By Rob Shaul
Lift-assisted, alpine skiing has very specific fitness demands.
The first is eccentric leg strength.
When alpine skiing, gravity “bounces” you down the hill. From a strength perspective, your legs first fight gravity from being forced into the mountain, and then pop up, out of the hole, into the next turn.
Early in my coaching career I learned the hard way we can’t train eccentric leg strength with exercises like front squats and back squats. These train primarily “concentric” strength – the strength it takes to press out of the bottom of the squat.
The 30 Mintues/Day Dryland Ski Training Plan uses our “Quadzilla Complex” to train your eccentric leg strength. The Quadzilla Complex is a more intense complex of lunges, jumping lunges and squat jumps – where I use loading – dumbbells – to maximize its effectiveness. There is a lot of loaded hopping and jumping in Quadzillas, causing the athlete to land under the force of loaded gravity, and rapidly slow their deceleration. In this way, we train eccentric leg strength.
You’ll complete Quadzillas on Mondays and Thursdays in this plan and as you work through, the volume increases.
Beware …. eccentric leg strength training is intense and you’ll likely be quite sore. We give you Wednesday’s off in this plan to help with recovery.
The second specific fitness demand of alpine skiing is what I call “Leg Lactate Tolerance” – the “burn” you feel in your quads at the end of a long ski run or at the end of a full ski day.
This training plan deploys Touch/Jump/Touch Intervals on Tuesdays and Fridays to train your mind and body for this demand. Over the course of the plan, we increase the overall number of the intervals you complete, as well as increase the work interval and decrease the rest.
Third, alpine skiing demands solid rotational, anti-rotational and extension core strength.
This plan trains these also. On Monday’s and Thursdays, you’ll perform Scotty Bobs – an upper body strength exercise which has a solid rotational core component, and on Tuesdays and Fridays, you’ll perform a focused core circuit between sets of Touch/Jump/Touch intervals.
Here is your weekly schedule:
- Monday: Quadzilla Complex, Scotty Bobs
- Tuesday: Touch/Jump/Touch Intervals, Core
- Wednesday: Total Rest
- Thursday: Quadzilla Complex, Scotty Bobs
- Friday: Touch/Jump/Touch Intervals, Core
- Saturday: Total Rest or light recreation
- Sunday: Total Rest or light recreation
The training sessions include a warm-up, and are designed to be completed in 30 minutes. This training plan is designed for busy working professionals who don’t have the time to dedicate 60 minutes/day for our full Dryland Ski Training Plan and/or recreational skiers who want to supplement their current training with focused dryland ski preparation to prepare for an upcoming ski trip or vacation.
This training program is specifically designed to be completed the 4 weeks directly before your ski season or ski vacation begins.
Overall, this training is efficiently designed to get you to the slopes sport-specifically fit, strong and stable – so you can get the most out of your turns at the beginning of the season, or enjoy your ski vacation to the fullest.
Common Questions:
What equipment is required?
Pair of 10# Dumbbells for Women, 25# Dumbbells for Men
Can I see sample training?
Click HERE, then click the Sample Training Tab to see the entire first week of programming?
Questions?
Please email: coach@mtntactical.com