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Show Preparing your body: tips on ski conditioning done with both feet, then when that is mastered, it should be done on one foot. Cowan said this exercise develops smooth transition over the bumps. It also helps quickness and agility. To include skinny skiers in the survey, I called Tom Noaker of New Park Cyclery, which this winter also would be a Rossignol Touring Center. Noaker said aerobic, rather than strength-building, workouts are necessary nec-essary for cross-country skiers. This is because cross-country skiing is an aerobic sport, not an anaerobic sport like downhill skiing. Noaker said an aerobics class would be good preparation for recreational ski touring. He said three or four classes a week, running from 40 to 50 minutes, would enhance a skier's enjoyment of the sport. For more avid skiers, Noaker said upper body strength is necessary. He also does a lot of bicycling, roller skiing and running on hilly terrain. I wonder if running to the refrigerator and back to the couch during commercial breaks and haFflme" is" enough aerobic exercise to condition me for skiing the fields and slopes this winter? I'm sure it is. ililpi - 1 I j(' :v M : : ' ; : Val Cowan (foreground) and Martha Snyder demonstrate 'endurance jumps', an exercise which increases body awareness and leg strength. by Randy Hanskat Skiing generally is viewed as an individual sport. You do it by yourself, and can only blame yourself for mistakes. Preparing for the ski season is much the same an individual experience. Different people choose to prepare themselves in different ways. Personally, I choose lying on the couch watching excessive amounts of football, and eating lots of chips and dip as my pre-ski season ritual. Others, however, choose to hop over obstacles, jog down slushy streets, or bend and sway in skimpy leotards in an aerobics class. Since the ski season is almost here, I decided to call some local experts to see what they do to prepare themselves for skiing. Frank Elliot of Local Motion said aerobic dance is a great way to get ready for skiing. He said it coordinates one side of the body with the other, as in routines where one leg is kicking while the other is hopping. "Those kinds of exercises are good for skiing because they involve independent leg action," he said. hi addition to aerobic exercise, Elliot said anaerobic (short duration, high intensity) exercise also is good because skiing is an anaerobic activity. Sprinting "on a bicycle or on foot are examples of anaerobic exercise. Elliot added that working out on equipment like the Nautilus machines at Local Motion is the best overall skiing preparation. He said the quadriceps must be worked, along with the large gluteal groups. For another approach to preparation prepara-tion for skiing I gave Bob Marsh of the Park City Ski Team a call. Marsh, whose business is training young ski racers, emphasized injury prevention, preven-tion, in addition to conditioning. "The lower body is most important. impor-tant. The knees and ankles are the most vulnerable," he said. Exercises that strengthen those crucial areas are helpful and include resistance-type resistance-type exercises such as leg curls with ski boots on, he added. About conditioning, he said both aerobic and anaerobic exercises are necessary. He said people make the mistake of thinking that skiing keeps you in shape, but that isn't true. "Conditioning for skiing must be maintained all year round." I buzzed Val Cowan, who teaches the Body Dynamics aerobics class at the Treaure Moutain Middle School, to get her opinion on pre-season conditioning. Her class emphasizes some pre-ski exercises. "Everything in aerobics will help," she said. She also outlined some individual exercises that can be done at home, and you don't even have to wear a leotard or leg warmers to do them! She prefers to use ski equipment in some of her exercises, to further get in the mood for skiing. In an exercise she calls "endurance jumps," you put a ski pole across the tops of your ski boots, forming a kind of high jump bridge. Then you jump laterally, from side to side, over the pole, all the while keeping your knees bent and your body forward. Endurance jumps will increase your body awareness, Cowan said, as well as your leg strength and . stamina. With two pairs of poles and four pairs of boots you can do another exercise. Form four bridges (as you did in the last exercise) in a row, then jump straight over them in sequence, much like a football drill. This bunny hopping first should be |