Fall XC Fitness For Recreational Skiers

You are a recreational skier (aka tourer). You go out anywhere from a couple times a week to a couple times a winter. You don't enter any races (or at least not very often and never seriously). If you are like millions of other folks, you generally consider "XC ski training" something that only the lycra-clad, "speed-demon" crowd needs to worry about.

That's where you'd be mistaken.

First of all, there are some health and safety issues involved here. Recreational XC skiing is an enormously safe sport. That's one of the reasons it is so popular with various segments of the population, particularly older adults that may...or may not...have had a background on skis in their youth. But just because traumatic injuries are (thankfully) rare, a lack of basic fitness can lead to minor or chronic injuries. Particularly if you venture off-piste, into mountainous areas, or really like to "get away from the things of man", even the most non-competitive skier has to have a certain level of fitness to stay safe.

The second big issue for recreational skiers is the three-letter "F" word...F-U-N. Regardless whether we consider ourselves recreational or performance skiers, the fact is that XC skiing is still the world's number one aerobic activity. It doesn't matter whether you are going to shoot for Olympic gold or simply want to make it a few kilometers out and back to a favorite viewpoint. Fact is, to get the most out of our ski adventures, we need to at least develop a basic level of fitness. The more "ski-specific" that fitness the better.

Luckily for you, recreational XC ski fitness is very easy to adapt around a wide range of off-snow (dryland) activities. Unlike racers, even pretty casual racers, you have much more flexibility in terms of what you put into your fitness program, when, how much, and what kind of equipment/locations are required.

In terms of time of year, however, the fall months are equally critical to recreational skiers as much as to the race crowd. This is simply because the fall months lie closest to when you are first going to get out on snow. It's the countdown to the big liftoff...and you want to be ready when that white stuff piles up!

Within that critical fall window, you want to focus on three main components. Number one...strength. Number two...cardiovascular endurance. And number three...a regular dose of ski specific motions.

To enjoy yourself on skis, you don't need to be so strong that you can snap 80 foot trees with your little fingers. Body building isn't the goal here at all. The kind of strength you want to develop is a healthy mix of general endurance strength with a sprinkling of power and ski specific strength. Building general endurance strength can be as simple as 2-3 times a week routines involving body resistance exercises such as situps, dips, etc.. If you don't mind weight rooms, making regular visits would also be an option. Without question, a specialized piece of equipment such as a rollerboard or double pole machine would make as great (or greater) difference on snow for recreational skiers as racers. But by and large, the high rep/low resistance formula provided with body resistance exercise is usually enough to make a difference.

A suggested menu of exercises includes: side situps, pushups (from your knees is just fine if you can't do regular ones), pullups or "dead hang", dips, step-ups, and using elastic cords or old bike tubes to simulate double pole and diagonal motions. Try starting with 30-45 seconds doing a mix of these exercises for up to 15-20 minutes, giving yourself a small rest in between each "station". As you progress through the fall, add more exercises and lengthen the total amount of time. Always make sure to warmup, cool down, and do some light stretching before/complete stretching after each session.

To sprinkle in some power, after about 2-3 weeks of building up your strength levels, begin to throw in a "max" or high speed/high resistance set of a couple exercises. Don't make the entire workout really hard and fast, just randomly pick an exercise in which you take things up a notch.

Why isn't this first on the list? Even though XC skiing is unquestionably an aerobic activity requiring plenty of endurance, fact is that most folks that like to XC ski will already be pretty active in this area. If you regularly get out to walk, run, cycle (road or mountain), paddle, or swim, the chances are very good that you will maintain the cardiovascular endurance you need for your ski adventures.

The only reasons to increase either the amount of cardiovascular endurance workouts (or the length of those workouts) would be if you planning ski sessions that would last longer than your typical dryland activity...or if you will be skiing at an elevation several thousands of feet above where you live and "train". The first of these exceptions is pretty obvious. If you normally walk three times a week for 30 minutes, you will need to increase the length of at least a few of those walks in the fall if you plan to go for regular one hour skis. However, many skiers don't realize how much high altitude can add to the demand of an aerobic sport, even at recreational speeds. Increasing the length of your cardiovascular endurance activities in the fall months about 5-15% in preparation for skiing at altitude is a great way to help offset the added demands the mountains represent.

Last but not least, all recreational skiers can benefit from incorporating at least a little taste of ski specific motions into your fall strength and cardiovascular endurance workouts.

At the high end of the scale, going out and investing in something like a pair of roller skis would be enormously ski specific, but that isn't going to happen as often with recreational skiers as it does with racers. A much easier and cheaper alternative is to borrow from the ski specific foot drills and exercises used by XC racers to develop agility, coordination, and balance. Something like "skiwalking" with poles while out on a fall hike is a marvelous way to incorporate ski specific motions into an activity you are already apt to be doing.

If you spend a few moments looking around the xcskiworld.com Training section and related links, you'll be sure to find a number of drills and exercises that can easily be done as a supplement to a body resistance strength workout or as a supplement to a light cardiovascular session. Many of these drills are very low impact and most do not require the ability to run, jump over tall buildings, etc..

As you can see, it doesn't take a whole lot of sophisticated planning or infrastructure to get started with a good fall XC fitness program. You don't need tons of fancy gear and you don't need hours and hours of time or a personal trainer named Hans. But you will need the motivation to get out there and do it.

When you get a little sore and you wonder if it is worth squeezing in a 30 minute workout after a long day of work, kids, house, etc...just think about those first days on snow and how great it will feel to be in shape from day one. Those leaves aren't going to drop any slower, today's the day to get going!

Noquemanon Ski Marathon: Michigan

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