Tag Archive for: return to skiing

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mikemaginn

Time To Get Moving: Now

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Five Ways To Start Your Fitness Program.

Motion helps muscles, joints, ligaments limber up for snow season.

Motion helps muscles, joints, ligaments limber up for snow season.

No more procastination.  You have from six weeks to three months, depending on where you live, to get ready for snow season.  If you are a year-round sports activist, then good on you.  If you are a part-timer, weekend warrior, you probably have to start getting more diverse muscles toned up.  If you are as not as active as you could be, reflect on your habits.  You will be safer and feel better when you head out to slopes or trails if you are physically toned.  It is a huge mistake to go from zero to a ski run or cross-country trail without being physically prepared, especially if you are one of those people who distinctly remember the Beatles on their first Ed Sullivan Show appearance.

Here are five ways to begin, especially if you’ve been off your program for whatever reason this summer.

1. Walk.  Simple.  Morning, lunchtime, or evening.  Walk fast, swing your arms, work up a sweat, carry light weights (2 pounds) or walk with ski poles (Nordic walking burns more calories), use a pedometer, keep a record of how far and how many steps.  After a week or so of daily walking,  the “training effect” will kick in, and you will feel looser, more steady and, guess what, you’ll be outside in the beautiful Autumn weather.  Here are some guidelines for getting started.

2. Stretch. Loss of elasticity of connective tissue, an effect of the aging process, can be nasty.  Muscles tighten up, and back and joint problems ensue.  Stretching makes a difference. Learn to stretch your hamstrings, quads, hip flexors, and lower back.  There are many resources you can access for how-to.  Here is a good starter from the NIH. There’s always yoga. This is really, really important: If you aren’t using it, you’re losing it.

3. Gym Class. Going to a class led by a trainer provides structure, discipline and challenge.  An hour-long class will probably keep you in more motion than the same time spent alone in your basement.  In a good gym class, you will also learn about the muscles you are exercising, how to stretch them and gradually build up strength and flexibility all over your body, not just your favorite parts.  Probably most important, you will learn proper form so you get the most out of your efforts and help prevent injuries.  SeniorsSkiing.com’s Harriet Wallis wrote about Silver Sneakers, a national program sponsored by insurance company targeting seniors. There’s probably one near you.

4. Focus on four essentials.  No gym nearby? If you do head down to your basement or studio for exercises, here are four to get you going:  Lunges for legs, lower back, hips, Plank for core and probably one of the two top exercises of all, Pushups for core, upper body and arms, and the other top exercise, and Squats, a fundamental leg and back strengthener.  You must learn to do these correctly; form counts for everything.  Doing a zillion reps without proper form is not that effective and could get you hurt.

5. Get an app or two. There are many apps you can get for your smartphone that can be your training buddy.  This link has a few of many. Point is you will able to get feedback on how you are doing and see progress using a cool app. And in a strange way, the app builds an expectation. Just like the GPS voice in your car, you can have a relationship with your app.

As usual, see your doctor before trying any of this, or if you start a program, and it doesn’t feel good.  Remember this is meant to be a starter kit.  Stay tuned for more advanced fitness activities.

Now, don’t hesitate, get going. What’s your advice?

mikemaginn

Coming Back From Injury: Avoid One-Sidedness

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Adaptive Ski Instructor Provides Advice on Predictable Issues for Returnees

Alisa Anderson, Smuggler’s Notch’s (VT) adaptive skiing program manager, is a highly-specialized PSIA instructor who, over the past 20 years, has applied techniques and tools for skiers of all kinds who need a little extra help getting down the mountain.

Adaptive Ski Instructor Alisa Anderson guides a student on the "Snow Slider" at Smuggler's Notch. Credit: Alisa Anderson

Adaptive Ski Instructor Alisa Anderson guides a student on the “Snow Slider” at Smuggler’s Notch.
Credit: Alisa Anderson

She trained at the National Sports Center for the Disabled, Winter Park, CO, where she learned how to use bi-skis, mono-skis, and outriggers. At Smuggler’s Notch, she purchased a “Snow Slider” which is basically a walker on skis. While these tools are mostly used with people who have chronic physical disabilities, she also helps people who can ski on their own skis get back to skiing after injury, accident, or knee, hip or shoulder replacement.

“It’s important that people coming back from an injury take a lesson from a trained instructor,” said Alisa. “One reason is to help them get through the natural apprehension that you’d expect after being through major surgery and a year or so of rehab. The other reason is to spot and correct physical mistakes before they become habits.”

Most people coming back after rehabilitation, she said, will clearly favor the healing side. “It’s natural. There’s been a trauma to the area, and the body wants to ‘save’ that side. What you see are people not pressing the ski on that side or being very tentative about flexing.” That stiffness is risky because the skier doesn’t have bi-lateral control.

People aren’t even aware they are favoring one side, she said. That’s where coaching comes in.

“If they continue to be stiff and one-sided, they are going to form some bad behaviors. Stiff muscles lead to fatigue, and the risk of injury goes up,” she said. “They need to be constantly in motion.”

The solution is for the instructor to give the student skier active feedback on what she sees. “Basically, I remind the student to focus on keeping pressure on the front of the boot and weight on the ball of the foot. It’s really back to the basics. It’s important for the skier to loosen up, extend, get tall and bend their joints into through the turn.”

Alisa says that one lesson might be all a skier needs, others, maybe a couple more. “Most people get it pretty quickly. It’s just a matter of getting through the first days doing it right.”

Alisa knows what she is talking about. In addition to her experience as an adaptive ski instructor, she’s also recovering from ACL reconstructive surgery. “I have to wear a brace. It reminds me all the time about what it’s like to be rehabbing. Sometimes, I don’t like wearing it, but I do it, and I’m still skiing.”

 

mikemaginn

Long Time Between Runs

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SeniorSkiing

It is a sunny and cold Thursday morning in early February.  There are a handful of other skiers on the mid-New Hampshire ski area lift.  I decide to go right at the top.  Trail is untouched, the corduroy grooming marks fresh and waiting.  I turn, effortless.  Ahhh.  I turn again, making a big, wide arc.  The feeling is like floating, my new skis carving and then, almost without a conscious notion, shifting to the other edge.

Hard to believe this is my first real run in thirty-five years.  Okay, there was an expensive, uncomfortable holiday weekend on rental skis and boots in the 90s with cranky children, cheesy condo and unrelenting cold.  It was an exception.  I had left my real skiing behind long time ago.

I started in college, in the mid-60s.  Back then, it was blue jeans and rice-paddy parkas with Moriarity hats, wooden skis, leather boots and Cubco bindings.  In the early 70s, I lucked out and worked as an assistant editor at Skiing Magazine working and rubbing elbows with some of the greats.  Now, that was fun.

I was Associate Editor in the early 70s

I was Associate Editor in the early 70s

The next few decades had me running a business, flying here and there, finding and keeping clients.  No time, no interest in skiing.  Too cold, too time consuming.  The closest I made it to the slopes was working on my laptop while watching my wife kids from the day lodge window.

Then I came back.  With retirement came time.  I looked at boots and skis in a ski shop one day and said to myself, “I can do this now.”

I find almost everything about skiing has changed for the better during my long hiatus.  The skis are magical instruments, boots are comfortable, clothes are warmer, the lifts are faster, the trails well groomed and, because of my senior status, the lift tickets are relatively cheaper.  And, there is no more need for speed.  Instead, I relax into the slow turn, pressing down to feel the slice of the edge.

Parabolic skis rule! Turning has never been more easy or more fun.

Parabolic skis rule! Turning has never been more easy or more fun.

Apparently, I’m not the only veteran coming back to skiing.  Although we are still a small percent of the total, the number of skiers over 65 has doubled since the 1997-98 season, according to a National Ski Areas Association demographic study published in 2013.  And we ski more often than younger skiers, too.  We get in 9.5 skiing days per season compared to a national average of five days.  We are using the gift of time that retirement has bestowed.

What does it take to get back?  Fitness for starters. That’s a good idea, regardless. A good ski shop to fit you out with the proper equipment, maybe starting with decent rentals.  A lesson might be helpful, too.  A couple of friends to go with.  A nice winter day in the middle of the week.  More and more runs.

What’s your return-to-skiing advice?