees - so no weighted pullups, and fewer pull-ups in general, heavy weighted rows, heavy squats, max outs, etc..

[Razorskier1]

no comment.

[jerrym]

During the season, I do not hit the weights at all. I play basketball three nights a week in addition to skiing three or four nights - 6-8 sets per week of 8 or so passes. Tournament weekends will take a lot out of you and there are times when you just have to take a rest day or two in order to get a full recovery. Better than overdoing it and suffering an injury. I am mens 5.

[thager]

I just ski and schedule monthly visits to the Dr. I no longer eat candy. I have replaced that with Advil. Also need 2 bottles of Geritol comes in handy so that I am a regular old guy.

[Marco]

I have to limit my skiing to 6-8 sets/week. My usual is 1 set Thursday, 1 set Friday, and two each on Saturday and Sunday. My skiing generally suffers if I ski much more than that. If I lived at my lake full time, I would choose to ski every other day instead of 4 days in a row.

 

I typically don't go to the gym during summer, but am starting back up just for the cardio, as it is getting too hot here to do much high intensity cardio outdoors.

[Jody_Seal]

Overall I have about an acre of grass to cut each week.... got rid of the riding mower now have a nice new walk behind. shop stays at about 95* each day. just pulled a set of ford exhaust manifolds and an intake. climb up and in and out of these wake hopper boats at least two dozen times a day.... Don't think I need the gym.. Need more water time!!

[Bruce_Butterfield]

@horton don't worry it gets worse over the next several years!

 

I try to get 2 cardio workouts a week - 1 bike and 1 run. My pre-ski warmup includes what i think of as a light "maintenance workout" - pullups, leg press, shoulders and a lot of ab work. Seems to help, but 1 full gym workout per week would be better.

[PT Mike]

I'm on the tail end of Men 4 and I ski 3-4 times a week and only ski back to back on weekends. I'm with a personal trainer twice a week and do 1 hour cardio on the days I dont ski. Last year I couldn't maintain this routine and gave up the gym altogether. I put on weight and my skiing consistancy sucked. This year I eliminated all alcohol during the week, not a drop for six of the seven days. I'm eating less at night (cause i'm not boxed) and sleeping better. I'm excited about my new routine this year. I know it's tough with a little one but I think a good nights sleep is the key and when you fall behind on sleep you can't catch up in one night.

[ALPJr]

First, I ski much less than many Ballers 25 to 30 rides a season April May to Oct Nov. I'm 55 and stay pretty fit year round - 3 strength and 2 cardio work outs, and 3 to 4 stretching days per week. Over the past couple years I have found that a mid season rest does wonders. So I take a 7 to 10 day rest somewhere between mid July and mid August. This has helped me minimize the aches and pains that come with age.

[lakeaustinskier]

Listen to your body and rest when you need to (it takes some discipline to do this) and use a foam roller twice a day. During ski season any other workouts I do are contingent on how my body feels. I have one round roller to roll out specific areas and another elliptical roller that provides some cross friction and increase blood flow across the muscles. Trigger Point for the round roller and SmartRoller for the elliptical.

[motoskier]

Going to the gym one or two days a week is a total waste of time. Going to the gym is a total waste of time.Do your workout at home (no drive time,no waste of time), do push ups, sit ups, rubber band work, whatever you think helps your sport or sports EVERY DAY (45 minutes or so is good enough), I also run or ride my bike after work a few days a week. When I was a single parent I would get up at 5 am work out make lunches and still get the kids to school and be at work by 8, (yes John there is life before 7 am). Getting up early and working out is addicting (I promise you will get used to it ). Do not take time off working out just because it is ski season it will not work out in the long run. When I work out in the am I watch all the cool shows Kim hates, like mountain man, supercross, gas monkeys, I would watch skiing if it were on, its great and it works. 59 year old baller.

[bkreis]

I train 2x week, disclosure..this is my profession, during season and create proper regimen for others who seek it for balanced training and recovery to help joint strucures and endurance remain healthy!

 

[skidawg]

@Horton - get a freaking bike, I have told you for years. gym work and strength training is for off season, unless you do like bruce and incorporate into your warm up. Ride 2-3 days a week. It lubes up the joints.

[Zman]

Men's 6 here. Definitely tough to keep up with work outs during the season. But, some ski nights I try to grab a quick work out after skiing. I'm a little pumped from skiing, and already started taxing the muscles a little. I wish I did this more though.

[Razorskier1]

@skidawg -- I never understood the bike thing until this year. I thought it would kill my legs. I took an hour long ride (about 10 miles) last week and the next day my legs felt better than before. I don't think super long rides would work, but shorter rides like that seem pretty darned good.

[ALPJr]

2nd for cycling ... And swimming in season

[Lovell]

my usual goal is to ski 4 sets per week, but sometimes it is two or three. Once the season starts, I then mix in 2 3.5/4 mile jogs per week. I have not done any strength training during the past two seasons

This past offseason I started a push up, pull up/ jump rope regimen that really kept early season soreness to a minimum. In the offseason I jog 3 times a week.

I still get sore, but it is only significant if I don't take a day or two off between every couple sets or I ski 3 or more sets in one day.

 

 

 

[lpskier]

I worked out in the gym pretty aggressively November through May. I also skied several sets a week, often two a day. Now it's no gym and one eight pass set a day several times a week with tournaments on the weekend. If I can find a partner, I'll trick or ride jumpers in the evening, but that won't be a regular until July when the other 167 homes become occupied. Lonely around here June!

Also I ride a bike for transportation and if anyone wants to play golf or tennis I'm in.

 

#iskiconnelly

[LeonL]

For me (M7) I only ski one set per day, 3-4 times a week. I still go to the gym, but try to not ski and workout the same day as much as possible. In the gym I go to more reps and less weight, dropping from 3 sets to 2 on most exercises. As @PT Mike said you need eight hours of sleep. If you're not getting that, don't even look for other answers yet. As @Marco said, if I could I would ski every other day and never two in a row.

[ALPJr]

Today I did a light sit-up push-up pull-up dumbbell workout, washed and waxed a car, push the law mower for about 30 minutes, then cruised the mountain bike 10 minutes down to the state park for a quick swim and road back, finishing up with a beverage...

[bogboy]

Lap swimming in the mornings up at the high school pool helps me a lot. Good for flexibility and over all conditioning. I purchased an annual swim pass. That seems to make me swim more often.

[2tracmind]

It is important to consider the intensity and workload of exercise to understand how our body will respond.

Horton, in your opening thread you stated : 98th ride of the year, 7 sets in 3 days at a tournament, 2 days off, 2 more sets = 9 sets in 6 days which represents almost 10% of your years skiing in those 6 days,, and at short line. Every person would feel that. Interrupted sleep (sleep debt) can make soreness that would normally be 5/10 feel like 7 or 8/10. That is not age, it is parenthood.

I still keep up my gym work but it changes, by example, what was 4 sets,10 reps at 150 lbs=6000 lbs would taper to 3 sets, 3 reps at 225 lbs=2025 lbs. Tapering the workload out results in feeling super strong but not worn out and ready to go after shortline.

It would be interesting to measure the workload of 6 passes at 28 off vs a tournament set.

My pb pass feels like 50 % more work than my opener, assuming i run it.

[jimbrake]

uh oh. Paging @Razorskier1 to the white courtesy phone.

[wskier]

I used to run on the tread mill anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes every other day not losing weight feeling exhausted the next day, I would lift weights doing a lot of reps. I talked to this guy that was ripped in the gym. HE told me people are doing it back wards he told me to run on the tread mill as fast as you can as long as you can. (I started off at 15 secs up to 50 now.) Stop let your heart rate get under 100 and do this four times. Next day no tread mill. Lift heavy weights 4-8 reps. Found out he was a sprinter Like he said you (want to go out with a sprinter or a marathoner). On tread mill days I do yoga or heavy bag 15min because the tread mil exercise only takes about ten minutes. During ski season I mostly ski because its a lot more fun then the gym. But you have to take days off but when its glass its hard to sit on the dock.

[The_MS]

@Horton If you do some running, please take video and post. Something tells me that would be some fine entertainment.

[thager]

Please do it in a thong! NOT!

[santangelo]

5 days a week in the gym during ski season of about 7-10 ski sets per week. Monday is always an 'assessment' day and will focus on restoring range of motion from weekend skiing with light weights and plenty of stretching on whatever is tight that day. Otherwise, resistance training focuses on the stretch phase of upper body pulling with higher reps/lower sets, and any upper body pushing is my normal routine with whatever is left in the tank. Cycling and few sprints here and there depending on how I feel.

[Razorskier1]

@jimbrake -- its all in Horton's head. I say just workout, ski, workout, ski, workout, ski . . .

[LeonL]

@santangelo is your last name really Ross?

[GAJ0004]

Stick to cardio type workouts on days where you don't ski. I do the P90x X stretch the night before I know I am going to be skiing a few days in a row, then will do it again after a couple days of skiing. Rest a day or two as needed. I try to ski 4-6 sets of slalom per week and the same in tricks. I add barefooting every now and then too.

[wskier]

I agree with @GAJ0004 p90x stretch is great. I try to do it at least 3 times a week!!!!

[santangelo]

@LeonL, eccentric. ( @Razorskier1 ,or any there gym rat will get it. )

[GAJ0004]

I will do a couple Insanity workouts on the days were I don't get out on the lake. I also bike and rollerblade.

[Alberto Soares]

Well, down here is ski season all year, temperature now in the winter is water 17C/63F, air 14C/57F.

 

Ski - 2 sets/day (8-10 passes each), tuesdays, thrusdays, saturdays and sundays.

 

Gym - Mondays and wednesdays, light weights and lots of repetition, keep the cardio high with fast running/bike during each set of weights. Try to rest on Fridays, but usually can't resist and go for a 2 hour mountain bike ride.

 

Oh, have to mention - a bottle of beer or 2 glasses of wine everyday, no exception. (51 years, skiing into 38off)

[OldboyII]

Next day after skiing day the best workout for me is sitting in a chair with a good book and my cats on lap.