It's December already! Two more months till I'm skiing pow in Japan and I'm yet to get my sorry arse into a fitness regime.
I did get the rear tyre on the treadly replaced, albeit by a visiting couch surfer (yeah I'm a slack arse OK?).
Sunday I went for a lovely 45 minute bike ride then did some squats and lunges.
The next morning I discovered I had a puncture in the new tyre. I had no repair glue, or spare tubes. I just did some lunges and squats instead.
Tuesday I went and got 2 new spare tubes, and some glue, but took till the weekend to fix it.
I continued doing daily lunges and squats though, only with a difference.
I'm doing all my exercises on wobbly bits of equipment.
Air filled rubber discs and balls that force me to really work my core muscles and push me to keep my balance whilst performing said lunges and squats.
This is because skiing is a dynamic sport with lots of latent instability (it's slippery stuff and very uneven) and because a little niggling knee problem of mine seems to have got quite a bit worse.
Back in 2009 I hurt my left knee skiing. I remember when it happened, it was on Magnum in Powder Bowl at TC, on a powder day, in a lesson with Lara. It was a landing twisting injury and I experienced quite a bit of pain, but managed to get up and ski down the hill. I was sore for the next few days, but not enough to stop skiing completely, and the knee continued to be stiff for months afterwards, sometimes causing me excruciating pain if put into certain positions. I couldn't fully flex the knee and sit on my haunches because it hurt too much. Finally, I saw a physiotherapist who couldn't find anything wrong except a bit of minor laxity in the ACL, and gave me some exercises to do which fixed the problem and the pain went away and I had full movement again.
Still, the knee wasn't quite right, and probably explains, along with the broken arm in 2010, why I developed a lot of fear when skiing, which I hadn't had prior to the knee injury. Only with more exercise and some psychological approaches did I conquer that fear, and my skiing improved exponentially. But a couple of times, when my knee was in certain positions it sort of clunked out, and I had to fully straighten the knee for it to clunk back in again. And ski away...
Well that instability has got worse, such that it's now possible for me to reproduce it whenever I sit back on my haunches, and another trip to the physio now reveals my ACL is indeed somewhat deficient. But I'm not yet ready to go off and see a surgeon, so am working crazily on my functional stability and investigating the pros and cons of a knee brace.
It explains why the left leg has been my weaker side and I've had so much trouble weighting onto it on my turns, though Klaus' trick of getting me to unweight my right leg solved that one. You see the ACL carries important nerve fibres for position sense to the brain, and without this feedback the leg can feel unstable. Not that it's actually unstable in anything but extreme positions, but skiing can be pretty unpredictable!
It means I have to retrain those nerves. The knee isn't exactly popping out all over the place, it's what's called ACL deficient. Most surgically repaired knees are also considered ACL deficient due to the damage to the nerve fibres. I reckon I've still got quite a few firing away though but they need a bit of re-education. With wobbly discs and gym balls!
At least it's given me the motivation to get exercising. Not happy but!
And now the bike tyre has been fixed tomorrow I'm off riding again.
Showing posts with label get fit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label get fit. Show all posts
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Monday, September 8, 2014
Ski Goddess challenge part 1
With a powder trip to Japan organised for Feb 2015, it's time to get serious about my fitness. I've let my exercise routine slide for a while, concentrating more on gardening chores, spending too much time on the internet and reading books and articles on all sorts of things, and not factoring in a daily time slot for fitness. That's gotta change..
Skiing powder is the holy grail in skiing. It's the soft white stuff that is forgiving, that you won't catch an edge on and go tumbling out of control. But it's also cushioning, it's slower to ski on than harder, icier, firmer snow which means you need a much higher level of dynamic fitness to enjoy it fully, or else you'll just sink and end up with a face full of snow.
Fat skis help, because all that extra surface area will keep you floating versus sinking into the soft stuff. Some old schoolers think the fat skis have gone too far, preferring to still be skiing through the powder rather than floating on top the whole time, but whatever your take, you still can't ski powder without fitness.
Core stability and anaerobic/aerobic fitness is paramount. Anyone can do one or two powder runs, but keeping it up day after day, all day, requires you to to be strong and agile. Neither of which I am at present...
So I've pulled out my ski fitness books and programs, counted up the months till I leave, and started to design myself a program.
First is just working on basic aerobic fitness, which means getting back on a running schedule and riding my bicycle to work and back.
Secondly, core stability exercises. Skiing, and boarding, are done in a very dynamic environment, where the terrain you have your feet on is continually changing. If you can't stabilise what's happening in your legs through your core to your upper body, you'll fall over lots (at best) or injure yourself (at worst). It's also the main reason why some people can ride all day and others can't, because core muscle weakness means you'll tire so much quicker. Quad exercises are a total waste of time if you neglect to build a strong core. Just saying... so daily core exercises are in the program.
Next, agility training. This builds muscle memory for those quick movements and sudden changes in direction that you need to execute when skiing. Having done this training before, I can confirm it makes a big difference on the slopes. Especially as one gets older, this sort of activity doesn't often feature in one's daily life, unless one plays tennis or squash, netball, basketball, or football, so you have to retrain those slack little muscle fibres by doing fast spurts of movements, changing direction quickly, that sort of thing.
Fourth, strength exercises. These are less important right now, but become more important as I work up to the actual trip. I won't be concentrating too much on squats and lunges quite yet, because they'll be a bigger component later.
Finally, flexibility, which is mainly stretching. I'll incorporate some yoga in here too.
So in order for me to commit to this, I'm putting my September stats out there and will post updates each month:
Weight 71.4kg
Chest 89cm (this is measured above the boobies)
Waist 81cm (the narrowest bit)
Belly button waist circumference (measured at the level of my belly button) 94.5cm
Hips 99cm
Thigh 55cm
Arm 31cm
The challenge is on!!
Skiing powder is the holy grail in skiing. It's the soft white stuff that is forgiving, that you won't catch an edge on and go tumbling out of control. But it's also cushioning, it's slower to ski on than harder, icier, firmer snow which means you need a much higher level of dynamic fitness to enjoy it fully, or else you'll just sink and end up with a face full of snow.
Fat skis help, because all that extra surface area will keep you floating versus sinking into the soft stuff. Some old schoolers think the fat skis have gone too far, preferring to still be skiing through the powder rather than floating on top the whole time, but whatever your take, you still can't ski powder without fitness.
Core stability and anaerobic/aerobic fitness is paramount. Anyone can do one or two powder runs, but keeping it up day after day, all day, requires you to to be strong and agile. Neither of which I am at present...
So I've pulled out my ski fitness books and programs, counted up the months till I leave, and started to design myself a program.
First is just working on basic aerobic fitness, which means getting back on a running schedule and riding my bicycle to work and back.
Secondly, core stability exercises. Skiing, and boarding, are done in a very dynamic environment, where the terrain you have your feet on is continually changing. If you can't stabilise what's happening in your legs through your core to your upper body, you'll fall over lots (at best) or injure yourself (at worst). It's also the main reason why some people can ride all day and others can't, because core muscle weakness means you'll tire so much quicker. Quad exercises are a total waste of time if you neglect to build a strong core. Just saying... so daily core exercises are in the program.
Next, agility training. This builds muscle memory for those quick movements and sudden changes in direction that you need to execute when skiing. Having done this training before, I can confirm it makes a big difference on the slopes. Especially as one gets older, this sort of activity doesn't often feature in one's daily life, unless one plays tennis or squash, netball, basketball, or football, so you have to retrain those slack little muscle fibres by doing fast spurts of movements, changing direction quickly, that sort of thing.
Fourth, strength exercises. These are less important right now, but become more important as I work up to the actual trip. I won't be concentrating too much on squats and lunges quite yet, because they'll be a bigger component later.
Finally, flexibility, which is mainly stretching. I'll incorporate some yoga in here too.
So in order for me to commit to this, I'm putting my September stats out there and will post updates each month:
Weight 71.4kg
Chest 89cm (this is measured above the boobies)
Waist 81cm (the narrowest bit)
Belly button waist circumference (measured at the level of my belly button) 94.5cm
Hips 99cm
Thigh 55cm
Arm 31cm
The challenge is on!!
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