Ski Fitness

SkiFit BootCamp - Starts Tomorrow!

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Get yourself ski-Fit prior to your holiday to ensure you get the most out of your trip, reduce your risk of injury and be more confident on the slopes.

Our Ski-Fit Boot Camp will help you to:

  • Strengthen your whole body, with particular focus on the legs and core
  • Improve your muscular endurance and stamina
  • Sharpen your balance and agility
  • Build your aerobic fitness

This is a progressive 5-week course, with each session building on what we worked on the previous week.

  • Time: 6.15 - 7.00am
  • Place: South Park Gardens
  • Dates: Every Tuesday morning from the 9th January through to the 6th February 2018
  • Cost: £45 for the 5 sessions (if you miss a session, you're welcome to make it up at one of our regular Fit In The Park classes).

There are limited spaces available, so book your place now!

 

Posted by Heather Waghorn.

Ready for Action!

Happy New Year!

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It's that time of year when your inbox is full of "Unleash The New You" and "New Year, New You" emails. Well, here's another one, but it's short so do bear with us...

We're kicking off 2018 with our 6.15am Fit In The Park class in Wimbledon Park tomorrow morning. Why don't you join us? It'll be fun and you'll burn loads of calories, we promise.

If you can't get to that one, we're in South Park Gardens at 6.15am on Thursday, so no excuses!

Our Buggyfit classes are back in the park this Thursday too. Meet us in South Park Gardens at 9.30am and then 11.00am in Wimbledon Park.

Check out our full Buggyfit and Fit In The Park timetable, and then head over to our purchase page to buy your passes online.

If you've been tempted by our January HIIT Boot Camps in Wimbledon Park  and South Park Gardens, but haven't signed up yet, do it now!

Going skiing? Join our Ski-Fit Boot Camp to get the most out of your trip, reduce your risk of injury & be more confident on the slopes.

If you missed out on a place on our BoxFit Boot Camp, we are hoping to add another class to our timetable starting next week. Reply to this email and let us know you want to hear about it first.

Lots and lots and lots more to come.

Wishing you & your family a fantastic 2018!

Heather & the HA fitness team x

Posted by Heather Waghorn.

SkiFit BootCamp - Jan/Feb 17

Get yourself ski-fit prior to your holiday to ensure you get the most out of your trip, reduce your risk of injury & be more confident on the slopes.

Our Ski-Fit Programme will help you to:

- Strengthen your whole body, with particular focus on the legs and core
- Improve your muscular endurance & stamina
- Sharpen your balance and agility
- Build your aerobic fitness

This is a progressive 5-week course, with each session building on what we worked on the previous week.

Time: 6.15 - 7.00am
Place: South Park Gardens
Dates: Every Tuesday morning from 9th Jan through to 6 February 2018
Cost: £45 for the 5 sessions
(NB, if you miss a session, you're welcome to make it up at one of our regular Fit In The Park classes).

There are limited spaces available, so book your place now!

Please note that our BootCamps are non-refundable and non-transferable. You must complete a health form before you join, and you attend at your own risk. Please also read our full Terms And Conditions.

Head over to our BootCamp page to book your place!

Posted by Heather Waghorn.

Strength training for skiing - it's all about squat endurance!

If you roll off your sofa straight into your ski boots, with little or no prior fitness training, your thighs are likely to complain and your back, bum and calves may also grumble about being rudely awakened after months of inactivity.

So to ensure you get the most out of your time in the snow, and to reduce your chances of injury, do as much ski specific fitness training before you hit the slopes.

How long does it take to get ski-fit?

You should ideally kick-off your training about 12 weeks before you go. However, it's almost never too late to start, and embarking on a fitness programme, even a few weeks before your trip, will help you to ski better. A little training is always better than no training at all. Just don't expect to transform yourself from couch potato to ski-fit superhero in a couple of days!

So what should you be doing?

When you're training for a ski trip, endurance should be your focus rather than pure strength. This means doing lots of repetitions using little or no weight. Your aim is to create the toned legs of an endurance athlete, as opposed to the bulging thighs of a bodybuilder. This will enable you to spend more time on the slopes having fun, and less time massaging your tired and achy bits in your room.

What's the best exercise to do?

Squats are the ultimate ski fitness exercise. They strengthen the legs and bum, and are an easy way to mimic the skiing action and thigh burn at home. They can also help to improve your coordination and balance.

But don't just squat up and down on the spot. Create challenging squat combinations incorporating kicks, low pulses, 1-legged squats, calf raises, hops and jumps (ask an HA fitness trainer for a demo if you've not done any of these before or are a bit rusty). Try doing 100 reps using as many different variations you can think of. Then rest for 30 seconds and repeat. If counting reps doesn't work for you, try timing yourself. Keep the squats going, without taking a break, for the time it would take you to get from the top to the bottom of a run.

Increase the intensity using medicine balls, dumbbells, barbells or kettlebells. Keep going, with good technique, until you hit exhaustion. Then do another round! You should aim to do 3 good strength training sessions per week, with a rest day in between,

Get fully prepared for your ski trip by also including core strength exercises, balance, agility, cardio and upper body training into your fitness regime. The more work you put in prior to your trip, the more you'll be rewarded with exhilarating skiing, tireless energy and fun!

You may also be interested in reading the following articles before you go:

Powder Power

Getting Into Shape For The Slopes

Happy skiing,

Heather

 

 

Posted by Heather Waghorn.

Powder Power

With a ski trip coming up, and full of inspiration from the winter Olympics, I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching the different training schedules of the top downhill skiers. As you’d expect, most of the training is done on the slopes, but there’s also a considerable amount of dry land training that focuses on building strength, speed and agility. As Chemmy Alcott, Britain’s number one female Alpine skier, says, “It takes a lot to race down a mountain at 90mph…”

Leg strength and endurance is obviously essential, and a variety of squats, lunges and lifts are used to develop the muscles of lower body. Julia Mancuso, US Alpine racer, takes this to the next level however. She doesn’t just do regular squats; she does tuck squats whilst standing on a gym ball, now that’s talented!

Balance and core strength are vital components of the off-piste training programme as they enable the skier to hold good form on the slopes. This is where the plank, side plank and back extension exercises come in. Top skiers also use wobble boards, medicine balls and gyms balls to create additional instability challenges that attempt to mimic what they do on the snow. To take this to the extreme, Lindsey Vonn, US Alpine racer, balances on a tightrope in a tuck position while throwing a medicine ball at different angles against a wall – don’t practice this at home!

Explosive and controlled power is fundamental, and off the slopes this can be practised by doing a range of dynamic jumping drills. I think the most challenging example of control I’ve seen so far is Ted Ligety, US Alpine racer, jumping from a trampoline and landing on top of a gym ball in the tuck position!

Stamina and endurance are also vital, and most top alpine skiers improve their lower body potency by doing leg-punishing hill running or cycling Tour de France style. For something a little more fun, try doing what Bode Miller, another US Alpine racer, reportedly does and push a wheelbarrow full of your friends up a steep hill!

Whatever level skier you are, working on your total body fitness prior to your ski trip will improve your overall skiing technique, enjoyment and will help to prevent injuries. Try to avoid boring gym workouts though, and don’t forget that skiing is all about having fearless fun!

Happy Skiing!

Heather

Posted by Heather Waghorn.

Getting into shape for the slopes

To get the most out of your ski trip, you should get your body into shape well before you hit the slopes. Ski-specific fitness training will help you to ski harder, faster, and injury-free. You'll also have more energy to party in the evening!

Feel the burn!

You should focus on exercises that simulate the moves you'll be making on the slopes. For example, start to build-up your "crouch endurance" by getting into your ski tuck position and holding it for several minutes.

Work your thighs by holding a squat position with your back flat against a wall. Build up the time you can endure in this position and/or hold weights in your hands to increase the intensity. Once you've mastered this, try lifting one heel up at at time, putting more weight on the other leg (similar to turning on the slopes).

Try placing a skipping rope on the floor and jump sideways over it with your feet fairly close together (as if you had skis on). Start with several sets of 30 to 40 seconds and gradually add time on to increase your endurance. Up the intensity by doing this in a crouch position!

Endurance and stamina

A great way to work the whole body whilst also increasing your stamina and endurance for skiing is circuit training. The three key areas to focus on are cardiovascular fitness, lower body strength training and core stability.

Perform 1 minute of each of the following exercises, then rest and move onto the next one. Each week, reduce your rest period until you just have enough time to sip some water in between exercises. Building up your endurance in this way will help you to recover quicker in between challenging ski runs.

Always warm-up before you start, and finish with a cool down and stretches.

Cardiovascular fitness

  • Jogging on the spot, skipping, step-ups, jumping jacks, squat thrusts etc

Muscular strength and power

  • Squats (include some challenging variations such as one-legged squats, plié squats, narrow squats, half squats, squat calf raises, squat kicks etc.)
  • Lunges (include some challenging variations such as skater lunges, lunges with knee lifts, lunges with back leg raised, walking lunges, half lunges etc).
  • Calf-raises. Try doing these on a step and/or on one leg.

Increase the intensity of any of the above by holding dumbbells.

Core strength, agility and balance

  • Crunches, reverse curls and back extensions to target your core muscles
  • Holding the plank position to increase your core stability. Try different variations on this including plank walking, reverse planks, side planks etc.
  • Exercises using stability balls, medicine balls and wobble boards to develop your balance and agility

Improving your overall fitness

Aerobic endurance activities such as running, cycling and hill walking should also be included into your fitness plan. As with all of the above, you should try to increase the intensity and duration of these activities over the weeks leading up to your trip.

If this has whetted your appetite and you fancy some ski-specific training, please give me a call on 07941 851 778 or email heather@hafitness.com. We can arrange to meet up for one-to-one sessions, partner training, or small group classes. Why not get your friends together for a pre-ski workout?

http://www.hafitness.com


Posted by Heather Waghorn.