The difference between enduring a day on the slopes and enjoying an incredible ski day depends on your level of fitness. Cross-country skiers, who don't use chairlifts, are usually aware of this, but downhill skiers often underestimate the energy requirements of their sport. Cold weather, high altitudes and wind affect winter sport performance, but sport-specific endurance training may neutralize their effect.
Defining Sport-Specific
All types of endurance training benefits Nordic and alpine skiers, but sport-specific training also enhances sport performance. Sport-specific training bases its principles on the dynamic pattern theory of motor learning, which says that the brain is more efficient at recognizing movement patterns than isolated muscular movements. Coaches using this theory choose workouts that best simulate the athlete's sport. Thus, an aerobic ski machine or a slide board provides more effective training for a skier than a stationary recumbent bicycle. The best ski endurance training programs factor in two concepts developed by the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Neuromuscular efficiency refers to movement speed and style, whereas metabolic efficiency refers to the energy requirements of the sport, which include strength, endurance and power.
Neuromuscular Endurance Training
Compare the skiing styles of a ski racer and a skier cruising down a wide-open blue trail. The racer performs tight turns at high speeds, but the cruiser performs wide turns at moderate speeds. The racer may enhance her endurance training by bike racing along a narrow path, or summer mountain biking. The cruiser's endurance training may involve wide, inline skating movements performed at moderate speeds. Cross country and backcountry skiers must earn their turns by climbing uphill, so hiking is efficient endurance training for these sports. Some skiers use the treadmill or the elliptical machine on an incline while wearing a backpack.
Metabolic Endurance Training
Mogul skiers require fast and powerful reaction times. They benefit from adding plyometric training to their workouts. The United States Ski and Snowboard Association stresses that mogul ski training must incorporate strength and power endurance. An article on the Perform Better website explains that mogul skiing uses the anaerobic system, but all metabolic systems require training. Devise a mogul skiing endurance circuit by interspersing plyometric box jumps, multi-directional lunges and mogul-simulating trampoline jumps with aerobic activity. Lateral jumps on the dome side of a bosu, which is half a stability ball, effectively simulate mogul training.
The Skating Advantage
Skating is one of the most ski-specific activities. Although inline skating is efficient, those serious about their endurance training should consider either of two types of ski-specific skates. Roller skis, which simulate cross-country skiing, come in on-road and off-road varieties. Nordic skiers use them with their own boots and their own poles. Some cross-country tracks stay open for hiking over the summer. Training on these tracks is effective conditioning for the winter season. Carvers, for alpine skiers, work with downhill ski boots and poles. Placing these skates on their edges enhances ski technique while improving endurance.
Muscular Endurance Misconceptions
Skiing may require muscular endurance, but this endurance is dynamic, not static. The old-school training method used an exercise called the wall-sit, which required the skier to place his back against a wall, bend his knees to a 90-degree angle and hold the position as long as possible. Although this exercise improves quadriceps endurance, it promotes a static skiing style on the slopes. Make this exercise more dynamic by assuming the position and performing small bending and extending movements.
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