Theory
Our basic theory is that physical performance in backcountry skiing and
snowboarding is like other athletic activities, and that training for it will go
best if it follows the same principles that have been demonstrated to work best
from other athletic training.
One principle is that training must be specific. Backcountry skiing and
snowboarding has different kinds of muscular exercise, and each kind may benefit from
different training.
Getting up the hill -- First of all this takes good leg strength and
endurance. Our experience is that training on the flat doesn't
necessarily translate effectively and fully to getting ourselves up the hill -- fighting gravity
is different. So we try hard to get some kind of uphill training, even if it's
just on small hills, or stairs. But in addition to legs, our experience
is that strong poling can help a lot too, especially with consolidated
snow to push against in the springtime. So it's worth training specific arm
strength.
Control and fun going down -- Our experience is that if you've got
good strength for getting up the hill, that's specific and strong
enough to execute most downhill techniques. Some folks recommend also
plyometric exercises.
Making time on the flats -- Power up the hill does translate to the
flats. But two factors can get more important for speed on the
flats: (1) the weight on the feet (boots, bindings, skis) is a lot more
than you're accustomed to in off-season walking and running; (2) arm
assistance through poling can improve speed a lot.
Weight training
The competitive advantage of weight training has become visible in many
sports. (We find it especially obvious in competitive women's
sports).
We're not experts on the latest techniques and tips, but we do it
consistently, about two times a week. We mostly use machines, not free
weights, and we do 2-4 sets of each exercise.
We've eliminated some exercises that seem to have no relevance to skiing or
climbing, e.g. bench presses. We don't want to use precious training time to add
useless bulk that just has to get hauled up the hill in the backcountry. And we've added one arm exercise that is
very specific to poling.
Fight Gravity -- Hills and Stairs
Our experience is that training on the flat doesn't translate effectively and
fully to getting ourselves up the hill. So we try hard to get some kind of
uphill training, even if it's just on small hills, or stairs.
Exploit small hills. Usually we can find some hill of 300-400
vertical feet, so we do intervals running up that. Each interval takes in
the range of 5-10 minutes. Sometimes we put some weights in our pack,
sometimes not. To better simulate continuous climbing, the one of us who isn't
running provides a car shuttle -- to quickly take the runner back down to
the bottom to start the next interval with only limited recovery time.
Even when we have access to a bigger hill, often we still break it down into
intervals of 1-5 minutes, alternating between running and walking.
Stair climbing: We used to do lots of stair climbing -- on real
stairs. Ken had a 13-story building in grad school, and used to climb up
with a backpack holding weights -- heavier than he would ever carry in the
backcountry. Sharon had a job in a taller building with accessible stairs,
and we both used that for a while. We found climbing real stairs with
heavy weights to be excellent training for backcountry ski uphill (also downhill,
and lots of other things). Now we've mostly switched to a stairclimbing
machine -- more on this below. But most machines do not effectively
simulate the "fight gravity" aspect of real stairs.
Down the hill: Our experience is that the biggest risk of injury
when training on real hills and stairs is in going down. The reason
is that you get much higher impact forces. We try to avoid this, in several
ways: (1) ride in a car to the bottom, (2) take the elevator to the
bottom, (3) train on a bicycle (both up and down), (4) use poles to absorb some
of impact.
Refinements: Training with ski poles is an interesting addition
for building power
for going up hills -- and they definitely reduce the impact of going down.
We often take them with us for trail-running. Leg-weights are a way to get
specific on simulating the rather large weight of skis, boots, bindings on our
feet.
Fun in the Outdoors
We do a lot of bicycling in the summer and fall, mostly on our tandem.
We favor routes with serious hills, because we find it's good challenging
training going up, and fun going down -- kind of like backcountry skiing.
We do some trail running and hiking when we get the chance, usually with ski
poles, and also some running on roads (sometimes with leg weights).
Indoor Training
Since climbing real stairs is such good training for backcountry skiing, the
idea of a machine to simulate that is excellent. But most stairclimbers do
not effectively
simulate the "work to fight gravity" aspect of real stairs.
Indeed, some of them seem to be deliberately designed to provide the appearance
of stairclimbing motions, while eliminating the need for most of the
fight-gravity force that normally goes with those motions on real stairs.
We think you have to be very selective in choosing a stairclimbing machine,
if you want it to provide you with a good simulation of the effort of uphill climbing. We recommend examining
closely these key points about a machine:
- When you do the exercise on this machine, does your head and upper body go
up and down significantly? -- at least 6 inches, but 9 inches is even
better. Achieving this may require experimenting with different
resistance settings. (Actually moving your body weight upward is the
essence of uphill backcountry travel. Just moving your feet and knees
up and down is not the same.)
- Does the machine assist you in moving your legs up and down?
(this is bad for serious training)
- Can the machine be adjusted to provide enough resistance so that your head
and upper body still go up and down at least 6 inches (more is better), even
when you are carrying a pack with heavy weights?
- Does the machine still provide sufficient resistance, after the hydraulic
fluid in the cylinders has heated up, like after 15 minutes of vigorous use?
The key to specific training for backcountry uphill is to raise most of your body weight (plus the weight of
backpack and boots and skis) upward, using only the power of your own muscles.
Typically it requires some playing with resistance settings to achieve this --
and also some playing with your own stepping technique. Often you have push up
quickly on the new high foot, so your body weight goes up before the pedal sinks
down very far. The pedal needs a lot of resistance to give you even
that little window of time to push your body upward. But that resistance
needs to be tunable, because the pedal also needs to go down, to get ready for
your next step on that foot.
We haven't shopped for a machine in several years, because we've been
successfully using the Tunturi C416 Variable Resistance Climber at home.
We don't know if they're still selling that specific model. But at least
we know they're still selling replacement hydraulic cylinders -- since we wear
one out at least once a year.
In addition to a heavy pack, sometimes we wear leg-weights while we're on the
stairclimbing machine, to simulate the weight of skis, boots, bindings on our feet.
Boredom
One of the key success factors for training is consistency -- multiple
workouts, week after week. And one of the big problems with flatland
training is keeping up motivation to keep doing exercises which are just not as
exciting as being out in the backcountry.
What really works for us for enduring the
boredom and pain of indoor exercise:
- Other people -- We do a lot of this together.
- Video -- not just music. We rent lots of videos, and own some too.
We have found an interesting payoff to doing lots of our workouts at a gym,
instead of at home: It's more time spent to travel there and back, but
it's easier to be consistent in doing all our exercises. It's like, once
we've gotten there to the gym, we might as well do them all.