Aside from CrossFit, bombing down Claremont on a long board is probably the best summertime activity to get you ready for snowboarding.  Save yourself the surfer jargon and fast forward the video to begin watching at 2:30.  This video is INSANE!

The recent changing weather, and this video, has got me thinking about one thing.  Winter in Tahoe.  However, if you aren’t an Olympian that travels to the Southern Hemisphere during the summer to stay in ski/snowboard condition, you need something to prepare your body ready for the demands it faces when your on the hill.  Jogging, biking, along with some weight training is better than sitting in front of the television, but not by much.  What you need are shorter duration, higher intensity workouts, that tax the leg muscles and get the heart rate high at the same time.  The amount of stress jogging puts on your leg muscles is fairly insignificant.  The load (your body weight) is small, relatively speaking, the repetitions (each one of your steps) are just repeated several hundred times during the course of your run.  So by it’s very nature, running becomes not only ineffective due to it’s static nature with little resistance, it also becomes rather harmful because of the repeated pounding of each step, which was exactly like the one right before it.  Snowboarding and skiing on the other hand are much more dynamic (varying terrain, conditions and maneuvers all require different body movements), and high speed carving and hard turns can put as much as 3 G’s of force (3x your body weight for those that are going REALLY hard) on your leg muscles.  Whether you like to cruise the groomers, challenge yourself in the trees, or just “Mach” top to bottom, skiing and snowboarding consists of short high intensity efforts, followed by periods of rest (standing in line and the chairlift back up).  Your training should mimic this (i.e. Friday’s workout, or “Barbara”, a couple of Monday’s ago).  If your off-season training consists of jogging, biking and some weights, your body will not be ready for ski season, you will feel dominated after 3 or 4 runs, and likely spend the rest of the day in the lodge… leaving the runs and lifts open for those of us that trained smart. 

Who’s down for a Sweat Shop weekend trip to Tahoe?_______________________

Friday’s WOD:

compare to 6/17/09

4 Rounds

3 Strict Press
3 Push Press
3 Push Jerk
Max Pullups
Max Squats in 90 seconds

REST 3 minutes between each round

results:

______________________

Saturday’s WOD:

30 KB Swings
12 ea. Single Arm KB Thruster
20 Pullups

25 KB Swings
9 ea. Single Arm KB Thruster
15 Pullups

20 KB Swings
6 ea. Single Arm KB Thruster
10 Pullups

results:
______________________

5K Run & Trainer Challenge Workout

Congrats to Don B. for placing 1st overall in the 5K with a time of 20:33.  Jennifer B. was the 1st female finisher and placed 4th overall at 24:54; Jennifer was also one of many that did both the workout at 9am AND the 5K run at 10am!

results:

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 7:45 pm and is filed under General, Physiology related. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.