Using Eccentrics Wisely: 4 weeks to slope ready legs

There’s no mistaking the need for good leg strength while skiing. Powerful thunder thighs are the trademark of many top skiers. But developing those legs takes years of training using specific exercises and lots of time on snow. The articles will provide you with a basic four week leg strengthening program that is based on a program I initially developed for national junior development team skiers. The key to developing skiing appropriate exercises lies in understanding the type of muscle contractions that take place during skiing. Once you are aware of that you can be creative and specific about the selected exercises. Human muscle contracts one of three ways: isometrically (statically), concentrically (shortening) or eccentrically (lengthening). An example of isometric is a wall sit where you produce force but the muscle doesn’t lengthen or shorten. Humans do a lot of these actions during the days using small muscle groups and also the core. Concentric contractions occur when the muscle shortens, for example your biceps during a bicep curl when you bring the weight upwards. Finally, eccentric contractions occur when you lengthen the muscle such as when you lower the weight back down in the biceps curl. These are also sometimes called negatives. Performing true eccentric exercises is difficult because actually lowering weight is still a concentric contraction of another muscle group and for a pure eccentric to occur the resistance must be greater than the muscle force or the muscle action must cause deceleration. While this sounds complicated it is not really as we do these actions a lot every day. The most common example of an eccentric action is on your quadriceps when you walk downstairs. Each time you step down the muscle lengthens under tension and slows you down. However, while this muscle action is fairly straightforward recreating exercises is more challenging.

The eccentrics are extremely important in skiing because the nature of alpine skiing requires consistent eccentric actions. When you’re not used to them you feel the burn at the end of your run. Eccentrics are valuable for several reasons, they cause greater muscle adaptation, humans are much stronger eccentrically than we are concentrically, eccentrics cause more muscle damage initially, and they are more skiing specific. For these reasons eccentrics comprise a large part of any ski conditioning program. However, we have to build up to them because, as we mentioned, initially they cause more soreness, but they are the fantastic for rapid and appropriate ski conditioning. Furthermore, getting this soreness out of the way before you go on the hills will make you initial ski experiences all the more enjoyable. The following exercises routine is designed to build you up to a solid leg strengthening program using a simple progression over four weeks. Of course, at the four week mark you can continue by simply adding reps and sets.

The other consideration with skiing is the balance component. Not only do we perform these contractions but we have to perform them under a rapidly changing balance dynamic. For that reason the more advanced exercises require additional elements of balance. As I mentioned before, this little routine was developed for junior national caliber skiers but they are great for all individuals regardless of age or experience. Best thing is the initial four weeks requires minimal equipment, exercise band and some light dumbbells, minimal space, and about 20 minutes. For those just starting this entire program can be the exercise routine and for those more advanced it can serve as a nice long progressive warm-up.

Please remember to start using the progression. You will be a little tender after the first session and you will not feel this tenderness until the following day. Many rookies make the mistake of doing too much in the first session because they don’t yet feel the tenderness. Trust me, it will come. A great sports drink for recovery and to reduce muscle tenderness and joint pain is CherryPharm.

Warm-up all 4 weeks: 10 minute bike ride or 10 minute jog.

By week four you should be zipping through the transitions fairly quickly. These are low intensity reps performed more quickly than slowly. You can gauge your loads by how you feel and remember that these are not to be done with heavy loads but more so your body weight and then some light weights as this represents loads more closely to those you experience while skiing.

Dr. Declan Connolly
Professor, University of Vermont
Web
Vermont Fit