Adding Downhill Skiing | Uphill Athlete

Adding Downhill Skiing

  • Creator
    Topic
  • #31441
    terry
    Participant

    I’m starting the Haute Route program for upcoming backcountry lodge trips, but want to add days downhill skiing at local resort to work on specific strength/technique. Which workouts would be best to replace with days of resort skiing?

Posted In: Ski Mountaineering

  • Participant
    TerryLui on #31462

    Hey Terry!
    I haven’t seen the Haute Route program but can share the following thoughts pertaining to your question:
    -For the strength you want to work on, if the Haute Route plan doesn’t already have gym specific workouts then I would add in those exercises to the gym workouts in the program
    -For technique, since going downhill will work out the muscles you’re training, I would eliminate the most “ski specific” exercises but still do the remaining exercises in the workout plan for that day

    For example:
    Saturday gym workout contains plyometric squats + core. If you’re going skiing on Saturday, still do the workout but remove the squats and just do core (and whatever’s left).
    I would think of it like “substituting” skiing for the leg specific workouts

    Granted, if you have a huge ski day and your recovery/energy to do the remaining gym workout is dead, then adjust accordingly.

    Participant
    terry on #31550

    Thanks for the suggestion.

    Inactive
    Anonymous on #31603

    I think it also depends on what your resort days look like. If it’s a “normal” ski day, like Terry Lui said, you should probably do some strength work.

    Also, because of time on lifts, the actual activity time is very low. I’ve timed it in a couple of different scenarios, from family ski days to hard-charging with friends. Ten minutes of activity per hour is pretty standard with kids in tow (if the kids can ski well). With aggressive friends, it’s usually somewhere between 12-15 minutes per hour.

    So the same effect of a half-hour of a strength workout would probably take 2.5-3 hours of resort skiing.

    Participant
    terry on #31818

    Thanks Scott, that really helps. Thinking now I should do the turns after a slog up the Sunshine ski-out.

    Participant
    Mariner_9 on #31916

    Depending on the volume, a day of downhill skiing might be more like a muscular endurance workout than a strength workout.

    Some other thoughts:
    – Effects of the day will depend how much hiking you do inbounds. Steep hill at altitude carrying some gear should feel like weighted box steps. 🙂
    – Terrain would also have a significant effect, e.g. moguls are going to impose more stress than corduroy.

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