Winterize Your Muscles for Winter Sports

Let It Snow, But Don't Fall

As ski and snowboard season is fast approaching, it's time to do pre-season conditioning. Before the snow falls, focus on training your muscles for winter sports. People could have enjoyed their ski vacation more if they could spend a little time preparing themselves in advance. Don't come home with broken leg(s) from your ski trip. Everyone I saw on crutches every year from ski trip all said that before: "It can't be me. I've been skiing or snowboarding since I was 12. It's not gonna happen to me." Guess what happened next.


Total Cost of Injuries --- More Than What You Think

Leg or knee injuries could put you out of commission for at least six months on the average, not uncommon for 12 months or longer. If you have a surgery, you'll expect many visits to the doctor and physical therapist. In addition to medical cost and time, you cannot function normally in your daily activities. The chances are that you become less mobile in today's already sedentary lifestyle. It's very likely that you put on some weight (or fat) due to being less physically active and potential stress-eating. The problems are snowballing and going spiral downward.

Your health and fitness level would be re-set for at least a year or two backwards. That is, all the hard work you've put in for the past year or two is going down to the drain. The new injuries prevent you from coming back to work out as intense as before. The rebuilding process is a long and long time to come. So the accumulated cost of leg injuries is at least two-year worth of your fitness along with the medical cost, extra time for therapy and inconvenience in your daily life.


Think about Winterizing Your Muscles

Wouldn't it be reasonable to spend a little time (and small training fees) to prepare your body for your next ski trip? When you think about winterizing your car or house for the winter season, it's about time to winterize your muscles as well. It's not just for skiing or snowboarding. You can also strengthen your back muscles so that you don't pull your back when shoveling snow. Back pain is number one injury --- the most common and frequent one that bothers millions of Americans every year. Although it's cold outside, you should continue to exercise in winter. There are a few tips and cautions to have a safe workout and stay fit in winter season.

Let's face it. We don't normally do similar activities that closely mimic what you do on the slopes to handle different terrains like steeps, glades, moguls, terran parks or the backcountry. We're not used to staying in low crouch position, squating (sometimes on one leg), turning left and right, jumping up and hopping down for an extended period of time under icy, cold, elevated altitude conditions. Remember what happened in the morning of the second day on your first ski trip. You cannot seem to get out of your bed without letting out a long Ahhh! Your whole body aches and pains all over the places. Your legs may be limping just like getting off of a horse. It is all because you're not used to it, not like the professionals who do it everyday and are used to that kind of physical demands.

Wouldn't you think about at least conditioning your body better in advance? You're able to ski more aggressively and handle more extreme terrains. Not only do you have the fitness level to enjoy the snow longer, but you can enjoy three or more consecutive days of skiing in a row and live to brag about it!


Strengthen Your Winter Muscles

The main functional fitness characteristics for conditioning your winter muscles are cardio endurance, static-dynamic strength, power, balance and flexibility. A training program that incorporates those conditioning characteristics necessary to enjoy your ski season includes the following elements:

• Muscular strength with emphasis on the hips, lower back and legs
• Muscular power, speed and endurance for the whole body specific to downhill skiing
• Cardiovascular aerobic and anaerobic endurance
• Balance, agility and coordination
• Core strength, stabilization and endurance
  

Ski Specific Conditioning Program

A ski-specific training program includes three parts: functional (sport-specific) strength circuit, interval cardio workout, and strength endurance workout. If you have followed my cross training approach with strength and cardio circuit training before, you should be very familiar with the circuit training. You are in better condition than most weekend warriors or seasonal athletes.

I have designed a sample pre-season winterization program that you can do at least four to six weeks before your first ski trip. This ski-specific conditioning workout routine combines all the elements described above in a circuit training fashion. It can be done in your comfortable living room, basement or in your backyard. Please contact me (973) 303-2424 or email carey@careyforfitness.com to schedule your Winter Muscle Bootcamp.

Copyright 2006 www.careyforfitness.com by C. Carey Yang.
All rights reserved.

Yoga - Benefits & Risks

Yoga of any styles has been gaining more popularity in recent years. As with Tai Chi Chuan, Yoga has been used as an alternative to ease certain medical conditions and improve general health. Yoga can help improve strength, balance and flexibility and may be beneficial for certain bone and joint problems. In addition, deliberate breathing, relaxation and meditation help you calm down and relieve stress from daily chaos. Anyone who has done yoga knows that after a single session, you feel stronger, calmer and more limber. Studios and fitness centers are offering Yoga-for-Kids classes. Even some pro football players and bodybuilders start to do yoga as a cross training to help them improve posture, balance opposing muscles, as well as increase flexibility and range of motion.

Yoga comes in many different styles, forms, demands and level of understanding and practice. Not everyone can do the same poses in a perfectly professional manner. As with any physical exercises, you have to pay attention and listen to your body and know your limits. Yoga may relieve your back pain. If you bend in the wrong way or overstretch youself, it could break your back.

According to a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission report, there were more than 3700 yoga-related injuries costing a total of almost $94 million in medical care in 2004. The most common injuries involve repetitive strain, overstretching the neck, shoulders, spine, legs and knees. Serious muscle damage and related injuries can occur if people don't take proper precautions, particularly those with pre-existing musculoskeletal conditions.

Injuries tend to be caused by joint over-compression and pushing soft tissues past anatomical limits. People with back problems or lumbar disc injuries should be careful with extreme forward bending. Those with neck pain may want to avoid or modify the cobra pose.

Yoga is a great exercise and an important rehabilitation method. Before you jump right in and get confused with yoga poses (e.g., warrier, half-moon, triangle, downward-facing dog, cobra, eagle, camel, plow, tree, mountain, lotus, corpse, etc.), observe the class. Ask the yoga instructor what style he or she is teaching. Try one class to see if you like it and can perform the basic poses and movements without too much trouble. You want an exercise that's a little challenging for you but not too difficult to perform. Choose one that meets your needs, abilities and fitness level.

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons have the following recommendations to minimize yoga-related injuries:

Speak to a physician before participating in yoga if you have any pre-existing injuries or conditions.

Work with a qualified yoga instructor. Inquire about experience and credentials.Warm up well because cold muscles, tendons and ligaments are vulnerable.

Wear clothing that allows for proper movement.

Start slowly while you learn the basics, such as proper breathing, before you see how far you can stretch.

As questions if you are unsure of a pose or movement.

Know your limits. Do not go beyond your experience or comfort level.

Drink plenty of fluids, especially if participating in Bikram or "hot" yoga.

Listen to your body. Stop or take a break if you experience pain. If pain persists, call a medical professional.

Cross Training for Variety and Injury Prevention

What Is Cross Training? Why Cross Training?

Cross training has been used for years although it's a relatively new training concept. Athletes have used exercises outside their sports for conditioning due to weather, seasonal change, facility and equipment availability, and injuries. Cross training add many benefits to sports training including injury prevention.

Cross training is one type of training methods used to achieve well-rounded overall conditioning. The exercises are normally very different from what an athlete does in a particular sport. It gives a chance for the muscles, tendons, bones, joints and ligaments to take a break from repetitive use from sport-specific activities. In the meantime, cross training provides complementary conditioning to balance an athlete. This concept is also very useful for amateur athletes or recreational weekend warriors.

Another benefit of cross training is to help reduce or reverse muscle imbalances in the body. For example, a baseball pitcher may develop an imbalance laterally between the two sides of the body as well as in the should girdle of the throwing arm. After thousands of high-speed forceful throwing, the throwing arm and muscles become stronger but potentially overused and injured. Rotator cuff injuries are very common. Cross training can help balance the strength on both sides. It helps stabilize muscles and realign the body. In addition, since you're participating in different activities during cross training, it adds variety to your program and reduce chance of burn-out due to boredom.


What Cross Training Isn't For

One caution for cross training is that it doesn't help develop skills for a specific sport. It isn't a skill-specific drill. A football player can lift weights or slow-jog 5 miles a day all summer during off season. But he won't be in great "football shape" when the pre-season starts. By all means, "cross" training should not be used as the sole training program. You still have to start slowly with cross training and increase intensity progressively without getting injured.


Types of Cross Training

There are many ways to apply the concept of cross training to your fitness program, sports or activities all year round. Some examples are listed in the following.

• Aerobic Cross Training I: Use a variety of cardio equipment within one workout session; e.g., ten minutes on the treadmill, ten minutes on the bike, ten minutes on the elliptical machine.
• Aerobic Cross Training II: Use a variety of cardio equipment or modules throughout the week or month; e.g., run 30 minutes on Monday, bike 30 minutes on Wednesday, step class on Friday.
• Mixed Cross Training: Use a variety of activities that emphasizes different body functions and fitness; e.g., total-body weight training on Monday, kickboxing/martial arts on Wednesday, Yoga/Pilates on Friday.
• Cross-Over Training: Use activities that require totally different body functions or energy systems; e.g., A cyclist can do boxing (mainly upper body movements) during off-season so that he can rest his legs (lower body) for a while. Cycling requires more aerobic endurance while boxing demands more anaerobic energy output. Both energy systems are important in overall cardiovascular fitness.
• Seasonal Cross Training: Use or train for different sports or activities over large blocks of time or seasons; e.g., running for Spring, playing golf, tennis or swimming for Summer, outdoor rock-climbing for Fall, skiing or snowboarding for Winter.
• Functional/Complementary Cross Training: Use different activities to train similar function used in the main sport; e.g., Runners may use mountain biking to target the legs from slightly different actions. Cyclists may use cross-country skiing to maintain leg strength and cardiovascular endurance.

Play Your Card Right

Although an advantage of cross training is decreased risk of injury, one still has to start the sports or activities slowly. Don't fall into the same pitfalls in your main sport. Learn the basics. Perform adequate conditioning exercises in advance. Increase the intensity and duration progressively.

Many sports and activities share the same fitness characteristics of strength, power, speed, agility, endurance, balance, and flexibility. But each sport is still different with somewhat shift in performance requirements. A cyclist certainly doesn't want to get injured from downhill skiing. In the same token, A football player would be sorry for sitting out on the bench for the season from motorcycle accident.

Copyright 2006 www.careyforfitness.com by C. Carey Yang.
All rights reserved.